New cancer-fighting nanodrug tops Houston innovation news to know

Trending News

The team developed Nano-273, which helps the immune system fight pancreatic and lung cancers. Photo courtesy UH

Editor's note: The new year brings big Houston innovation news, from pending retirements to new hires and a cancer-fighting nanodrug. Below are the five most-read InnovationMap stories published January 16-30, 2026:

1. Houston team uses CPRIT funding to develop nanodrug for cancer immunotherapy

Wei Gao (center), a UH assistant professor of pharmacology, and her team have developed Nano-273, which helps the immune system fight pancreatic and lung cancers. Photo courtesy UH.

With a relative five-year survival rate of 50 percent, pancreatic cancer is a diagnosis nobody wants. At 60 percent, the prognosis for lung cancer isn’t much rosier. That’s because both cancers contain regulatory B cells (Bregs), which block the body’s natural immunity, making it harder to fight the enemies within. Newly popular immunotherapies in a category known as STING agonists may stimulate natural cancer defenses. However, they can also increase Bregs while simultaneously causing significant side effects. But Wei Gao, assistant professor of pharmacology at the University of Houston College of Pharmacy, may have a solution to that conundrum. Continue reading.

2. Rice Alliance and the Ion leader Brad Burke to retire this summer

Houston entrepreneurship and innovation leader Brad Burke is set to retire on June 30. Photo by Jeff Fitlow/Rice University

Brad Burke—a Rice University associate vice president who leads the Ion District’s Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship and is a prominent figure in Houston’s startup community—is retiring this summer after a 25-year career at the university. Burke will remain at the Rice Alliance as an adviser until his retirement on June 30. Continue reading.

3. 5+ must-know application deadlines for Houston innovators

The University of Michigan's Intero Biosystems earned a top-place finish and the largest total investment from the 2025 Rice Business Plan Competition. Photo courtesy Rice University.

As 2026 ramps up, the Houston innovation scene is looking for the latest groups of innovative startups that'll make an impact. A number of accelerators and competitions have opened applications. See which might be a good fit for you or your venture, and take careful note of the deadlines. Continue reading.

4. Houston startups closed $1.75 billion in 2025 VC funding, says report

Local startups collected $1.75 billion in venture capital in 2025. Photo via Pexels.

Going against national trends, Houston-area startups raised 7 percent less venture capital last year than they did in 2024, according to the PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor report. The report shows local startups collected $1.75 billion in venture capital in 2025, down from $1.89 billion the previous year. Continue reading.

5. Baylor College of Medicine names Minnesota med school dean as new president, CEO ​

Baylor College of Medicine has named Dr. Jakub Tolar as its new president, CEO and executive dean. Photo courtesy of Mendel Lectures.

Dr. Jakub Tolar, dean of the University of Minnesota Medical School, is taking over as president, CEO and executive dean of Houston’s Baylor College of Medicine on July 1. Tolar—who’s also vice president for clinical affairs at the University of Minnesota and a university professor—will succeed Dr. Paul Klotman as head of BCM. Klotman is retiring June 30 after leading Texas’ top-ranked medical school since 2010. Continue reading.

At Rezvani Lab in MD Anderson Cancer Center, scientists train immune cells to fight cancer. Photo via Getty Images

Unique cell therapy developed in Houston doses inaugural patient

cancer-fighting innovation

Replay, a genome-writing company headquartered in San Diego, has announced that its first patient has been dosed with an engineered T-Cell Receptor Natural Killer (TCR-NK) cell therapy for relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma.

What does that have to do with Houston? Last year, Replay incorporated a first-in-class engineered TCR-NK cell therapy product company, Syena, using technology developed by Dr. Katy Rezvani at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

Rezvani, a professor of stem cell transplantation and cellular therapy, is the force behind MD Anderson’s Rezvani Lab, a group of 55 people, all focused on harnessing natural killer cells to combat cancer.

“Everybody thinks that the immune system is fighting viruses and infections, but I feel our immune system is capable of recognizing and killing abnormal cells or cells that are becoming cancerous and they're very powerful. This whole field of immunotherapy really refers to the power of the immune system,” Rezvani tells InnovationMap.

