Houston hospital lands $10 million grant to launch new neurological lab

research incoming

The gift will create the John M. O’Quinn Foundation Neurodegenerative Disorders Laboratory at Houston Methodist. Photo via houstonmethodist.org

Houston Methodist announced that it has received a $10 million gift from the The John M. O’Quinn Foundation to support research into neurological disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and others.

The gift will create the John M. O’Quinn Foundation Neurodegenerative Disorders Laboratory at Houston Methodist, which will be led by Dr. Jun Li, who chairs the department of neurology at the Houston Methodist Neurological Institute. The NIH-backed researcher and his team will provide care, clinical trial opportunities and subspecialty programs through the lab, according to a release from Houston Methodist.

The funds will also be used to recruit neurodegenerative disorders specialists to lab by creating endowed research chairs, research fellowships and funding for pilot studies.

"Many neurodegenerative diseases are chronic and significantly impact the quality of life, causing pain, weakness, loss of ambulation and sensory loss,” Li says in a statement. “Our team is committed to working with patients to help make their lives better through treatment, and this generous gift fuels our determination to do even more and to help find therapies for these neurological diseases. This commitment from The John M. O’Quinn Foundation will support an interdisciplinary team of neurologists and neuroscientists to further explore treatment options.”

The O'Quinn Foundation has been a long-time supporter of the hospital group, according to Houston Methodist, and has had members of its organization suffer from neurodegenerative disorders.

"As our population continues to live longer, we believe it’s critical to help now, and we know Houston Methodist is best positioned with its renowned researchers and clinicians like Dr. Li to help those with neurodegenerative diseases to have a better quality of life, and ultimately, a treatment for these diseases that impact so many,” President and Executive Director of the foundation Robert C. Wilson III says in the statement.

Earlier this year, Houston Methodist also received a $1 million grant from Susan and William “Dub” Henning, Jr. to support Alzheimer’s research at the Nantz National Alzheimer Center at the hospital. It created the Susan and William Henning Jr. Neurodegenerative Research Endowment.

Meanwhile, over the summer, a Houston clinical-stage biotech that treats neurodegenerative diseases company went public. The company, Coya Therapeutics (Nasdaq: COYA), has developed a biologics therapy that prevents further spreading of neurodegenerative diseases by making regulatory T cells functional again and closed a $15.25 million IPO in January. Click here to learn more about the company's treatments for ALS and Alzheimer's.

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Houston Methodist's Nantz National Alzheimer Center received a $1 million donation to continue research in neurodegenerative diseases. Photo via Houston Methodist

Houston hospital snags $1M to advance Alzheimer’s research

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Thanks to a recent donation, Houston Methodist is setting up an endowment to support research in neurodegenerative diseases.

Susan and William “Dub” Henning, Jr. have committed to a $1 million gift to Houston Methodist to support Alzheimer’s research at the Nantz National Alzheimer Center at the hospital. This gift will be used to create the Susan and William Henning Jr. Neurodegenerative Research Endowment and in response, a NNAC family room will be named in memory of Dub’s parents, Lena and William Henning.

“Knowing the impact that Alzheimer’s can have not only on patients, but also on the immediate and extended family members experiencing the disease inspired us to support the work being done at the Nantz National Alzheimer Center,” says Dub Henning in a news release. “We want to give hope to families struggling with this disease and contribute to ultimately finding a cure.”

Every year, the NNAC — led by Joseph C. Masdeu — treats thousands of patients looking to prevent Alzheimer’s disease, slow memory loss progression, and improve their quality of life. In 2021 alone, the center provided more than 4,000 patient visits. The fresh funding will allow for Dr. Masdeu's research projects — including more than 26 current studies, 14 in clinical trials and 12 studies to clarify the nature of diseases causing dementia — to continue the important work.

“One of our clinical trials will determine the effects of exercise in preventing deposits of amyloid and tau, two of the proteins that accumulate in the brain of people living with Alzheimer’s disease, and we’re also exploring the role of proper sleep in disease development,” says Masdeu in the release. “Among other studies, we are collaborating with Baylor College of Medicine to define genetic and chemical factors predisposing to the accumulation of amyloid and tau in the brain of people at all stages of the Alzheimer’s spectrum.

"These promising developments would not be possible without the compassion and generosity of community supporters like the Henning family," he continues.

Susan and William “Dub” Henning, Jr. gave a $1 million gift to Houston Methodist. Photo courtesy of Houston Methodist

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UH receives $2.6M gift to support opioid addiction research and treatment

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The estate of Dr. William A. Gibson has granted the University of Houston a $2.6 million gift to support and expand its opioid addiction research, including the development of a fentanyl vaccine that could block the drug's ability to enter the brain.

