3 Houston innovators to know this week

who's who

This week's roundup of Houston innovators includes Abbas Rana of BCM, Rebecca C. Vaught of Van Heron Labs, and Patrick Scateni of Hypertec. Photos courtesy

Editor's note: Welcome to another Monday edition of Innovators to Know. Today I'm introducing you to three Houstonians to read up about — three individuals behind recent innovation and startup news stories in Houston as reported by InnovationMap. Learn more about them and their recent news below by clicking on each article.

Abbas Rana, associate professor of surgery at Baylor College of Medicine

The NIH grant goes toward TransplantAI's work developing more precise models for heart and lung transplantation. Photo via BCM

The National Institute of Health has bestowed a Houston medtech company with a $2.2 million Fast-Track to Phase 2 award. InformAI will use the money for the product development and commercialization of its AI-enabled organ transplant informatics platform.

TransplantAI solves that problem, as well as organ scarcity and inefficiency in allocation of the precious resource.

The NIH grant goes toward developing more precise models for heart and lung transplantation (kidney and liver algorithms are further along in development thanks to a previous award from the National Science Foundation), as well as Phase 2 efforts to fully commercialize TransplantAI.

"There is an urgent need for improved and integrated predictive clinical insights in solid organ transplantation, such as for real-time assessment of waitlist mortality and the likelihood of successful post-transplantation outcomes," according to the grant’s lead clinical investigator, Abbas Rana, associate professor of surgery at Baylor College of Medicine. Read more.

Rebecca C. Vaught, founder and CEO of Van Heron Labs

Van Heron Labs, founded at TMC, raised a $1.1 million seed round led by FoodLabs. Photo via LinkedIn

A biotech company that was founded at the Texas Medical Center in Houston has raised fresh funding to support its goal of innovating new technologies for a healthier humanity.

Van Heron Labs, based in Huntsville, Alabama, raised a $1.1 million seed round led by FoodLabs, a European investor and venture studio for food, health, and climate. The startup taps into genomics, bioinformatics, artificial intelligence, and nanotechnology to improve how cells are cultured and harnessed with the mission to address critical industrial and global challenges with biotechnology.

“Van Heron Labs looks forward to using the generous support and funding from FoodLabs to advance our goal of making biological innovation better, faster, and cheaper," Rebecca C. Vaught, founder and CEO of Van Heron Labs, says in a news release. "By fueling the new bio-economy, we feel that our customers can optimize their systems and bring technologies to overcome critical global challenges to market." Read more.

Patrick Scateni, vice president of global sales of Hypertec

The hardware upgrades more than “double the effective horsepower of DUG’s Houston data center.” Photo via LinkedIn

An Australia-based company has launched a major upgrade of its Houston data center with sustainability in mind.

DUG Technology announced it's increased the company’s high performance computing (HPC) capabilities and also reinforced its commitment to sustainable innovative technology. The company announced its latest investment in 1500 new AMD EPYCTM Genoa servers, which has 192 cores and 1.5 terabytes of DDR5 memory each. Quebec-based IT solution company Hypertec provided the immersion-born hardware.

“DUG’s decision highlights the unmatched technological advancements and superior performance of Hypertec immersion-born products, which are setting a new benchmark in the industry,” Hypertec’s Patrick Scateni, vice president of global sales says in a news release. Read more.

Van Heron Labs, founded at TMC, raised a $1.1 million seed round led by FoodLabs. Photo via Getty Images

Houston-founded startup raises $1.1M seed to fuel growth in bioeconomy

fresh funding

A biotech company that was founded at the Texas Medical Center in Houston has raised fresh funding to support its goal of innovating new technologies for a healthier humanity.

Van Heron Labs, which was founded by Vaught, Alec Santiago, and Nithin Parsan in February 2020, originally launched with its cell-focused platform to support COVID-19 pandemic response. The company's cell-based applications also include cancer therapeutics and food and materials production.

“We are excited to lead the funding round in Van Heron Labs, as we firmly believe that their innovative approach to optimizing cellular nutrition has the potential to revolutionize multiple industries, including biopharma, biomanufacturing, foodtech, and agriculture,” Julius Strauss, investor at FoodLabs, says. “We are excited to be partnering with Dr. Rebecca Vaught and her team as they continue to push the boundaries of innovation in the bio-economy.”

The funding will go toward supporting existing and new product lines.

Van Heron Labs' automated flagship platform uses bioinformatics and advanced AI tools to discover the optimal cellular fuel. This information can be used to personalize the customers’ culture media to provide more excellent quality, efficiency, and scalability, per the company.

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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.

Digital Health Institute's new exec director aims to lead innovation and commercialization efforts

new hire

Though our existences have become deeply entangled with technology, our health has been slower to catch up. The creation late last year of the Digital Health Institute was a major step into the future for both Rice University and Houston Methodist, for whom the institute is a joint venture.

The latest news for the Digital Health Institute is the appointment of Pothik Chatterjee to the role of executive director.

“The Digital Health Institute’s collaborative model is uniquely powerful,” Chatterjee told Rice University’s office of media relations. “By bringing together clinicians, engineers and entrepreneurs, we’re building an ecosystem designed to transform how care is delivered and experienced.”

Chatterjee’s role is to help grow the collaboration between the institutions, but the Digital Health Institute already boasts more than 20 active projects, each of which pairs Rice faculty and Methodist clinicians.

“Research is great, but what we really want at the Digital Health Institute is to translate those research findings into products and services that can be used at the patient's bedside,” Chatterjee explained to InnovationMap.

Once the research is in place, it’s up to Chatterjee to find commercial opportunities within the research portfolio. Those include everything from hospital-grade medical imaging wearables to the creation of digital twins for patients to help better treat them.

“As we move from vision to execution, Pothik’s expertise will be essential in helping us strengthen the institutional alignment needed to deliver at scale,” Dr. Khurram Nasir, Methodist’s William A. Zoghbi Centennial Chair in Cardiovascular Medicine and division chief of cardiovascular prevention and wellness, told Rice. “From my vantage point of a health system, the real value lies not just in innovation, but in implementation.”

Nasir’s co-founder is Ashutosh Sabharwal, Rice’s Ernest Dell Butcher Professor of Engineering and professor of electrical and computer engineering.

“The Digital Health Institute is a key step toward advancing health and health care for the benefit of humanity,” Sabharwal said. “We’re thrilled to welcome Pothik to our growing team. His background in health care innovation, research administration and venture investing will be instrumental in translating cutting-edge research into impactful digital health solutions. From leading innovation strategy and forging strong partnerships to driving fundraising and grant development, his leadership will help shape the institute’s long-term success.”

Though Chatterjee has previously worked around the country, including in Boston and Baltimore, he says he believes Houston is uniquely positioned to thrive in the digital health space.

“Houston is the best place to do it, because we have Rice and Houston Methodist,” he told InnovationMap. “[People] want to help keep that innovation in Houston, not just send it off to Silicon Valley or New York or Boston. There seems to be a lot of appetite from the philanthropic community to have homegrown Houston digital health innovation.”

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