Dr. Katy Rezvani is a professor of stem cell transplantation and cellular therapy and the force behind MD Anderson’s Rezvani Lab, which is focused on harnessing natural killer cells to combat cancer. Photo via mdanderson.org

At Rezvani Lab, scientists train immune cells to fight cancer. While cancer drugs like chemotherapy are still the norm, immunotherapy has gained ground, led by Houston research, including the work of Nobel laureate Jim Allison. The harnessed cells are taught to attack cancerous cells, while ignoring healthy ones, says Rezvani. “We’re turning them into heat-seeking missiles,” she explains.

However, there must be a beacon to signal to those “missiles” that there is something to attack. Much of the field has used chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) to achieve that. But they have limitations.

“CARs can only recognize beacons that sit on the surface of the tumor cells,” Rezvani says. “So basically, it's like the tumor cell has to have a hat on it.”

She says that this usually means that the targets that send off a signal are relatively limited, mostly blood cancers. Using T cell receptors (TCRs) may be able to open up the field to look beyond the “hat.” In other words, TCRs can peer inside cells and see what differentiates a tumor cell from healthy cells. With Replay, Rezvani Lab has developed a first-in-class and first-in-human approach of engineering natural killer cells to express the TCR.

There are six different FDA-approved products that use CAR-T cells, but Rezvani says that her TCR-NK-based technology, though still in its early phases, shows great promise.

“We could use it to target many different types of antigens, many different types of cancers, especially solid tumors," she explains. "These cell therapies have a lot of potential — we call them living drugs… It's not like chemotherapy where you have to keep giving different multiple cycles, these cells are very long lived.”

Rezvani, who started her career in London, says that Houston has been instrumental in the success of her lab.

“There are so many opportunities because we have access to some of the most brilliant minds in research,” Rezvani says. “We have some of the best clinicians in the world. We have patients who come to us who are willing to participate in our clinical trials — really put their trust in us — and are committed and want to participate in these clinical studies.”

The role of funding also plays a part. As Rezvani admitted, bringing a new technology to the market is expensive. The philanthropists who help support trials can’t be forgotten among Houston’s finest.

Whether or not Syena produces the first TCR-NK product on the market, Rezvani is enthusiastic and hopeful for the future of her patients.

“The field of immunotherapy is really expanding, the field of cell therapies is expanding, and there is so much promise,” she says. “The promise of AI, big data, all the engineering tools that we have available, the promise of CRISPR — all of that is going to bring what we've learned from biology, from basic science, together to help us make the cell therapies that are going to be safe and and also very effective for our patients.”

A Houston health care company received the green light from the FDA to advance a treatment that's targeting a deadly cancer. Photo via Getty Images

Houston immunotherapy company achieves FDA designation for cancer-fighting vaccine

got the green light

The FDA has granted a Houston-based company a Fast Track designation.

Diakonos Oncology Corp. is a clinical-stage immuno-oncology company that has developed a unique dendritic cell vaccine, DOC1021. The vaccine targets glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), the most common and most lethal malignant brain tumor in adults. The aggressive tumors come with a life expectancy of about 15 months following diagnosis. About 7 percent of those diagnosed survive five years, while the 10-year outlook only sees a one-percent survival rate.

“The FDA’s decision acknowledges the potential of this new treatment approach for a very challenging disease,” Diakonos CEO Mike Wicks says in a press release. “Our protocol represents a first for cancer immunotherapy and could be viable for many types of cancers beyond GBM.”

FDA Fast Track designations are intended to expedite the haste with which drugs with early clinical promise are reviewed, likely taking them to market faster.

DOC1021 uses the body’s natural anti-viral immune response to fight GBM. The vaccine mimics viral infection with the patient’s cancer markers. Essentially, DOC1021 uses the body’s own natural ability to detect and eliminate infected cells.

The technology uses dendritic cells, white blood cells that are able to perceive threats, to its advantage. The unique cancer markers are loaded both internally and externally into the immune cells, just as they would simultaneously occur in a viral infection. The individualized treatment is administered through three precise injections that target deep cervical lymph node chains. By dosing this way, the immune responses are directed straight to the central nervous system.

The results have spoken for themselves: All of the patients who have tried the treatment have exceeded survival expectations. And just as importantly, DOC1021 appears to be extremely safe. No serious adverse effects have been reported.

