Intuitive Machines partners with Houston college for workforce training

space training

Intuitive Machines, Rhodium Scientific and San Jacinto College will partner to train future workers for space-based pharma recovery. Photo courtesy Intuitive Machines.

Intuitive Machines, a Houston-based space technology, infrastructure and services company, has forged a partnership with San Jacinto College to develop a program for training workers to handle biopharmaceutical materials delivered to Earth on Intuitive Machines’ re-entry vehicle.

Intuitive Machines is working with biotech company Rhodium Scientific on the project. Rhodium, also based in Houston, is developing biomanufacturing payloads for Intuitive Machines’ re-entry vehicle.

“Delivering life-improving pharmaceuticals from orbit is only valuable with reliable recovery and processes on Earth,” Tim Crain, chief technology officer at Intuitive Machines, said in a news release. “That requires more than a spacecraft — it demands the workforce, facilities, and regulatory alignment to support safe, repeatable operations. San Jacinto College has the credibility and technical depth to make this vision a reality.”

San Jacinto College provides training certified by the National Institute for Bioprocessing Research and Training. Christopher Wild, assistant vice chancellor and vice president of biotechnology at San Jacinto College, said that with this certification and the college’s presence at Houston Spaceport, the school “is uniquely positioned to train the workforce needed (for) commercial space-based pharma recovery.”

The first-phase grant supporting Intuitive Machines’ Earth re-entry program will culminate in a full-scale mockup tailored to real payloads and use cases in early 2026.

Intuitive Machines said the collaborations with San Jacinto College and Rhodium “aim to align future landing infrastructure, research opportunities, and funding pathways that deliver lasting economic impact from space.”

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March Biosciences' oversubscribed raise brought in $28.4 million of financing with Mission BioCapital and 4BIO Capital leading the pack of investors. Photo via Getty Images

Clinical-stage Houston cell therapy company closes $28.4M oversubscribed series A

cha-ching

An emerging biotech company in Houston has closed its series A with outsized success.

March Biosciences' oversubscribed raise brought in $28.4 million of financing with Mission BioCapital and 4BIO Capital leading the pack of investors. The company has now raised more than $51 million in total.

Last year, March Biosciences announced its strategic alliance with CTMC (Cell Therapy Manufacturing Center), a joint venture between MD Anderson Cancer Center and National Resilience. CEO Sarah Hein met her co-founder, Max Mamonkin, at the TMC Accelerator for Cancer Therapeutics. Along with fellow co-founder Malcolm Brenner, March Biosciences launched from the Center for Cell and Gene Therapy (Baylor College of Medicine, Houston Methodist Hospital and Texas Children’s Hospital). Its goal is to fight cancers that have been unresponsive to existing immunotherapies using its lead asset, MB-105.

An autologous CD5-targeted CAR-T cell therapy, MB-105 is currently in phase-1 trials in patients with refractory T-cell lymphoma and leukemia. The treatment is showing signs of being both safe and effective, meriting a phase-2 trial that will begin early next year. The funds raised from the series A will help to finance the Phase 2 clinical development of MB-105 to expand on the existing data with optimized manufacturing processes.

“This oversubscribed financing enables us to advance our first-in-class CAR-T therapy, MB-105, into a Phase 2 trial for T-cell lymphoma – an indication with an exceptionally poor prognosis and few treatment options,” says Hein. “With the support and confidence of our investors, we are not only advancing our lead program but also expanding our pipeline, underscoring our commitment to delivering best-in-class therapies to patients that can change the treatment paradigm for these challenging cancers.”

But that’s not the only exciting news that Hein and her associates have to report. March Biosciences has recently partnered with cell therapy venture studio, Volnay Therapeutics. Led by highly experienced cell therapy development veterans, the March Biosciences team will work to develop a scalable manufacturing process for MB-105 that will lead to commercialization. Volnay co-founder and CEO Stefan Wildt, who held key R&D leadership positions in cell and gene therapy units at Novartis and Takeda, has also joined the board of March Biosciences. The board of directors is also welcoming Cassidy Blundell of Mission BioCapital and Owen Smith of 4BIO Capital.

“The team at March Biosciences is leveraging powerful science and promising clinical data to tackle cancers with significant unmet need,” says Blundell, a partner at Mission BioCapital. “We're excited to support their journey and believe their focused approach with MB-105 could lead to significant breakthroughs in the CAR-T space.”

The Houston-born company, which is a finalist for the 2024 Houston Innovation Awards, continues to accelerate quickly, in part thanks to its home base. After all, existing local investors like TMC Venture Fund also participated in the new raise. As Hein said last year, “Working with partners here in Houston, we have all the pieces and the community rises to the occasion to support you.”

