The DIY lab, called the eVOLVER, costs $2,000 less than a comparable setup. Photo courtesy of Rice University

Every scientist needs his or her own space, and each discipline calls for different types of tools and space requirements. Caleb Bashor, a professor at Rice University, along with seven colleagues, created a DIY lab to further research efforts based at the university.

Stemming from the need of a more customized study, Bashor and his team created a setup that combines the control of automated cell-culturing systems that can run continuously for months with the scale of high-throughput systems that grow dozens of cultures at once, according to a news release issued by Rice University.

The DIY lab, eVOLVER, comprises three modules: a customizable "smart sleeve" housing and interface for each culture vessel, a fluidic module that controls movement of liquid in and out of each culture vessel, and a modular hardware infrastructure that simplifies high-volume bi-directional data flow by decoupling each parameter into individual microcontrollers.

"The prototype 16-chamber version of eVOLVER described in the new paper cost less than $2,000, cheaper than what a lab might pay for a single continuous culture bioreactor," Bashor says in the release.

Bashor, who has been at the university since 2017, has worked in science for 15 years and received his post doctorate from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he met many of his colleagues that collaborated on eVOLVER.

"If you don't have something to do the job in the lab, you go and you build it," says Bashor. "It might take a few rounds of building and rebuilding, but eventually you get around to having it be something that gives you what you want. In this case, it's something a lot of different academic labs want now, we have actually given this out to dozens of labs."

The DIY initiative has made waves throughout the Rice student body, Bashor shares with InnovationMap. One graduate student, Brandon Wong, tasked to help with the project has shared a how-to for the DIY lab online.

"It's a basic research tool, it's exciting," says Bashor. It's something that can be leveraged for a lot of great research projects inside of the university."

Bashor and his team in the bioengineering department support lead cellular and biomolecular engineering research, which led them to create the lab.

"We turned to DIY electronics and we decided to build it ourselves," Bashor tells InnovationMap. "The process took about three years. We had to learn all of the tools that were out there for doing DIY work and a lot of these tools have showed up in the last ten years."

Rice University's department of bioengineering is a member of the Texas Medical Center and hosts interdisciplinary training programs at MD Anderson Cancer Center and Baylor College of Medicine, according to the school's website.

"This is one of the biggest centers in the world for immunotherapy, particularly clinical immunotherapy, and so we're working with people who do immunotherapy using my special engineering techniques, which mostly involve engineering the way that cells behave to try to more effectively kill cancer," says Bashor.

Caleb Bashor and his associates created the lab. Photo courtesy of Rice University

Ad Placement 300x100
Ad Placement 300x600

CultureMap Emails are Awesome

Abbott highlights Texas AI boom, with Houston projects on the horizon

AI investments are booming in Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott says. And Houston is poised to benefit from this surge.

At a recent Texas Economic Development Corp. gathering in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, Abbott said AI projects on the horizon in the Lone Star State would be bigger than the $500 billion multistate Project Stargate, according to the Dallas Business Journal. So far, Stargate includes three AI data centers in Texas.

Stargate, a new partnership among OpenAI, Oracle, Softbank, and the federal government, is building AI infrastructure around the country. The project’s first data center is in Abilene, and the center’s second phase is underway. Once the second phase is finished, the 875-acre site will host eight buildings totaling about 4 million square feet with a power capacity of 1.2 gigawatts. An additional 600 megawatts of capacity might be added later.

On Sept. 23, Stargate announced the development of another five AI data centers in the U.S., including a new facility in Shackelford County, Texas, near Abilene. That facility is likely a roughly $25 billion, 1.4-gigawatt AI data center that Vantage Data Centers is building on a 1,200-acre site in Shackelford County.

Another will be in Milam County, between Waco and Austin. In conjunction with Stargate, OpenAI plans to occupy the more than $3 billion center, which will be situated on a nearly 600-acre site, the Austin Business Journal reported. OpenAI has teamed up with Softbank-backed SB Energy Global to build the facility.

Abbott said several unannounced AI projects in Texas — namely, data centers — will be larger than Stargate.

“Bottom line is ... when you look at diversification, the hottest thing going on right now is artificial intelligence,” Abbott said.

The Houston area almost certainly stands to attract some of the projects teased by the governor.

In Houston, Taiwanese tech manufacturer Foxconn already is investing $450 million to make AI servers at the 100-acre Fairbanks Logistics Park, which Foxconn recently purchased for a reported $142 million. The park features four industrial buildings totaling one million square feet. It appears Foxconn will manufacture the servers for Apple and Nvidia, both of which have announced they’ll open server factories in Houston.

The Foxconn, Apple, and Nvidia initiatives are high-profile examples of Houston’s ascent in the AI economy. A report released in July by the Brookings Institution identified Houston as one of the country’s 28 “star” hubs for AI.

The Greater Houston Partnership says the Houston area is undergoing an "AI-driven data revolution."

“As Houston rapidly evolves into a hub for AI, cloud computing, and data infrastructure, the city is experiencing a surge in data center investments driven by its unique position at the intersection of energy, technology, and innovation,” the partnership says.

Houston native picked for 2025 class of NASA astronaut candidates

space crew

NASA has selected 10 new astronaut candidates, including one whose hometown is Houston, for its 2025 training class. The candidates will undergo nearly two years of training before they can assume flight assignments.

The 10 future astronauts were introduced during a recent ceremony at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, whose facilities include an astronaut training center. NASA received more than 8,000 applications for the 10 slots.

“Representing America’s best and brightest, this astronaut candidate class will usher in the Golden Age of innovation and exploration as we push toward the moon and Mars,” said Vanessa Wyche, director of NASA Johnson.

NASA’s 24th astronaut class reported for duty in mid-September at Johnson Space Center. Their training will prepare them for missions to the International Space Station and the moon, among other activities. Graduates will become members of NASA’s astronaut corps.

Among the recently selected candidates is Anna Menon, who was born in Houston and considers it her hometown. She’s married to NASA astronaut Dr. Anil Menon, a flight surgeon who completed his training in 2022.

Most recently, Anna Menon was a senior engineer at Elon Musk’s SpaceX, where she spent seven years managing crew operations for the Dragon and Starship spacecraft. Previously, Menon worked at NASA’s Mission Control Center in Houston, where she supported medical software and hardware aboard the International Space Station.

In 2024, Menon flew into space as a mission specialist and medical officer aboard SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn private spacecraft. A highlight of the low-orbit trip was the first commercial spacewalk.

Texas native Rebecca Lawler, a native of the Dallas-Fort Worth suburb of Little Elm, is one of Menon’s nine classmates.

Lawler, a former lieutenant commander in the Navy, was a Navy P-3 pilot and experimental test pilot who logged over 2,800 flight hours aboard more than 45 aircraft. At the time she was chosen to be an astronaut candidate, Lawler was a test pilot for United Airlines.

The eight other astronaut candidates in the 2025 class are:

  • Ben Bailey, who was born and raised in Charlottesville, Virginia
  • Lauren Edgar, whose hometown is Sammamish, Washington
  • Adam Fuhrmann, who’s from Leesburg, Virginia
  • Cameron Jones, a native of Savanna, Illinois
  • Yuri Kubo, a native of Columbus, Indiana
  • Imelda Muller, whose hometown is Copake Falls, New York
  • Erin Overcash, who’s from Goshen, Kentucky
  • Katherine Spies, a native of San Diego