“Because Phase I clinical trials are generally not statistically powered to demonstrate efficacy, detection of a statistically significant efficacy signal is very promising,” says William Decker, associate professor of immunology at Baylor College of Medicine and inventor of the DOC1021 technology.

The Phase 1 open-label trial of DOC1021 (NCT04552886) is currently taking place at both the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston and at the MD Anderson Cancer Center at Cooper University Health Care in Camden, NJ. The trial is expected to complete this year.

7 Hills Pharma, an innovative immunotherapy company, was awarded a $13.5 million grant from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas. Photo via Getty Images

Houston immunotherapy company to use $13.5M grant to further develop cancer treatments

future of pharma

Between Bangalore and Chennai in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, you’ll find the town of Tirupati. It’s home to seven peaks that host a Hindu temple complex devoted to a form of Vishnu, Venkateshvara. It is also the region from which Upendra Marathi originally hails. It’s where his father, and many other family members, attended medical school.

“My father’s first job was to take care of the pilgrims,” recalls Marathi.

It's only natural that his groundbreaking Houston company would be named 7 Hills Pharma.

“That sort of selflessness and giving back, I wanted to embody it in the name of the company,” Marathi says.

Now, 7 Hills Pharma is announcing that last month, it was awarded a $13.5 million grant from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT). That’s on top of more than $13 million in NIH grants, making the company the second largest recipient of SBIR/STTR grants in Texas.

Launched in 2016, 7 Hills Pharma is working to develop drugs that can overcome the all-too-common problem of immunotherapy resistance. Thanks to the Nobel Prize-winning work of Jim Allison in the realm of immuno-oncology, the field was “very hot” at the time, says Marathi, particularly in Houston.

So what has 7 Hills developed? Oral small molecules that activate integrins — the receptors that allow cells to bind to one another — allowing for the cell-to-cell interactions that create a successful immune response to immune checkpoint inhibitors such as Yervoy. In other words, they have created capsules that increase the effectiveness of drugs that allow the body’s own immune response to fight cancers.

But that’s not all. Tests have shown that the same discovery, called alintegimod, can also augment the effectiveness of vaccines. The pill, which co-founder and co-inventor Peter Vanderslice calls “a beautiful way to amplify the vaccines,” can potentially be applied to anything from influenza to coronavirus.

Their greatest challenge, says Vanderslice, is the very fact that the technology is so novel.

“Most large pharmas are very risk averse,” he explains. “They only want to do ‘me-too’ kinds of drugs.”

7 Hills Pharma is the third company Marathi, both a PhD and an MBA, has helped to found based on technology he co-invented. Vanderslice is director of the molecular cardiology research laboratories at The Texas Heart Institute.

“It’s very much a homegrown company,” Marathi says.

And a small one, at least for now. Working out of JLabs@TMC, the full-time team is currently just Marathi and Siddhartha De, the senior director of development. Marathi convinced De to transplant himself and his family from India for the purpose of assisting 7 Hills with preparing its drugs for clinical readiness.

The CPRIT funds will allow 7 Hills Pharma to hire several long-time team members full-time and with benefits.

“The bringing of talent and bringing of technology to TMC and what was born at Texas Heart Institute is rather remarkable,” says Rob Bent, the company’s director of operations.

The next step for 7 Hills Pharma is a Phase Ib/IIa clinical trial in patients with treatment-resistant solid tumors. And the team just finalized the deck that will help raise another $10 million to $250 million in the company’s series A. And hopefully sooner rather than later, a new set of medical pilgrims will be thanking 7 Hill Pharma for its care.

A UH professor is fighting cancer with a newly created virus that targets the bad cells and leaves the good ones alone. Photo via Getty Images

University of Houston researchers snag $1.8M to develop cancer-fighting virus

immunotherapy innovation

Viruses attack human cells, and that's usually a bad thing — some Houston researchers have received fresh funding to develop and use the evil powers of viruses for good.

The developing cancer treatment is called oncolytic virotherapy and has risen in popularity among immunotherapy research. The viruses can kill cancer cells while being ineffective to surrounding cells and tissue. Basically, the virus targets the bad guys by "activating an antitumor immune response made of immune cells such as natural killer (NK) cells," according to a news release from the University of Houston.

