UTHealth Houston has secured millions in grant funding — plus has reached a new milestone for one of its projects. Photo via utsystem.edu

UTHealth Houston is making waves in many disciplines right now. From cancer to Alzheimer’s disease to stroke, the institution is improving outcomes for patients in new ways. Last week, UTHealth announced three exciting updates to its roster of accomplishments.

On October 8, UTHealth announced that it had received a $4.8 million grant from the National Cancer Institute, aimed at helping cancer survivors to continue their healing and enhancing primary care capacity. It will be put into action by UTHealth researchers working with eight community health centers around Texas that treat un- and underinsured patients. The initiative is called Project CASCADE, which stands for Community and Academic Synergy for Cancer Survivorship Care Delivery Enhancement.

“Project CASCADE focuses on how primary healthcare teams provide whole-person and coordinated care to underserved patients who have a history of cancer,” says Bijal Balasubramanian, professor of epidemiology and the Rockwell Distinguished Chair in Society and Health at UTHealth Houston School of Public Health, a multiple principal investigator of the study. “Primary care is uniquely suited to deliver whole-person and coordinated care for cancer survivors because, at its core, it prioritizes, personalizes and integrates healthcare for all conditions, not just the cancer.”

She continued by adding that 70 percent of cancer survivors live with other chronic conditions. The study will help by taking a holistic approach, rather than relegating people’s care to many different teams. Project CASCADE is one of only four National Cancer Institute-funded U01 grants that have been awarded to applicants focused on primary care for cancer survivors.

“Community health centers are the primary-care homes for patients who are underinsured or uninsured. In collaboration with community health center clinics, this study will develop a model of cancer survivorship care that can be disseminated and scaled up to be used across other health systems in Texas,” Balasubramanian says.

The intervention will use a designated care coordinator champion to oversee every aspect of patients’ health journey. Project ECHO will provide a backbone for treatment. That’s a telementoring strategy that improves primary care clinicians’ knowledge about post-cancer care, recognition and management of the effects of cancer and its treatments, and communication between oncologists and the primary care team. Project CASCADE is also a partnership between The University of Texas System institutions, including UT Southwestern Medical Center and The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

The previous week, UTHealth made history by performing the first infusion in Houston of a newly FDA-approved drug, Kisunla, for the treatment of early symptomatic Alzheimer’s disease. The lucky recipient was 79-year-old Terrie Frankel. Though Kisunla is not a cure for Alzheimer’s, it has been noted to slow progress when administered early in the disease’s encroachment.

“Mrs. Frankel is the ideal patient for this treatment,” her doctor, David Hunter says. “We want to see patients as soon as they, or their family, notice the slightest trace of forgetfulness. The earlier the patient is in their Alzheimer’s disease, the more they benefit from treatments like Kisunla.”

UTHealth was one of the sites in the trial that charted the fact that Kisunla reduced amyloid plaques on average by 84 percent at 10 months after infusion. Frankel will receive her infusions monthly for the next 18 months, and her doctors will keep tabs on her progress with PET scans and use MRIs to scan for possible side effects. Next year, researchers will begin recruiting participants over the age of 55 with a family history of dementia, but no memory loss themselves, for a new trial, one of several currently working against Alzheimer’s that are taking place at UTHealth.

Stroke is no less of a worry to many patients. Last week, UTHealth received another grant that will improve the odds for patients who have had a stroke with the successful re-opening of a blocked vessel through endovascular surgery. The $2.5 million grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, part of the National Institutes of Health, will fund a five-year study that will include the creation of a machine-learning program that will be able to predict which stroke patients with large blood vessel blockages will benefit most from endovascular therapy.

The investigators will form a database of imaging and outcomes of patients whose blockages were successfully opened, called reperfusion, from three U.S. hospitals. This will allow them to identify clinical and imaging-based predictors of damage in the brain after reperfusion. From there, the deep-learning model will help clinicians to know which patients might go against the tenet that the sooner you treat a patient, the better.