The gift builds upon a previous donation from the Gibson estate that honored the scientist’s late son Michael, who died from drug addiction in 2019. The original donation established the Michael C. Gibson Addiction Research Program in UH's department of psychology. The latest donation will establish the Michael Conner Gibson Endowed Professorship in Psychology and the Michael Conner Gibson Research Endowment in the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences.

“This incredibly generous gift will accelerate UH’s addiction research program and advance new approaches to treatment,” Daniel O’Connor, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, said in a news release.

The Michael C. Gibson Addiction Research Program is led by UH professor of psychology Therese Kosten and Colin Haile, a founding member of the UH Drug Discovery Institute. Currently, the program produces high-profile drug research, including the fentanyl vaccine.

According to UH, the vaccine can eliminate the drug’s “high” and could have major implications for the nation’s opioid epidemic, as research reveals Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) is treatable.

The endowed professorship is combined with a one-to-one match from the Aspire Fund Challenge, a $50 million grant program established in 2019 by an anonymous donor. UH says the program has helped the university increase its number of endowed chairs and professorships, including this new position in the department of psychology.

“Our future discoveries will forever honor the memory of Michael Conner Gibson and the Gibson family,” O’Connor added in the release. “And I expect that the work supported by these endowments will eventually save many thousands of lives.”

CenterPoint and partners launch AI initiative to stabilize the power grid

AI infrastructure

Houston-based utility company CenterPoint Energy is one of the founding partners of a new AI infrastructure initiative called Chain Reaction.

Software companies NVIDIA and Palantir have joined CenterPoint in forming Chain Reaction, which is aimed at speeding up AI buildouts for energy producers and distributors, data centers and infrastructure builders. Among the initiative’s goals are to stabilize and expand the power grid to meet growing demand from data centers, and to design and develop large data centers that can support AI activity.

“The energy infrastructure buildout is the industrial challenge of our generation,” Tristan Gruska, Palantir’s head of energy and infrastructure, says in a news release. “But the software that the sector relies on was not built for this moment. We have spent years quietly deploying systems that keep power plants running and grids reliable. Chain Reaction is the result of building from the ground up for the demands of AI.”

CenterPoint serves about 7 million customers in Texas, Indiana, Minnesota and Ohio. After Hurricane Beryl struck Houston in July 2024, CenterPoint committed to building a resilient power grid for the region and chose Palantir as its “software backbone.”

“Never before have technology and energy been so intertwined in determining the future course of American innovation, commercial growth, and economic security,” Jason Wells, chairman, president and CEO of CenterPoint, added in the release.

In November, the utility company got the go-ahead from the Public Utility Commission of Texas for a $2.9 billion upgrade of its Houston-area power grid. CenterPoint serves 2.9 million customers in a 12-county territory anchored by Houston.

A month earlier, CenterPoint launched a $65 billion, 10-year capital improvement plan to support rising demand for power across all of its service territories.

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This article originally appeared on our sister site, EnergyCapitalHTX.com.

Houston researchers develop material to boost AI speed and cut energy use

ai research

A team of researchers at the University of Houston has developed an innovative thin-film material that they believe will make AI devices faster and more energy efficient.

AI data centers consume massive amounts of electricity and use large cooling systems to operate, adding a strain on overall energy consumption.

“AI has made our energy needs explode,” Alamgir Karim, Dow Chair and Welch Foundation Professor at the William A. Brookshire Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at UH, explained in a news release. “Many AI data centers employ vast cooling systems that consume large amounts of electricity to keep the thousands of servers with integrated circuit chips running optimally at low temperatures to maintain high data processing speed, have shorter response time and extend chip lifetime.”

In a report recently published in ACS Nano, Karim and a team of researchers introduced a specialized two-dimensional thin film dielectric, or electric insulator. The film, which does not store electricity, could be used to replace traditional, heat-generating components in integrated circuit chips, which are essential hardware powering AI.

The thinner film material aims to reduce the significant energy cost and heat produced by the high-performance computing necessary for AI.

Karim and his former doctoral student, Maninderjeet Singh, used Nobel prize-winning organic framework materials to develop the film. Singh, now a postdoctoral researcher at Columbia University, developed the materials during his doctoral training at UH, along with Devin Shaffer, a UH professor of civil engineering, and doctoral student Erin Schroeder.

Their study shows that dielectrics with high permittivity (high-k) store more electrical energy and dissipate more energy as heat than those with low-k materials. Karim focused on low-k materials made from light elements, like carbon, that would allow chips to run cooler and faster.

The team then created new materials with carbon and other light elements, forming covalently bonded sheetlike films with highly porous crystalline structures using a process known as synthetic interfacial polymerization. Then they studied their electronic properties and applications in devices.

According to the report, the film was suitable for high-voltage, high-power devices while maintaining thermal stability at elevated operating temperatures.

“These next-generation materials are expected to boost the performance of AI and conventional electronics devices significantly,” Singh added in the release.

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