However exciting this rising OV treatment seems, the early stage development is far from perfect. Shaun Zhang, director of the Center for Nuclear Receptors and Cell Signaling at the University of Houston, is hoping his work will help improve OV treatment and make it more effective.

“We have developed a novel strategy that not only can prevent NK cells from clearing the administered oncolytic virus, but also goes one step further by guiding them to attack tumor cells. We took an entirely different approach to create this oncolytic virotherapy by deleting a region of the gene which has been shown to activate the signaling pathway that enables the virus to replicate in normal cells,” Zhang says in the release.

Zhang, who is also a M.D. Anderson professor in the Department of Biology & Biochemistry, has received a $1.8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to continue his work.

Zhang and his team are specifically creating a new OV — called FusOn-H2 and based on the Herpes simplex 2 virus.

“Our recent studies showed that arming FusOn-H2 with a chimeric NK engager (C-NK-E) that can engage the infiltrated natural killer cells with tumor cells could significantly enhance the effectiveness of this virotherapy,” he says. “Most importantly, we observed that tumor destruction by the joint effect of the direct oncolysis and the engaged NK cells led to a measurable elicitation of neoantigen-specific antitumor immunity.”

Shaun Zhang is the director of the Center for Nuclear Receptors and Cell Signaling at the University of Houston and M.D. Anderson professor in the Department of Biology & Biochemistry. Image via UH.edu

Houston's Nobel Prize winner, Jim Allison, is the star of Breakthrough, which premieres on Independent Lens at 9 pm Monday, April 27, on PBS, PBS.org, and the PBS Video App. Photo via SXSW.com

Documentary featuring Houston Nobel Prize winner to air on PBS

to-watch list

Not all heroes wear capes. In fact, our current coronavirus heroes are donning face masks as they save lives. One local health care hero has a different disease as his enemy, and you'll soon be able to stream his story.

Dr. James "Jim" Allison won the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work in battling cancer by treating the immune system — rather than the tumor. Allison, who is the chair of Immunology and executive director of the Immunotherapy Platform at MD Anderson Cancer Center, has quietly and often, singularly, waged war with cancer utilizing this unique approach.

The soft-spoken trailblazer is the subject of an award-winning documentary, Jim Allison: Breakthrough, which will air on PBS and its streaming channels on Monday, April 27 at 9 pm (check local listings for channel information). Lauded as "the most cheering film of the year" by the Washington Post, the film follows Allison's personal journey to defeat cancer, inspired and driven by the disease killed his mother.

Breakthrough is narrated by Woody Harrelson and features music by Willie Nelson, adding a distinct hint of Texana. (The film was a star at 2019's South by Southwest film festival.) The documentary charts Alice, Texas native as he enrolls at the University of Texas, Austin and ultimately, cultivates an interest in T cells and the immune system — and begins to frequent Austin's legendary music scene. Fascinated by the immune system's power to protect the body from disease, Allison's research soon focuses on how it can be used to treat cancer.

Viewers will find Allison charming, humble, and entertaining: the venerable doctor is also an accomplished blues harmonica player. Director Bill Haney weaves Allison's personal story with the medical case of Sharon Belvin, a patient diagnosed with melanoma in 2004 who soon enrolled in Allison's clinical trials. Belvin has since been entirely cancer-free, according to press materials.

"We are facing a global health challenge that knows no boundaries or race or religion, and we are all relying on gifted and passionate scientists and healthcare workers to contain and ultimately beat this thing," said Haney, in a statement. "Jim Allison and the unrelenting scientists like him are my heroes – and I'll bet they become yours!"

Jim Allison: Breakthrough premieres on Independent Lens at 9 pm Monday, April 27, on PBS, PBS.org, and the PBS Video App.

------

This article originally ran on CultureMap.