“This is shaking our core of deciding who we treat, and when, and how, but also, how we are evaluating them? Our current methods of determining benefit with imaging are not good enough,” says principal investigator and associate professor in the Department of Neurology at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston, Sunil Sheth.

And this is just some of the groundbreaking work taking place at UTHealth each day.

A medical device designed by a UH professor will close the loop with high frequency brain waves to prevent seizures from occurring. Photo via uh.edu

University of Houston engineer receives $3.7M to work on seizure-preventing tech

brainy med device

A professor at the University of Houston has received a federal grant aimed at helping stop epileptic seizures before they start.

The BRAIN Initiative at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke awarded the $3.7 million grant to Nuri Firat Ince, an associate professor of biomedical engineering at UH. The grant will go toward Ince's work to create a seizure-halting device based on his research.

According to UH, Ince has reduced by weeks the time it takes to locate the seizure onset zone (SOZ), the part of the brain that causes seizures in patients with epilepsy. He's done this by detecting high-frequency oscillations (HFO) forming "repetitive waveform patterns" that identify their location in the SOZ.

Ince plans to use those HFOs to help control seizures. But he first must determine whether the HFOs can be detected with an implantable closed-loop device, enabling delivery of electrical stimulation that can control seizures. The device is called a brain interchange system. A closed-loop system supplies stimulation only when it detects the onset of a seizure.

Ince's neurotechnology partner, Cortec GMBH of Freiburg, Germany, is supplying the brain interchange system. Houston's Baylor College of Medicine eventually will be the site where medical professionals implant the device in pediatric and adult epilepsy patients.

"If the outcomes of our research in acute settings become successful, we will execute a clinical trial and run our methods with the implanted … system in a chronic ambulatory setting," Ince says in a UH news release.

Research published recently in the journal AJOB Neuroscience found that a closed-loop brain implant being used to treat refractory epilepsy does not alter patients' personalities or self-perception.

Nuri Firat Ince associate professor of biomedical engineering. Photo via uh.edu

"Next-generation brain stimulation devices can modulate brain activity without human intervention, which raises new ethical and policy questions," lead author Tobias Haeusermann of the University of California, San Francisco, says in a news release. "But while there is a great deal of speculation about the potential consequences of these innovative treatments, very little is currently known about patients' experiences of any device approved for clinical use."

The study, however, found no evidence that the device Haeusermann and his colleagues studied had changed patients' personalities or self-perception.

Haeusermann and his fellow researchers based their study on a closed-loop device that's currently available. In 2013, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved this brain stimulation system for treatment of refractory epilepsy. It's the first clinically approved and commercially available closed-loop brain stimulation device for epilepsy patients. Refractory epilepsy occurs when medication no longer controls seizures.

According to a research article published in 2018, epilepsy ranks among the most common neurological disorders, affecting about 1% of the global population. For patients who suffer seizures that cannot be treated with drugs, a frequent treatment is surgical removal of the SOZ.

In this country, about 3 million adults and 470,000 children have epilepsy, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including nearly 293,000 Texans. In the U.S., epilepsy is the fourth most common neurological disorder, preceded by migraine, stroke and Alzheimer's disease, the Epilepsy Foundation of Michigan says.

About 150,000 Americans are diagnosed each year with epilepsy.

Epilepsy is prevalent among people with autism, cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, and intellectual disabilities.

About 30 types of seizure occur among the more than 60 types of epilepsy, the Michigan foundation says. A seizure briefly disturbs electrical activity in the braining, causing temporary changes in movement, awareness, feelings, behavior, and other bodily functions.

Daily medication is the standard treatment for epilepsy, according to the Michigan foundation. Still, 30 percent to 40 percent of people with epilepsy continue to experience seizures.

Each year, U.S. health care costs associated with epilepsy add up to roughly $28 billion, according to the American Journal of Managed Care.