CellChorus created a visualization AI program that helps scientists to better understand the functioning of cells, including their activation, killing and movement. Photo via Getty Images

Houston health tech startup scores $2.5M SBIR grant to advance unique cell therapy AI technology

fresh funding

A Houston biotech company just announced a new award of $2.5 million.

CellChorus, a spinoff of the Single Cell Lab at the University of Houston, announced the fresh funding, which comes from an SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) grant from the National Institute of Health (NIH) through its National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS).

CellChorus is the business behind a technology called TIMING, which stands for Time-lapse Imaging Microscopy In Nanowell Grids. It’s a visualization AI program that helps scientists to better understand the functioning of cells, including their activation, killing and movement. This more in-depth knowledge of immune cells could be instrumental in developing novel therapies in countless disorders, including cancers and infectious diseases.

“While many cell therapies have been approved and are in development, the industry needs an integrated analytical platform that provides a matrix of functional readouts, including cell phenotype and metabolism on the same cells over time,” Rebecca Berdeaux, vice president of science at CellChorus, says in a press release. “We are grateful to NCATS for its support of the development of application-specific kits that apply dynamic, functional single-cell analysis of immune cell phenotype and function. The product we will develop will increase the impact of these therapies to improve the lives of patients.”

A two-year, $2.1 million Phase II grant will begin after the company achieves predetermined milestones under a $350,000 Phase I grant that is currently taking place. As Berdeaux explained, the funds will be used to develop TIMING kits which will manufacture analytics that provide end-users with rapid, specific and predictive results to accelerate translational research and the development and manufacture of more effective cell therapies.

TIMING is more than a great idea whose time has yet to come. It has already been proven in great depth. In fact, last June, CellChorus CEO Daniel Meyer told InnovationMap that he was initially attracted to the technology because it was “very well validated.” At the time, CellChorus had just announced a $2.3 million SBIR Fast-Track grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences. The company also went on to win an award in the Life Science category of the 2023 Houston Innovation Awards.

That confirmation of success comes from more than 200 peer-reviewed papers that describe myriad cell types and types of therapy, all of which used data from TIMING assays. TIMING data has benefited industry leaders in everything from research and clinical development to manufacturing. With the new grant, TIMING will become more widely available to scientists making important discoveries relating to the inner workings of the cells that drive our immunity.

OncoResponse in partnership with MD Anderson Cancer Center received a portion of $73 million the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas has doled out this spring. Photo via oncoresponse.com

Seattle biotech co. to move to Houston thanks to $13.3M grant from Texas organization

CPRIT funding spotted

A biotech company has landed a more than $13 million grant from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas.

The nearly $13.3 million grant given to OncoResponse — which is relocating from Seattle to Houston, according to CPRIT's news release — will help the company develop fully human monoclonal antibodies for treatment of cancer that otherwise would not respond to immunotherapy. OncoResponse already has a partnership with MD Anderson Cancer Center, which is one of the company’s investors.

“We are thrilled to receive this recognition from CPRIT in supporting the potential of our immunotherapy candidate OR502. We greatly appreciate the additional support from our investors as we continue to make significant progress with our drug development efforts advancing immunotherapies derived from clues of Elite Responders,” says Clifford Stocks, CEO of OncoResponse, in a news release.

Aside from the grant, OncoResponse just hauled in $14 million from existing investors in a round led by RiverVest Venture Partners. Other participants in the series D round include Venture Partners, Canaan Partners, 3B Future Health Fund, Bering Capital, Takeda Ventures, and InterVest Capital Partners.

To date, OncoResponse has raised more than $180 million, according to market research company CB Insights.

A representative of OncoResponse couldn’t be reached for comment about the company’s relocation to Houston.

MD Anderson and Seattle-based Theraclone Sciences launched OncoResponse in 2015. Rice University was among the inaugural investors.

OncoResponse’s OR2805 immunotherapy product is being evaluated in a Phase 1 clinical trial. It’s the company’s leading immunotherapy candidate. OncoResponse is also working on OR502, an antibody being prepared for investigational and clinical studies.

“The modern treatment of cancer activates the body’s own immune system to attack cancer,” OncoResponse says in a summary posted on the website of the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT).

“These treatments, called immunotherapy, may not be successful if the cancer can recruit bad-acting cells, such as tumor associated macrophages, or TAMs, that create barriers preventing immunotherapies from activating the body’s own defenses against the cancer. To find drugs that may help counteract these TAMs, OncoResponse looked to patients who had responded very well to immunotherapy to see if their bodies made factors to block TAMs and helped them fight their cancers.”

OncoResponse’s OR502 prevents TAMs from shutting down the body’s response to cancer, thus restoring tumor-killing immune activity, CPRIT explains.