Ad Placement 300x100
Ad Placement 300x600

CultureMap Emails are Awesome

Property Showcase

5 must-read innovation headlines: Houston rises among America's best cities

Trending News

Editor's note: The local innovation scene was busy in June with exciting news, from Rice's first Pew Scholar to a monumental gift for Houston Methodist. Plus, Houston is rising in the ranks of America's best cities. Here are the five most-read InnovationMap stories published June 16-30, 2026:

1. Report: Houston reclaims top 10 ranking among America's best cities

Houston skyline

Houston has made a triumphant return to America's 10 best cities for 2026, certifying the city is a cornerstone of the country's growth and economic prosperity. Houston ranks No. 9 nationwide in the annual "America's Best Cities" report from Canada-based real estate and tourism marketing firm Resonance Consultancy. Each year, the report ranks the relative qualities of livability, cultural "lovability," and economic prosperity in 393 American cities with metropolitan populations of 500,000 or more. Continue reading.

2. Houston Methodist receives record $110M gift, names future tower

Houston Methodist has received the largest gift in the health system's history to establish new funds for neurological, neuroscience, and women’s health research and treatment. The $110 million gift comes from Houston-based The Brockman Medical Research Foundation, which supports education and research in the science, medicine and healthcare fields. In response, Houston Methodist announced that it will name its forthcoming 26-story hospital facility the Brockman Centennial Tower. Continue reading.

3. Houston scientist wins prestigious Pew Scholar award for brain cancer research

Christina Tringides, an assistant professor of materials science and nanoengineering at Rice University, is one of 21 scientists to win a prestigious Pew Biomedical Scholar award. She is the first faculty member from Rice to win the distinction, which provides $300,000 over four years for advances in biomedicine. The awards are granted to researchers who are in the first few years at the assistant professor level. Continue reading.

4. Rice student startup lands $1.85M to launch medical drone network

Students at Rice University have developed a medical cargo drone transport system to help deliver sensitive medical supplies and improve mobile healthcare efforts. Haast Autonomous is the brainchild of graduating seniors Ege Halac, Jason Chen and Santiago Brent, who got their venture idea off the ground with help from the Liu Idea Lab for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (Lilie) Summer Venture Studio. The founders have developed the prototype at Rice’s Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen (OEDK) with fellow Rice researchers. Continue reading.

5. Intuitive Machines lands $1M grant to expand robotics operations

Houston-based Intuitive Machines is expanding its operations around the country. The space tech company—which has offices and labs in Texas, California, Arizona, Colorado and Maryland—announced that it has received a $1 million grant from Maryland Gov. Wes Moore through the state's Build Our Future Grant. The funding will go toward expanding Intuitive Machines’ Super Cislunar Robotics Assembly Building (Supa-CRAB) Mechanisms and Robotics Center of Excellence in Anne Arundel County. Continue reading.

New Houston-born app OpenToBites connects users over meals in 16 cities

Friends and Food

A Houston-born social is connecting foodies and social butterflies for shared meals. OpenToBites launched on Android on June 18 and iOS on June 22, and is available to use for free in Houston and beyond.

Founded and operated by Houston developer Kelvin John, OpenToBites allows users to connect over meals in 16 cosmopolitan cities. That includes Austin and Houston in Texas, plus other American cities like Denver and New York, and even international destinations including Paris, Tokyo, and Sydney.

The app is built on a simple concept, and a press release emphasizes that it's for anyone who wants "friendly company."

“We built OpenToBites in response to several trends, including the rise of solo travel and the demand for social experiences that don’t feel like dating, networking, or large organized events,” said a spokesperson in the release. “We are not a dating app. We are offering shared food and conversation for people who want simple, in-person meal company in a public setting.”

When signing up, users provide their first name, an optional profile photo, and a short bio. They mark themselves as a traveler, a local, or both, and have the option to select their age range or opt out.

Once a profile is created, the user can search for existing meals or create a meal happening within the next 72 hours. To find an existing meal to join as a guest, they select the city, date, and apply filters for the number of seats, type of cuisine, and whether they want to share food with the table or order their own.

Since someone has to get the party started, users can also take the initiative to start a meal as a host. They'll choose the date, time, and restaurant — anything is on the menu, as long as they can link to the restaurant on Google Maps or its own website.

This divides users into "host" and "guest." Guests request to join a table, and a host can decide to accept the request or not. Guests aren't able to see the exact restaurant until their request is accepted, so hosts have a "helpful note" field to fill out with more information about the restaurant.

