3 Houston innovators to know this week

who's who

This week's roundup of Houston innovators includes Dr. Evan Collins of Houston Methodist, Margarita Kelrikh of Pillsbury, and Howard Berman of Coya Therapeutics. Photos courtesy

Editor's note: Every week, I introduce you to a handful of Houston innovators to know recently making headlines with news of innovative technology, investment activity, and more. This week's batch includes a new innovator in residency, a Houston startup lawyer, and a neurodegenerative therapeutics CEO.

Evan Collins, innovator in residency at Houston Methodist

Dr. Evan Collins, an orthopedic surgeon and chief of the Houston Methodist Hand & Upper Extremity Center, was named the hospital's first innovator in residency. Photo via drevancollins.com

Dr. Evan Collins, an orthopedic surgeon and chief of the Houston Methodist Hand & Upper Extremity Center, is the inaugural innovator in residency at Houston Methodist Center for Innovation.

What does an innovator-in-residency do? Collins sat down with InnovationMap to explain. His role, he explains, is to encourage other clinicians to get involved in the innovation process, particularly using digital health care programs.

“When you look at all the technology, especially the digital technology that's being applied [in medicine], and the future of digital technology, whether you define it as AI or other variations, having a clinical perspective to vet a lot of these possible solutions, as opposed to just keeping it on the administrative side of things, has greater value,” he says. Read more.

Margarita Kelrikh, counsel at Pillsbury

Margarita Kelrikh joins the Houston Innovators Podcast to discuss her career, legal tips for startups, and why she's dedicated to the Houston startup community. Photo courtesy

After working at WeWork and its upstart competitor for several years, Margarita Kelrikh realized it was time to move back into a law firm where she could help more early stage Houston startup clients. She recently joined Pillsbury's Houston office as counsel.

"I realized I wanted to work with the people who I worked with in the past, and the only way I could do that is if I went back to a law firm," she says, explaining that working in house means you can only have one client: your employer. "It's about having that variety and being able to work with a wide array of people."

Kelrikh shares some of her go-to startup legal advice on this week's episode of the Houston Innovators Podcast, and she emphasizes how ready and willing she is to serve the Houston startup community. Read more.

Howard Berman, CEO and co-founder of Coya Therapeutics

Coya Therapeutics is looking into how a trendy weight loss drug could complement its Alzheimer’s disease treatment. Photo via LinkedIn

Glucagon-like peptide 1, or GLP-1, agonists are all the rage right now thanks to drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Though they’re currently being prescribed for diabetes and weight loss, a Houston company reports that it may have found another use for GLP-1s.

Coya Therapeutics, a publicly traded clinical-stage biotechnology company, has filed intellectual property protection for a combination of its proprietary COYA 301 and GLP-1. Coya’s team believes that combining COYA 301, a low-dose interleukin-2 (IL-2) intended to enhance the anti-inflammatory function of regulatory T cells (Tregs), with GLP-1 could be a game-changer in the fight against Alzheimer’s disease.

According to Coya’s CEO, Howard Berman, “We believe that combination immunotherapy approaches will evolve to play a meaningful role in treating complex immune-based diseases that are driven by a host of pathophysiologic mechanisms.” Read more.

Margarita Kelrikh, counsel at Pillsbury, joins the Houston Innovators Podcast to discuss her career, legal tips for startups, and why she's dedicated to the Houston startup community. Photo courtesy

Why this lawyer is dedicated to problem solving for the Houston startup ecosystem

HOUSTON INNOVATORS PODCAST EPISODE 249

Margarita Kelrikh has taken a circuitous route to her new role working with her Houston startup clients at Pillsbury.

She started out her legal career in New York as a debt attorney, transitioned to investment banking then worked in-house at WeWork at its peak, before moving to Houston in 2022 with a mission of representing startups as an emerging companies and venture capital lawyer.

The common thread of her career? Tackling the most challenging problems she can get her hands on.

"I have this instinct — when someone tells me a problem, I say, 'Let me solve that for you,'" Kelrikh, who serves as counsel at Pillsbury, explains on the Houston Innovators Podcast.

After working in house for most of her career, her decision to go back into working at a law firm stemmed from wanting new, fresh, and varied problems for the connections she made and continues to make in the startup ecosystems of New York and now Houston.

"I realized I wanted to work with the people who I worked with in the past, and the only way I could do that is if I went back to a law firm," she says, explaining that working in house means you can only have one client: your employer. "It's about having that variety and being able to work with a wide array of people"

Since moving to Houston, she's dove headfirst into the startup community by going at events and other programming to grow her connections locally. Kelrikh says she doesn't see many EC/VC lawyers showing up like she does.

"What I really want to do at Pillsbury is to really spend time on investing in the Houston startup community," she says, explaining that this includes hosting events and office hours. "Pillsbury is really committed to the Texas and Houston markets."

Kelrikh's client list is industry agnostic, and says she usually looks for founders who have started their businesses, maybe reached some product-market fit, and is gearing up to raise their first round of funding. But there are some instances when she'll take promising, high-growth potential companies at incorporation stage.

"Some companies don't need to hire a lawyer — they just need someone to point them in the right direction," she says, adding that even if a company isn't ready to hire Pillsbury yet, the firm has a lot of free and useful resources on its platform, Pillsbury Propel.

In the same vein, Kelrikh shares some of her go-to startup legal advice on the podcast, and she emphasizes how ready and willing she is to serve the Houston startup community.

"What I like about Houston as a startup ecosystem is it's a startup itself, and that's my absolute sweet spot," she says. "For anybody who wants to be involved, not only is there an opportunity to participate, but there's an opportunity to take a really active role to build it."