In addition to OncoResponse, recent CPRIT grant recipients from the Houston area are:

Houston-based 7 Hills Pharma, $13,439,001. The company is working on immunotherapies for treatment of cancer and prevention of infectious diseases.
Houston-based Allterum Therapeutics, $11,721,150. The company is coming up with an antibody for treatment of patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. This type of cancer affects blood and bone marrow.
Houston-based Cell Therapy Manufacturing Center, $9.1 million. The center is a joint venture between National Resilience and MD Anderson Cancer Center that is developing cell therapy manufacturing technologies to support biotech partnerships.
Houston-based Pulmotect, $8,851,165. The company’s PUL-042 product is aimed at treating and preventing respiratory complications in cancer patients.
Cancer researcher Michael King, $6 million. The grant helped lure King to Rice from Nashville’s Vanderbilt University, where he’s been the chair of biomedical engineering. King’s lab at Vanderbilt has been testing therapies for metastatic breast cancer and prostate cancer.
Missouri City-based OmniNano Pharmaceuticals, $2,711,437. The pharmatech company is working on two drugs for treatment of solid tumors in patients with pancreatic cancer.

“Texas is unique because of CPRIT’s ability to invest in cutting-edge research when private capital is scarce. This is yet another way Texas is leading the nation in the fight against cancer,” Wayne Roberts, CEO of CPRIT, says in a news release.

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7 finalists compete to be crowned Houston's 2026 Startup of the Year

Cast Your Vote

Each year, the Houston Innovation Awards program recognizes the best and brightest in the local innovation community. And while most of the award winners are selected by our esteemed panel of judges, one winner is determined by you.

Voting is now open for our people's choice award: 2026 Startup of the Year. Seven exceptional finalists are in the running for the title, and your votes will determine who wins.

From innovative platforms benefiting the education, commerce, health, investment and IT sectors to next-gen memory technology and improvements for robotic supply chains, these startups are making an impact in Houston and beyond.

Read about our Startup of the Year finalists and their missions and achievements below, then cast your vote. You can vote once per day through Nov. 13, so make your voice heard.

The winner, along with the winners in all other categories, will be revealed in mid-November right here on InnovationMap.com. Stay tuned.

FluxWorks

Fluxworks is aiming to shape the future of the robotic supply chain with its flagship Celestial Gear. The magnetic gearbox offers a contactless design that leads to less wear, debris and maintenance. In 2026, Fluxworks closed a $5 million seed round to scale the product.

IronLattice

IronLattice is developing next-generation, ferroelectric memory technology for AI and high-performance computing workloads. In June 2026, the company closed a $3 million angel round. It began wafer production this fall, with its first working device targeted for completion in spring 2027.

Lumino

Lumino is a unified commerce ecosystem and payments platform designed to provide businesses with the technology, payments infrastructure, intelligence and tools they need to grow while creating impact in their communities. Lumino publicly launched its platform in 2026 in Houston and is rolling out its next stage of global expansion.

Progress Report

Progress Report is a K-12 learning-intelligence platform designed to go beyond identifying that a student is struggling. It traces performance to learning gaps and prerequisite skills, helping educators understand where a student is struggling and what may be causing it. Progress Report recently released a fully built production platform and launched pilots with 35 educators and 200 students across Texas and Arizona.

Rosarium Health

Rosarium Health is a platform that coordinates the full process for home accessibility upgrades and modifications for seniors and people living with disabilities. In 2026, the startup announced $6 million in seed funding and scaled to a national network of 800-plus clinicians and 3,000-plus contractors.

Thread

Thread is building an AI-powered service desk platform for Managed Service Providers (MSPs). Its technology combines agentic AI, assistive AI, automation, and real-time communication to help MSPs resolve IT support requests faster and with less manual work.

TokenRoster

TokenRoster is an AI-powered assessment platform for early-stage startups, providing founders with an investor-grade evaluation of their company before the pitch and giving investors a curated roster of vetted companies. Since launch, TokenRoster has grown to 65 companies and 43 founder accounts, with 10 assessment frameworks available.

Houston Innovation Awards honor Don Kendall Jr. with posthumous Trailblazer Legacy Award

lasting legacy

Every year, the Houston Innovation Awards honor one Houstonian with the Trailblazer Award, whose impact is felt throughout the city's innovation and business ecosystem.

This year, the Trailblazer Legacy Award will be given posthumously to Don Kendall Jr., who died in September while on a trip to the Republic of the Congo with the Jane Goodall Institute, one of the many organizations he was deeply involved with.

Kendall's obituary puts it simply: "Don’s truest passions were conservation and his family." Many saw those passions play out in his career, particularly in the role he played in shaping Houston's clean energy sector.