A similar app called Timeleft launched in Austin in 2024, acting as a friendship matchmaker for small groups of strangers who answer personality questions, meet at a restaurant for dinner, and decide if they wanted to stay in touch.

Though OpenToBites has a similar concept, it seems to work more like Couchsurfing, an app that connects travelers on their own terms. OpenToBites also emphasizes the immediate over the long-term — the meal itself is the social goal.

OpenToBites is available for free on the App Store and Play Store; the app plans to grow each current city's user base before adding new locations.

---

This article originally appeared on CultureMap.com.

Houston mental health nonprofit expands platform statewide to connect more Texans with care

access granted

As mental health conversations evolve, the necessary pivot becomes how organizations across Texas navigate improved ways to help people access the care they need before their challenges become crises.

That’s why Mental Health America of Greater Houston recently announced that it is expanding its Care Connect platform statewide.

The expansion will address perhaps the most persistent barrier to behavioral healthcare—helping people find and navigate services that already exist.

Care Connect’s extended reach comes at a time when more than 3.5 million adults in the state live with some kind of mental health condition and scores of those in need continue to struggle with accessing care despite the growing awareness of mental health needs.

According to President and CEO Renae Vania Tomczak, Care Connect’s main goal was to remove as many obstacles as possible that Texans face when seeking mental health support.

“Care Connect was about a two-year planning process,” Tomczak says. “It really began with asking what challenges people in the Greater Houston Area were facing regarding mental health. It’s not just accessing care, but the difficulty in navigating the mental healthcare system.”

While provider shortages remain a challenge in some communities, Mental Health America of Greater Houston found that many individuals and families struggle simply to determine where to turn, how to identify the right provider and whether services are affordable.

“We wanted to make it easier for people who have questions, who may never have had a mental health challenge before, or they’re a caregiver for somebody who has a mental health issue,” Tomczak says. “We wanted to be the place that people can come to get their questions answered and be connected to care.”

Care Connect combines a vetted network of more than 1,000 providers and services across Texas with personalized navigation support.

Searches generate care results based on insurance coverage, language preferences, ZIP code and clinical specialties.

Additionally, one-on-one guidance and follow-up support are provided by bilingual resource specialists.

The platform also seeks to address affordability, one of the most significant barriers to mental healthcare access. Through participating providers, eligible individuals can receive six to eight counseling sessions at no cost.

“We have several providers who are willing to provide six to eight counseling sessions at no cost for people who do not have the means to pay for services themselves,” Tomczak says.

When provider matches are unavailable, the organization can connect individuals with master’s-level mental health professionals working under the supervision of licensed clinicians.

The statewide rollout builds on the platform’s early success in the Houston region, where it has helped thousands of individuals connect with mental health resources since launching last fall.

According to Tomczak, the decision to expand was driven in part by growing demand from outside the organization’s traditional service area.

“Last month we decided to take this program statewide,” she says. “It’s not just Houston that can use help in connecting to appropriate mental health services, but the whole state.”

The Care Connect program’s promotion through healthcare providers, community organizations and public-sector partners across Texas is now one of Mental Health America of Greater Houston’s top priorities.

Their goal is to create a stronger referral ecosystem that ultimately helps those who need access to mental health care more quickly.

To facilitate that, the organization has also added free mental health screenings to its website so that users will better identify any symptoms related to anxiety, depression and other conditions.

“Once they do that, then where do they go?” Tomczak says. “They’re not sure who to call and who can help them. At that point, we hope they’ll call us and talk to somebody live who can answer their questions and help them get started on the right path to improving their mental health.”

With eyes on the future, Tomczak believes public understanding of mental health has improved in recent years, particularly following the COVID-19 pandemic, which brought new attention to the effects of stress, isolation and uncertainty.

“The more we talk about it and have the opportunity to share that mental health conditions are traceable, the better,” she says.

According to Tomczak, long-term, Care Connect aims to reduce roadblocks that exist between recognizing the need for help and receiving it.

Ultimately, Care Connect hopes to create a robustly connected behavioral health system that gives Texans the ability to access mental health services swiftly and with confidence.

“No one should have to navigate mental health challenges alone,” Tomczak adds. “Care Connect is here to help connect people with resources, services and answers to ensure they get the care they need to take the next step toward better mental health.”

View All Listings