UH, Baylor researchers make breakthrough with new pediatric leukemia treatment device

childhood cancer

Researchers from Baylor College of Medicine and the University of Houston have developed a new blood-filtering machine that poses fewer risks to pediatric patients with hyperleukocytosis. Photo courtesy UH.

A team of Houston researchers has developed a new microfluidic device aimed at making treatments safer for children with hyperleukocytosis, a life-threatening hematologic emergency often seen in patients with leukemia.

Dr. Fong Lam, an associate professor of pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine and a pediatric intensive care physician at Texas Children’s Hospital, partnered with Sergey Shevkoplyas, a professor of biomedical engineering at UH, on the device that uses a large number of tiny channels to quickly separate blood cells by size in a process called controlled incremental filtration, according to a news release from UH.

They tested whether performing cell separation with a high-throughput microfluidic device could alleviate the limitations of traditional conventional blood-filtering machines, which pose risks for pediatric patients due to their large extracorporeal volume (ECV), high flow rates and tendency to cause significant platelet loss in the patient. The results of their study, led by Mubasher Iqbal, a Ph.D. candidate in biomedical engineering at UH, were published recently in the journal Nature Communications.

“Continuously and efficiently separating leukocytes from recirculating undiluted whole blood — without device clogging and cell activation or damage — has long been a major challenge in microfluidic cell separation,” Shevkoplyas said in a news release. “Our study is the first to solve this problem.”

Hyperleukocytosis is a condition that develops when the body has an extremely high number of white blood cells, which in many cases is due to leukemia. According to the release, up to 20 percent to 30 percent of patients with acute leukemia develop hyperleukocytosis, and this places them at risk for potentially fatal complications.

The new device utilizes tiny channels—each about the width of a human hair—to efficiently separate blood cells through controlled incremental filtration. According to Lam, the team was excited that the new device could operate at clinically relevant flow rates.

The device successfully removed approximately 85 percent of large leukocytes and 90 percent of leukemic blasts from undiluted human whole blood without causing platelet loss or other adverse effects. It also operates with an ECV that’s about 1/70th of conventional leukapheresis machines, which makes it particularly suitable for infants and small children.

“Overall, our study suggests that microfluidics leukapheresis is safe and effective at selectively removing leukocytes from circulation, with separation performance sufficiently high to ultimately enable safe leukapheresis in children,” Shevkoplyas said in the release.

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Houston-based CorInnova is gearing up to pitch at a prestigious event. Photo via CorInnova.com

Houston health tech company tapped for prestigious pediatric medical device competition

ready to pitch

Houston-based medtech company CorInnova is gearing up for what could be a big payday.

CorInnova is among five medtech companies that have been invited to present pitches in October for the National Capital Consortium for Pediatric Device Innovation’s “Make Your Medical Device Pitch for Kids!” competition.

CorInnova and the four other finalists now have access to a four-month pediatric accelerator program led by MedTech Innovator and will vie for a share of $150,000 in grant funding from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The pitch event is part of the 10th annual Symposium on Pediatric Device Innovation.

“Addressing unmet needs across pediatric populations is critical to advancing children’s health, and we are delighted to once again work with pioneering companies that seek to bridge this care gap,” says Kolaeh Eskandanian, president and chief innovation officer at Children’s National Hospital and principal investigator for the pediatric device consortium.

CorInnova has developed a minimally invasive device for the treatment of congestive heart failure. Specifically, CorInnova’s soft, flexible device can be inserted through a 1-inch incision to increase the amount of blood pumping in the heart by 50 percent.

The device’s primary benefit is that there’s no contact with blood, thus minimizing complications when the device is being used. Blood contact during a heart procedure can increase the risk of health problems such as stroke and kidney disfunction.

“The device is collapsible, allowing it to be delivered and secured to the heart in a minimally invasive manner. The device conforms to the heart’s surface, and gently compresses the heart to increase cardiac output using an external pneumatic driver that operates in synchrony with the heartbeat,” CorInnova explains on its website.

In the U.S., around 40,000 babies are born each year with congenital heart defects. About one-fourth of these newborns have critical defects, often prompting the need for surgery or other procedures.