"Most people with epilepsy are able to lead productive and fulfilling lives, but for many, epilepsy can be a devastating condition," the foundation says.

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Houston scientist launches new app to support mental health professionals

App for that

One Houston-based mental health scientist is launching a new app-based approach to continuing education that she hopes will change the way doctors, therapists, and social workers evolve in their field.

The app, MHNTI, is named for its parent company, the Mental Health Network & Training Institute. It's a one-stop shop for mental health professionals to find trainers, expert consultations, local providers, webinars, and other tools related to licensure certification and renewal.

Free and paid tiers offer different levels of access, but both offer doctors, counselors, and more an easier way to engage with continuing education. When a mental health professional is looking to expand their knowledge in a way that coincides with CE requirements, MHNTI provides it; as easy as using Amazon.

"We built MHNTI for the clinicians craving meaningful, ongoing training that fits real-life schedules," said Dr. Elizabeth McIngvale. "MHNTI is more than an app. It's a movement to support mental health professionals at every career stage."

McIngvale, the daughter of celebrated Houston entrepreneur Jim "Mattress Mack" McIngvale, co-founded MHNTI after becoming one of the leading experts on obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) in the United States. Born with the condition herself, she suffered greatly as a child to the point that she required extensive repetitive rituals daily just to function. She responded to exposure with response prevention (ERP) treatment, earned her Ph.D. from the University of Houston, and is now the director at the OCD Institute of Texas.

This is not the first time she used the internet to try to improve the mental health industry. In 2018, she launched the OCD Challenge website, a free resource for people with OCD.

McIngvale's co-founder is New York-based doctor, entrepreneur, and author Lauren Wadsworth, another expert in OCD and other anxiety disorders. Like McIngvale, she understands that the labyrinthian world of continuing education can keep mental health professionals from achieving their potential.

"Mental health providers are often overworked and under-resourced. MHNTI is here to change that," said Wadsworth. "We're creating a space where clinicians can continuously learn, grow, and feel supported by experts who understand the work firsthand."

MHNTI is available in the App Store, Google Play, and for desktop.

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A version of this article originally appeared on CultureMap.com.

Announcing the 2025 Houston Innovation Awards finalists

Inspirational Innovators

InnovationMap is proud to reveal the finalists for the 2025 Houston Innovation Awards.

Taking place on November 13 at Greentown Labs, the fifth annual Houston Innovation Awards will honor the best of Houston's innovation ecosystem, including startups, entrepreneurs, mentors, and more.

This year's finalists were determined by our esteemed panel of judges, comprised of past award winners and InnovationMap editorial leadership.

The panel reviewed nominee applications across 10 prestigious categories to determine our finalists. They will select the winner for each category, except for Startup of the Year, which will be chosen by the public via online voting launching later this month.

We'll announce our 2025 Trailblazer Award recipient in the coming weeks, and then we'll unveil the rest of this year's winners live at our awards ceremony.

Get to know all of our finalists in more detail through editorial spotlights leading up to the big event. Then, join us on November 13 as we unveil the winners and celebrate all things Houston innovation. Tickets are on sale now — secure yours today.

Without further ado, here are the 2025 Houston Innovation Awards finalists:

Minority-founded Business

Honoring an innovative startup founded or co-founded by BIPOC or LGBTQ+ representation:

  • Capwell Services
  • Deep Anchor Solutions
  • Mars Materials
  • Torres Orbital Mining (TOM)
  • Wellysis USA

Female-founded Business

Honoring an innovative startup founded or co-founded by a woman:

  • Anning Corporation
  • Bairitone Health
  • Brain Haven
  • FlowCare
  • March Biosciences
  • TrialClinIQ

Energy Transition Business

Honoring an innovative startup providing a solution within renewables, climatetech, clean energy, alternative materials, circular economy and beyond:

  • Anning Corporation
  • Capwell Services
  • Deep Anchor Solutions
  • Eclipse Energy
  • Loop Bioproducts
  • Mars Materials
  • Solidec