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Houston space co. secures $4.8B NASA contract to provide communications, navigation services

near space exploration

Houston-based space exploration, infrastructure, and services company Intuitive Machines has snagged a deal with NASA that could be worth more than $4 billion.

Under the contract, Intuitive Machines (Nasdaq: LUNR, LUNRW) will supply communication and navigation services for missions in the “near space” region, which extends from the earth’s surface to beyond the moon.

The five-year deal includes an option to add five years to the contract. In total, the contract could be worth $4.82 billion. The initial round of NASA funding runs from October 2024 through September 2029.

“This contract marks an inflection point in Intuitive Machines’ leadership in space communications and navigation,” Steve Altemus, CEO of Intuitive Machines, says in a news release.

Under the deal, the company will deploy lunar relay satellites and provide communication and navigation services that play a role in NASA’s Artemis campaign to establish a long-term presence on the moon.

A highlight of the contract is the debut of Intuitive Machines’ lunar satellite constellation, a service that the company “believes is a strategic element in its vision to commercialize lunar activities.” The constellation will deliver data and transmission services and enable autonomous operations.

Earlier this month, Intuitive Machines secured its fourth contract with NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services, or CLPS, program. The $116.9 million agreement will task Intuitive Machines with delivering six science and technology payloads, which will include one European Space Agency-led drill suite to the Moon’s South Pole.

Additionally in August, Intuitive Machines signed a deal with Houston-based launch services company SEOPS to offer lunar rideshare services. Under the deal, Intuitive Machines will enable SEOPS to deliver customers' payloads to the surface of the moon, as well as to Lagrange points and geostationary transfer orbits.

Chevron names inaugural cohort of Houston energy innovators

research ready

Anew program from Rice University and Chevron has named its inaugural cohort.

Funded by Chevron, the Chevron Energy Graduate Fellowship will provide $10,000 each to 10 Rice graduate students for the current academic year, which supports research in energy-related fields.

The Rice Sustainability Institute (RSI) hosted the event to introduce the inaugural cohort of the Rice Chevron Energy Graduate Fellowship at the Ralph S. O’Connor Building for Engineering and Science. Director of the RSI and the W. Maurice Ewing Professor in Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences, Carrie Masiello presented each fellow with a certificate during the ceremony.

“This fellowship supports students working on a wide range of topics related to scalable innovations in energy production that will lead to the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions,” Masiello says in a news release. “It’s important that we recognize the importance of intellectual diversity to the kind of problem-solving we have to do as we accomplish the energy transition.”

The work of the students focuses on creating "real-world, scalable solutions to transform the energy landscape,” per the Rice release. Recipients of the fellowship will research solutions to energy challenges that include producing eco-friendly hydrogen alternatives to fossil fuels and recycling lithium-ion batteries.

Some of the fellows' work will focus on renewable fuels and carbon-capture technologies, biological systems to sequester carbon dioxide, and the potential of soil organic carbon sequestration on agricultural land if we remove the additionality constraint. Xi Chen, a doctoral student in materials science and nanoengineering, will use microwave-assisted techniques to recycle lithium-ion batteries sustainably.

Rice President Reginald DesRoches began the event by stressing the importance of collaboration. Ramamoorthy Ramesh, executive vice president for research at Rice, echoed that statement appearing via Zoom to applaud the efforts of doing what is right for the planet and having a partner in Chevron.

“I’m excited to support emerging leaders like you all in this room, who are focused on scalable, innovative solutions because the world needs them,” Chris Powers, vice president of carbon capture, utilization and storage and emerging at Chevron New Energies and a Rice alum, says at the event. “Innovation and collaboration across sectors and borders will be key to unlocking the full potential of lower carbon energies, and it’s groups like you, our newest Chevron Fellows, that can help move the needle when it comes to translating, or evolving, the energy landscape for the future.”

To see a full list of fellows, click here.

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This article originally ran on EnergyCapital.

New AI program powered by Mark Cuban opens applications for Houston students

eyes on ai

The Mark Cuban Foundation is partnering with digital consultant company Perficient’s Houston office to bring a one-of-its-kind, free artificial intelligence camp to high school students in Houston.

Applications, which are open now online, will close September 30.

“With the proliferation of AI, it’s more important than ever to increase AI education – especially among today’s youth,” Bill Davis, senior vice president at Perficient, says in a news release.

The curriculum will focus on the latest developments in the world of AI and Generative AI. The camp — held at Perficient’s Houston office on November 2, 9 and 16 — will provide students with necessary tools and technologies to help inspire a new generation of AI users and professionals. The camp aims to help underserved high school students with a focus on recruiting students of color, first generation college students, girls, and those from lower to moderate income households.

“As AI continues to become an undeniable force in all of our lives, it’s crucial that we open the door to this knowledge, especially to young people who want to explore it,” Cuban says in the release. “While technology expands and becomes more advanced, it becomes more critical that we ensure our students are prepared when they apply for schools or jobs in the future. Thanks to our work with Perficient, the bootcamp will offer an avenue to explore this fascinating field of technology to any student, no matter their means.”

Students can select from six tracks in the course that include healthcare, arts and entertainment, business and entrepreneurship, computer science, sports science, or education and career readiness. The AI Bootcamps are introductory and accessible to students in ninth through 12th grade with an interest in technology without any prior computer science experience. Transportation, resources and food will be provided.

As classes like STEM increase in popularity more programs have been created to help increase interest. More than 233,000 high school students in Texas took Career and Technical Education courses focused on STEM from 2020-2021.

“We’re proud to partner with the Mark Cuban Foundation to educate the next generation of technology leaders, mentoring students in AI, and ensuring the future of STEM,” Davis said in a news release.

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