Houston hospital names leading cancer scientist as new academic head

new hire

Dr. Jenny Chang's cancer research has generated more than $35 million in funding for Houston Methodist. Photo courtesy Houston Methodist

Houston Methodist Academic Institute has named cancer clinician and scientist Dr. Jenny Chang as its new executive vice president, president, CEO, and chief academic officer.

Chang was selected following a national search and will succeed Dr. H. Dirk Sostman, who will retire in February after 20 years of leadership. Chang is the director of the Houston Methodist Dr. Mary and Ron Neal Cancer Center and the Emily Herrmann Presidential Distinguished Chair in Cancer Research. She has been with Houston Methodist for 15 years.

Over the last five years, Chang has served as the institute’s chief clinical science officer and is credited with strengthening cancer clinical trials. Her work has focused on therapy-resistant cancer stem cells and their treatment, particularly relating to breast cancer.

Her work has generated more than $35 million in funding for Houston Methodist from organizations like the National Institutes of Health and the National Cancer Institute, according to the health care system. In 2021, Dr. Mary Neal and her husband Ron Neal, whom the cancer center is now named after, donated $25 million to support her and her team’s research on advanced cancer therapy.

In her new role, Chang will work to expand clinical and translational research and education across Houston Methodist in digital health, robotics and bioengineered therapeutics.

“Dr. Chang’s dedication to Houston Methodist is unparalleled,” Dr. Marc L. Boom, Houston Methodist president and CEO, said in a news release. “She is committed to our mission and to helping our patients, and her clinical expertise, research innovation and health care leadership make her the ideal choice for leading our academic mission into an exciting new chapter.”

Chang is a member of the American Association of Cancer Research (AACR) Stand Up to Cancer Scientific Advisory Council. She earned her medical degree from Cambridge University in England and completed fellowship training in medical oncology at the Royal Marsden Hospital/Institute for Cancer Research. She earned her research doctorate from the University of London.

She is also a professor at Weill Cornell Medical School, which is affiliated with the Houston Methodist Academic Institute.

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Rice University, Baylor College of Medicine, and Houston Methodist have awarded a total of $50,000 to two projects. Photo by Brandon Martin/Rice University

Houston organizations issue seed grants to fuel AI-driven equity, digital health innovation

fresh funding

Three Houston organizations have doled out seed grants for research initiatives focused on digital health and equity.

Rice University's Educational and Research Initiatives for Collaborative Health (ENRICH) office — in partnership with Baylor College of Medicine and the Houston Methodist Academic Institute — has awarded a total of $50,000 to two projects. BCM and Rice announced three other grants earlier this year.

The seed grants were deployed earlier this year at the Health Equity Workshop from Rice’s Digital Health Initiative and chaired by Momona Yamagami, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at Rice.

“To achieve equitable health outcomes, a comprehensive approach is essential — one that spans all phases of digital health from technology design and development to implementation, dissemination and long-term sustainability,” says Ashutosh Sabharwal, who leads the Digital Health Initiative and serves as Rice’s Ernest Dell Butcher Professor of Engineering and a professor of electrical and computer engineering, in a news release.

Both the workshop and the grant opportunity help to allow collaboration between researchers and health care providers working on health equity research across disciplines.

“This seed grant not only fosters interdisciplinary collaborations between Rice University and the Texas Medical Center but also enables us to leverage our combined knowledge to enhance innovations in health equity and digital health, ultimately creating impactful solutions for improving patient care,” adds Sharon Pepper, executive director of ENRICH.

The two projects receiving funding, according to Rice's release, include:

  • Evaluating Equity and Community-Level Vulnerabilities in the Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence-based Symptom Checkers for Self-diagnosis — Using AI-based symptom checkers, the project aims to mitigate vulnerabilities for patients using and improve data precision specifically when it comes to patients' social and cultural differences.
  • Al-Driven ECG Analysis for Equitable Cardiovascular Risk Assessment and Prevention: Leveraging Transformer Models and Big Data to Reduce Health Disparities — Also backed by AI, this project will harness the untapped potential of electrocardiogram data for improving cardiovascular risk assessment, hopefully reducing cost and invasiveness of the standard practice of care.
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XSpace adds 3 Houston partners to fuel national expansion

growth mode

Texas-based XSpace Group has brought onboard three partners from the Houston area to ramp up the company’s national expansion.

The new partners of XSpace, which sells high-end multi-use commercial condos, are KDW, Pyek Financial and Welcome Wilson Jr. Houston-based KDW is a design-build real estate developer, Katy-based Pyek offers fractional CFO services and Wilson is president and CEO of Welcome Group, a Houston real estate development firm.

“KDW has been shaping the commercial [real estate] landscape in Texas for years, and Pyek Financial brings deep expertise in scaling businesses and creating long‑term value,” says Byron Smith, founder of XSpace. “Their commitment to XSpace is a powerful endorsement of our model and momentum. With their resources, we’re accelerating our growth and building the foundation for nationwide expansion.”

The expansion effort will target high-growth markets, potentially including Nashville, Tennessee; Orlando, Florida; and Charlotte and Raleigh, North Carolina.

XSpace launched in Austin with a $20 million, 90,000-square-foot project featuring 106 condos. The company later added locations on Old Katy Road in Houston and at The Woodlands Town Center. A third Houston-area location is coming to the Design District.