Health Tech Business

Honoring an innovative startup within the health and medical technology sectors:

  • Bairitone Health
  • Corveus Medical
  • FibroBiologics
  • Koda Health
  • NanoEar
  • Wellysis USA

Deep Tech Business

Honoring an innovative startup providing technology solutions based on substantial scientific or engineering challenges, including those in the AI, robotics and space sectors:

  • ARIX Technologies
  • Little Place Labs
  • Newfound Materials
  • Paladin Drones
  • Persona AI
  • Tempest Droneworx

Startup of the Year (People's Choice)

Honoring a startup celebrating a recent milestone or success. The winner will be selected by the community via an online voting experience:

  • Eclipse Energy
  • FlowCare
  • MyoStep
  • Persona AI
  • Rheom Materials
  • Solidec

Scaleup of the Year

Honoring an innovative later-stage startup that's recently reached a significant milestone in company growth:

  • Coya Therapeutics
  • Fervo Energy
  • Koda Health
  • Mati Carbon
  • Molecule
  • Utility Global

Incubator/Accelerator of the Year

Honoring a local incubator or accelerator that is championing and fueling the growth of Houston startups:

  • Activate
  • Energy Tech Nexus
  • Greentown Labs
  • Healthtech Accelerator (TMCi)
  • Impact Hub Houston

Mentor of the Year

Honoring an individual who dedicates their time and expertise to guide and support budding entrepreneurs. Presented by Houston Community College:

  • Anil Shetty, Inform AI
  • Jason Ethier, EnergyTech Nexus
  • Jeremy Pitts, Activate
  • Joe Alapat, Liongard
  • Neal Dikeman, Energy Transition Ventures
  • Nisha Desai, Intention

Trailblazer Recipient

  • To be announced
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Interested in sponsoring the 2025 Houston Innovation Awards? Contact sales@innovationmap.com for details.

Houston scientists earn prestigious geophysics career awards

winner, winner

Two Rice University professors have been recognized by the American Geophysical Union, one of the world’s largest associations for Earth and space science.

Rice climatologist Sylvia Dee was awarded the 2025 Nanne Weber Early Career Award by the AGU’s Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology Section. Richard Gordon, a Rice professor of geophysics also received the 2025 Walter H. Bucher Medal by the AGU. They will both be recognized at the AGU25 event on Dec.15-19 in New Orleans.

The Nanne Weber Early Career Award recognizes contributions to paleoceanography and paleoclimatology research by scientists within 10 years of receiving their doctorate.

“Paleoclimate research provides essential context for understanding Earth’s climate system and its future under continued greenhouse warming," Dee said in a news release. “By studying how climate has evolved naturally in the past, we can better predict the risks and challenges that lie ahead.”

Dee’s work explores how Earth’s natural modes of variability interact with the changing climate and lead to extreme weather. It shows how these interactions can add to climate risks, like flooding and rainfall patterns all around the world.

The Bucher Medal is awarded to just one scientist for their original contributions to the knowledge of the Earth’s crust and lithosphere.

Gordon’s research has reshaped how scientists understand the movement and interaction of Earth’s tectonic plates. He helped reveal the existence of diffuse plate boundaries—areas where the planet’s crust slowly deforms across broad regions instead of along a single fault line. His work also explored true polar wander, a phenomenon in which Earth gradually shifts its orientation relative to its spin axis.

Gordon introduced the concept of paleomagnetic Euler poles, a method for tracing how tectonic plates have moved over millions of years. He also led the development of major global plate motion models, including NUVEL (Northwestern University Velocity) and MORVEL (Mid-Ocean Ridge Velocity).

“Receiving the Walter Bucher Medal is a profound honor,” Gordon said in a news release. “To be included on a list of past recipients whose work I have long admired makes this recognition especially meaningful. There are still countless mysteries about how our planet works, and I look forward to continuing to explore them alongside the next generation of scientists.”