Since being founded in 2004, CorInnova has raised at least $6.3 million, according to Crunchbase. This includes a $6.1 million investment from Wellcome Trust, a London-based charitable foundation that focuses on biomedical research.

Aside from the MedTech Innovator accelerator, CorInnova has participated in the TMC Accelerator’s fall 2019 accelerator program for medical device makers and the fall 2018 gBETA Medtech accelerator program.

The four other finalists in the medtech pitch competition are:

  • La Palma, California-based Innovation Lab, whose mechanical elbow brace stabilizes tremors in some pediatric patients with cerebral palsy.
  • Biddeford, Maine-based Prapela, whose vibrating pad helps treat apnea in newborns.
  • Richmond, Virginia-based Tympanogen, whose nonsurgical procedure takes the place of surgery for eardrum repair.
  • Xpan of Concord, Ontario, Canada, whose universal trocar (a surgical instrument) improves safety, access, and flexibility during various procedures.
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Innovation Labs @ TMC set to launch for early-stage life science startups

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The Texas Medical Center will launch its new Innovation Labs @ TMC in January 2026 to better support life science startups working within the innovation hub.

The new 34,000-square-foot space, located in the TMC Innovation Factory at 2450 Holcombe Blvd., will feature labs and life science offices and will be managed by TMC. The space was previously occupied by Johnson & Johnson's JLABS @TMC, a representative from TMC tells InnovationMap. JLABS will officially vacate the space in January.

TMC shares that the expansion will allow it to "open its doors to a wider range of life science visionaries," including those in the TMC BioBridge program and Innovation Factory residents. It will also allow TMC to better integrate with the Innovation Factory's offerings, such as the TMC Health Tech accelerator, TMC Center for Device Innovation and TMC Venture Fund.

“We have witnessed an incredible demand for life science space, not only at the TMC Innovation Factory, but also on the TMC Helix Park research campus,” William McKeon, president and CEO of the TMC, said in a news release. “Innovation Labs @ TMC enables us to meet this rising demand and continue reshaping how early-stage life science companies grow, connect, and thrive.”

“By bringing together top talent, cutting-edge research, and industry access in one central hub, we can continue to advance Houston’s life science ecosystem," he continued.

The TMC Innovation Factory has hosted 450 early-stage ventures since it launched in 2015. JLABS first opened in the space in 2016 with the goal of helping health care startups commercialize.

13 Houston businesses appear on Time's best midsize companies of 2025

new report

A Houston-based engineering firm KBR tops the list of Texas businesses that appear on Time magazine and Statista’s new ranking of the country’s best midsize companies.

KBR holds down the No. 30 spot, earning a score of 91.53 out of 100. Time and Statista ranked companies based on employee satisfaction, revenue growth, and transparency about sustainability. All 500 companies on the list have annual revenue from $100 million to $10 billion.

According to the Great Place to Work organization, 87 percent of KBR employees rate the company as a great employer.

“At KBR, we do work that matters,” the company says on the Great Place to Work website. “From climate change to space exploration, from energy transition to national security, we are helping solve the great challenges of our time through the high-end, differentiated solutions we provide. In doing so, we’re striving to create a better, safer, more sustainable world.”

KBR recorded revenue of $7.7 billion in 2024, up 11 percent from the previous year.

The other 12 Houston-based companies that landed on the Time/Statista list are:

  • No. 141 Houston-based MRC Global. Score: 85.84
  • No. 168 Houston-based Comfort Systems USA. Score: 84.72
  • No. 175 Houston-based Crown Castle. Score: 84.51
  • No. 176 Houston-based National Oilwell Varco. Score: 84.50
  • No. 234 Houston-based Kirby. Score: 82.48
  • No. 266 Houston-based Nabor Industries. Score: 81.59
  • No. 296 Houston-based Archrock. Score: 80.17
  • No. 327 Houston-based Superior Energy Services. Score: 79.38
  • No. 332 Kingwood-based Insperity. Score: 79.15
  • No. 359 Houston-based CenterPoint Energy. Score: 78.02
  • No. 461 Houston-based Oceaneering. Score: 73.87
  • No. 485 Houston-based Skyward Specialty Insurance. Score: 73.15

Additional Texas companies on the list include:

  • No. 95 Austin-based Natera. Score: 87.26
  • No. 199 Plano-based Tyler Technologies. Score: 86.49
  • No. 139 McKinney-based Globe Life. Score: 85.88
  • No. 140 Dallas-based Trinity Industries. Score: 85.87
  • No. 149 Southlake-based Sabre. Score: 85.58
  • No. 223 Dallas-based Brinker International. Score: 82.87
  • No. 226 Irving-based Darling Ingredients. Score: 82.86
  • No. 256 Dallas-based Copart. Score: 81.78
  • No. 276 Coppell-based Brink’s. Score: 80.90
  • No. 279 Dallas-based Topgolf. Score: 80.79
  • No. 294 Richardson-based Lennox. Score: 80.22
  • No. 308 Dallas-based Primoris Services. Score: 79.96
  • No. 322 Dallas-based Wingstop Restaurants. Score: 79.49
  • No. 335 Fort Worth-based Omnicell. Score: 78.95
  • No. 337 Plano-based Cinemark. Score: 78.91
  • No. 345 Dallas-based Dave & Buster’s. Score: 78.64
  • No. 349 Dallas-based ATI. Score: 78.44
  • No. 385 Frisco-based Addus HomeCare. Score: 76.86
  • No. 414 New Braunfels-based Rush Enterprises. Score: 75.75
  • No. 431 Dallas-based Comerica Bank. Score: 75.20
  • No. 439 Austin-based Q2 Software. Score: 74.85
  • No. 458 San Antonio-based Frost Bank. Score: 73.94
  • No. 475 Fort Worth-based FirstCash. Score: 73.39
  • No. 498 Irving-based Nexstar Broadcasting Group. Score: 72.71

Texas ranks as No. 1 most financially distressed state, says new report

Money Woes

Experiencing financial strife is a nightmare of many Americans, but it appears to be a looming reality for Texans, according to a just-released WalletHub study. It names Texas the No. 1 most "financially distressed" state in America.

To determine the states with the most financially distressed residents, WalletHub compared all 50 states across nine metrics in six major categories, such as average credit scores, the share of people with "accounts in distress" (meaning an account that's in forbearance or has deferred payments), the one-year change in bankruptcy filings from March 2024, and search interest indexes for "debt" and "loans."

Joining Texas among the top five most distressed states are Florida (No. 2), Louisiana (No. 3), Nevada (No. 4), and South Carolina (No. 5).

Texas' new ranking as the most financially distressed state in 2025 may be unexpected, WalletHub says, considering the state has a "bigger GDP than most countries" and still has one of the top 10 best economies in the nation (even though that ranking is also lower than it was in previous years).

Even so, Texas residents are stretching themselves very thin financially this year. Texans had the ninth lowest average credit scores nationwide during the first quarter of 2025, the study found, and Texans had the sixth-highest increase in non-business-related bankruptcy filings over the last year, toppling 22 percent.

"Texas also had the third-highest number of accounts in forbearance or with deferred payments per person, and the seventh-highest share of people with these distressed accounts, at 7.1 percent," the report said.

This is where Texas ranked across the study's six key dimensions, where No. 1 means "most distressed:"

  • No. 5 – "Loans" search interest index rank
  • No. 6 – Change in bankruptcy filings from March 2024 to March 2025 rank
  • No. 7 – Average number of accounts in distress rank
  • No. 8 – People with accounts in distress rank
  • No. 13 – Credit score rank and “debt” search interest index rank
Examining these financial factors on the state level is important for understanding how Americans are faring with economic issues like inflation, unemployment rates, or natural disasters, according to WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo.


"When you combine data about people delaying payments with other metrics like bankruptcy filings and credit score changes, it paints a good picture of the overall economic trends of a state," Lupo said.

On the other side of the spectrum, states like Hawaii (No. 50), Vermont (No. 49), and Alaska (No. 48) are the least financially distressed states in America.

The top 10 states with the most people in financial distress in 2025 are:

  • No. 1 – Texas
  • No. 2 – Florida
  • No. 3 – Louisiana
  • No. 4 – Nevada
  • No. 5 – South Carolina
  • No. 6 – Oklahoma
  • No. 7 – North Carolina
  • No. 8 – Mississippi
  • No. 9 – Kentucky
  • No. 10 – Alabama
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A version of this article originally appeared on CultureMap.com.

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