XSpace condos range in size from 300 to 3,000 square feet. They can accommodate a variety of uses, such as a luxury-car storage space, a satellite office, or a podcasting studio.

“XSpace has tapped into a fundamental shift in how entrepreneurs and professionals want to use space,” Wilson says. “Houston is one of the best places in the country to innovate and build, and XSpace’s model is perfectly aligned with the needs of this fast‑growing, opportunity‑driven market.”

Rice Business Plan Competition names startup teams for 2026 event

ready, set, pitch

The Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship has announced the 42 student-led teams that will compete in the 26th annual Rice Business Plan Competition this spring.

The highly competitive event, known as one of the world’s largest and richest intercollegiate student startup challenges, will take place April 9-11 on Rice's campus and at the Ion. Teams in this year's competition represent 39 universities from four countries, including one team from Rice and two from the University of Texas at Austin.

Graduate student-led teams from colleges or universities around the world will present their plans before more than 300 angel, venture capital and corporate investors to compete for more than $1 million in prizes. Top teams were awarded $2 million in investment and cash prizes at the 2025 event.

The 2026 invitees include:

  • Alchemll, University of Tennessee - Knoxville
  • Altaris MedTech, University of Arkansas
  • Armada Therapeutics, Dartmouth College
  • Arrow Analytics, Texas A&M University
  • Aura Life Science, Northwestern University
  • BeamFeed, City University of New York
  • BiliRoo, University of Michigan
  • BioLegacy, Seattle University
  • BlueHealer, Johns Hopkins University
  • BRCĒ, Michigan State University
  • ChargeBay, University of Miami
  • Cocoa Potash, Case Western Reserve
  • Cosnetix, Yale University
  • Cottage Core, Kent State University
  • Crack'd Up, University of Wisconsin - Madison
  • Curbon, Princeton University
  • DialySafe, Rice University
  • Foregger Energy Systems, Babson College
  • Forge, University of California, Berkeley
  • Grapheon, University of Pittsburgh
  • GUIDEAIR Labs, University of Washington
  • Hydrastack, University of Chicago
  • Imagine Devices, University of Texas at Austin
  • Innowind Energy Solutions, University of Waterloo (Canada)
  • JanuTech, University of Washington
  • Laetech, University of Toronto (Canada)
  • Lectra Technologies, MIT
  • Legion Platforms, Arizona State University
  • Lucy, University of Pennsylvania
  • NerView Surgical, McMaster University (Canada)
  • Panoptica Technologies, Georgia Tech University
  • PowerHouse, MIT
  • Quantum Power Systems, University of Texas at Austin
  • Routora, University of Notre Dame
  • Sentivity.ai, Virginia Tech
  • Shinra Energy, Harvard University
  • Solid Air Dynamics, RWTH Aachen (Germany)
  • Spine Biotics, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill
  • The Good Company, Michigan Tech
  • UNCHAIN, Lehigh University
  • VivoFlux, University of Rochester
  • Vocadian, University of Oxford (UK)

This year's group joins more than 910 RBPC alums that have raised more than $6.9 billion in capital, according to Rice.

The University of Michigan's Intero Biosystems, which is developing the first stem cell-driven human “mini gut,” took home the largest investment sum of $902,000 last year. The company also claimed the first-place prize.

Houston suburb ranks as No. 3 best place to retire in Texas

Rankings & Reports

Texas retirees on the hunt for the right place to settle down and enjoy their blissful retirement years will find their haven in the Houston suburb of Pasadena, which just ranked as the third-best city to retire statewide.

A new study conducted by the research team at RetirementLiving.com, "The Best Cities to Retire in Texas," compared the affordability, safety, livability, and healthcare access for seniors across 31 Texas cities with at least 90,000 residents.

Wichita Falls, about 140 miles northwest of Dallas, claimed the top spot as the No. 1 best place to retire in Texas.

The senior living experts said Pasadena has the best healthcare access for seniors in the entire state, and it ranked as the No. 8 most affordable city on the list.

"Taking care of one’s health can be stressful for seniors," the report said. "Harris County, where [Pasadena is] located, has 281.1 primary care physicians per 1,000 seniors — that’s almost 50-fold the statewide ratio of 5.9 per 1,000."

Pasadena ranked 10th overall for its livability, and ranked 25th for safety, the report added.

Meanwhile, Houston proper ranked as the No. 31 best place to retire in Texas, but its livability score was the 7th best statewide.

Seven of the Lone Star State's top 10 best retirement locales are located in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex: Carrollton (No. 2), Plano (No. 4), Garland (No. 5), Richardson (No. 6), Arlington (No. 7), Grand Prairie (No. 8), and Irving (No. 9). McAllen, a South Texas border town, rounded out the top 10.

RetirementLiving said Carrollton has one of the lowest property and violent crime rates per capita in Texas, and it ranked as the No. 5 safest city on the list. About 17 percent of the city's population is aged 65 or older, which is higher than the statewide average of just 14 percent.

The top 10 best place to retire in Texas in 2026 are:

  • No. 1 – Wichita Falls
  • No. 2 – Carrollton
  • No. 3 – Pasadena
  • No. 4 – Plano
  • No. 5 – Garland
  • No. 6 – Richardson
  • No. 7 – Arlington
  • No. 8 – Grand Prairie
  • No. 9 – Irving
  • No. 10 – McAllen
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This article originally appeared on CultureMap.com.

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