Kendall served as general partner of New Climate Ventures, a Houston-based early-stage venture capital firm that invests in next-gen energy, materials and fuel technologies and startups. The firm's portfolio includes Houston-based clean energy companies like Solidec, Syzygy Plasmonics and Rheom Materials.

Kendall was also founding managing director and CEO of Kenmont Capital LP. He ran a $500 million distressed debt and credit-based hedge fund focused on the energy, power and transportation sectors and one of the top-performing private equity funds under the Kenmont umbrella.

He served on the board of Talos Energy, American Midstream Partners, Syzygy Plasmonics, Tangent Energy, Stream Energy and others. Notably, he served as Chair of the Special Committee of the SolarCity board during its acquisition by Tesla in 2016. According to his obituary, Kendall negotiated with "Elon Musk in the middle of the night on a rickety pier in Indonesia after eluding a poisonous snake."

Outside of the clean energy space, Kendall also served on the boards of the Jane Goodall Institute, Earthwatch International and Ecological Defense Group. He also served as vice chair of the Houston Zoo Inc. and chair of its Conservation Committee.

Kendall was selected by our esteemed panel of judges to receive the 2026 Trailblazer Legacy Award. The panel includes carbon removal entrepreneur and CEO of Houston-based Mars Materials Aaron Fitzgerald.

Fitzgerald shares the profound impact Kendall had on his career and those of many others.

"Honoring Don with the Trailblazer Legacy Award is a fitting tribute to a leader whose impact spanned civic work with the Houston Zoo, wildlife conservation, and the growth of our startup ecosystem," Fitzgerald says. "He paired a keen eye for potential with the relentless drive to unlock it. For Mars Materials, his early backing carried us through a critical valley when we needed belief the most, and his presence as a personal mentor is profoundly missed."

Don was an avid traveler, cyclist and collector. He is survived by his wife of 50 years, Diane S. Kendall. A celebration of life will be held early in 2027.

2 Houston suburbs rank among 5 best cities to retire, says U.S. News

Slowing Down

Houston and nine of its suburbs are earning new acclaim on U.S. News and World Report's just-released list of the best U.S. cities for retirees in 2027. Two northern suburbs, The Woodlands and Spring, are resting easy among the top five nationwide.

The 2027 Best Places to Retire list evaluated over 850 U.S. cities based on six livability metrics that best serve American retirees: quality of life, affordability, health care, retiree taxes, job market, and population and migration. The top 250 finalist cities were then ranked nationally and by city size.

Midland, Michigan topped the list for the second consecutive year and is followed by Homosassa Springs, Florida (No. 2) and Weirton, West Virginia (No. 3).

The Woodlands and Spring respectively maintained their standings as the No. 4 and No. 5 best cities for retirees for the second year in a row. The Woodlands topped the separate list of the best midsized U.S. cities to retire, while Spring landed 5th among the smallest U.S. cities.

Houston proper was declared the No. 2 best big city for retirees, and it ranked 89th overall. Elsewhere in the metro, Pearland (No. 13) and Conroe (No. 14) ranked just outside the overall top 10 but ranked 4th and 5th among the best midsized cities for retirees.

U.S. News said affordability is the "most considered factor" when it comes to picking the best place to live a low-stress retirement life, and that's what Houston and its neighbors deliver. Affordable cities also give retirees "a sense of security and comfort as they live out their golden years," according to Megan Wood, U.S. News assistant managing editor of home services and real estate.

"It’s no secret that affordability is top of mind for Americans this year, which is why U.S. News updated its weighting criteria to better align with what retirees prioritize," Wood said. "The 2027 rankings reflect key metrics used to highlight the places that
best suit retiree needs."

Sugar Land was declared the 10th best place to live in the U.S. in a separate U.S. News report earlier this year, but it doesn't quite meet the expectations for retirees. This particular suburb ranked as the 45th best overall city to retire, but it fared better in the city size ranking and landed 13th among the biggest U.S. cities.

Pasadena also surprised as the 85th best place to retire nationwide in this report, despite being hailed as the No. 3 best city to retire in Texas by RetirementLiving.com.

Three more Houston neighbors ranked among the top 100 overall best places to retire for 2027: League City (No. 25), Missouri City (No. 49), and Baytown (No. 88).

These are the top 10 best U.S. cities to retire for 2027:

No. 1 – Midland, Michigan
No. 2 – Homosassa Springs, Florida
No. 3 – Weirton, West Virginia
No. 4 – The Woodlands
No. 5 – Spring, Texas
No. 6 – Rio Rancho, New Mexico
No. 7 – Altoona, Pennsylvania
No. 8 – Paducah, Kentucky
No. 9 – Lynchburg, Virginia
No. 10 – Palm Coast, Florida

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This article first appeared on CultureMap.com.

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