Rice Business Plan Competition awards $1.4M to 2026 student teams

winner, winners

Here's who won big at the annual Rice Business Plan Competition. Photo courtesy Rice Alliance

Editor's note: This article has been updated to correct the total amount of investment and cash prizes awarded at the RBPC and with additional information from Rice.

Another team from the Great Lakes State took home top honors and investments at this year's Rice Business Plan Competition.

BRCĒ, a material-tech startup from Michigan State University, took home the top-place finish and the largest investment total at the annual Houston event. It has developed Lattice-Grip technology to create utility-based polymers that can replace traditional fabric. The materials are stronger, fire-resistant and more stable than traditional textiles, according to the company. Last year, the University of Michigan's Intero Biosystems won first-place finish and the largest investment total of $902,000.

In total, the RBPC doled out more than $1.4 million in investment and cash prizes, according to Rice. Over the three-day event, held April 9-11, the 42 competing startups presented their business plans to 300 angel, venture capital and corporate investors. Seven finalists were selected.

Three Texas teams, including one from Houston, were named among the finalists. Here's who won big this year, with their investment totals and some of their awards listed below.

BRCĒ, Michigan State University — $611,500

The recent Shark Tank alum finished in first place for its utility-based polymers technology.

  • $200,000 Goose Capital Investment Grand Prize
  • $100,000 The OWL Investment Prize
  • $100,000 Houston Angel Network Investment Prize
  • $75,000 The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) Texas Angels Investment Prize
  • $50,000 nCourage Investment Network’s Courageous Women Entrepreneur Investment Prize
  • $25,000 New Climate Ventures Sustainable Investment Prize
  • $20,000 Aramco Innovator Cash Prize
  • $1,000 Anbarci Family Company Showcase Prize
  • $500 Mercury Fund Elevator Pitch Competition Prize – Consumer Hard Tech

Legion Platforms, Arizona State University — $535,500

The startup won second place for its multiplayer gaming platform that can be accessed with slow internet speeds.

  • $100,000 Anderson Family Fund & Finger Interests Second Place Investment Prize
  • $200,000 Goose Capital Investment Prize
  • $100,000 The OWL Investment Prize
  • $25,000 Pearland EDC Spirit of Entrepreneurship Cash Prize
  • $500 Mercury Fund Elevator Pitch Competition Prize – Consumer

Imagine Devices, University of Texas at Austin — $111,000

The pediatric medical device company won third place for its multifunction neonatal feeding tube, known as Trinity Tube

  • $50,000 Anderson Family Fund & Finger Interests Third Place Investment Prize
  • $25,000 Pearland EDC Spirit of Entrepreneurship Cash Prize
  • $25,000 The Eagle Investors Investment Prize
  • $1,000 Anbarci Family Company Showcase Prize

Altaris MedTech, University of Arkansas – $16,000

The startup won fourth place for its pain-free strep test.

  • $5,000 Norton Rose Fulbright Fourth Place Prize
  • $1,000 Mercury Fund Elevator Pitch Competition Prize — Overall Winner

Routora, University of Notre Dame & University of Texas at Austin – $15,500

The team won fifth place for its route optimization app that works to reduce fuel costs, travel time and carbon emissions

  • $5,000 Chevron Fifth Place Prize
  • $500 Mercury Fund Elevator Pitch Competition Prizes — Digital

DialySafe, Rice University — $15,500

The startup won sixth place for its technology that aims to make at-home peritoneal dialysis simpler and safer.

  • $5,000 ExxonMobil Sixth Place Prize
  • $500 Mercury Fund Elevator Pitch Competition Prizes — Life Science

Arrow Analytics, Texas A&M University – $16,000

The startup won seventh place for its AI-powered sizing system for carry-on baggage.

  • $5,000 Shell Ventures Seventh Place Prize
  • $1,000 Anbarci Family Company Showcase Prizes


Other significant prizes included:

BiliRoo, University of Michigan – $26,000

  • $25,000 Southwest National Pediatric Device Consortium Pediatric Device Cash Prize
  • $1,000 Anbarci Family Company Showcase Prizes

BeamFeed, City University of New York – $25,000

  • $25,000 Amentum and WRX Companies Rising Stars Space Technology and Commercial Aerospace Cash Prize

Grapheon, University of Pittsburgh — $20,000

  • $20,000 Aramco Innovator Cash Prize

A total of $75,000 in in-kind legal services was awarded to all finalists. The grand prize winner, BRCĒ, also received a chief financial officer consulting prize worth $40,000. Each competing startup received at least $950 in prizes for placement in the competition.

“The Rice Business Plan Competition has grown into far more than a competition—it’s a proving ground for founders and a catalyst for real company formation, as well as a catalyst for building the Houston entrepreneurial ecosystem,” Brad Burke, associate vice president of Rice Innovation and executive director of Rice Alliance, said in a news release. This year's event was Burke’s final RBPC after nearly 25 years of leadership.

Last year, the Rice Business Plan Competition facilitated over $2 million in investment and cash prizes. According to Rice, more than 910 startups have raised more than $6.9 billion in capital through the competition over the last 25 years.

See a full list of this year's winners and stream rounds from the competition here.

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These 42 student startups will compete in the 2026 Rice Business Plan Competition. Photo courtesy Rice University.

Rice Business Plan Competition names startup teams for 2026 event

ready, set, pitch

The Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship has announced the 42 student-led teams that will compete in the 26th annual Rice Business Plan Competition this spring.

The highly competitive event, known as one of the world’s largest and richest intercollegiate student startup challenges, will take place April 9-11 on Rice's campus and at the Ion. Teams in this year's competition represent 39 universities from four countries, including one team from Rice and two from the University of Texas at Austin.

Graduate student-led teams from colleges or universities around the world will present their plans before more than 300 angel, venture capital and corporate investors to compete for more than $1 million in prizes. Top teams were awarded $2 million in investment and cash prizes at the 2025 event.

The 2026 invitees include:

  • Alchemll, University of Tennessee - Knoxville
  • Altaris MedTech, University of Arkansas
  • Armada Therapeutics, Dartmouth College
  • Arrow Analytics, Texas A&M University
  • Aura Life Science, Northwestern University
  • BeamFeed, City University of New York
  • BiliRoo, University of Michigan
  • BioLegacy, Seattle University
  • BlueHealer, Johns Hopkins University
  • BRCĒ, Michigan State University
  • ChargeBay, University of Miami
  • Cocoa Potash, Case Western Reserve
  • Cosnetix, Yale University
  • Cottage Core, Kent State University
  • Crack'd Up, University of Wisconsin - Madison
  • Curbon, Princeton University
  • DialySafe, Rice University
  • Foregger Energy Systems, Babson College
  • Forge, University of California, Berkeley
  • Grapheon, University of Pittsburgh
  • GUIDEAIR Labs, University of Washington
  • Hydrastack, University of Chicago
  • Imagine Devices, University of Texas at Austin
  • Innowind Energy Solutions, University of Waterloo (Canada)
  • JanuTech, University of Washington
  • Laetech, University of Toronto (Canada)
  • Lectra Technologies, MIT
  • Legion Platforms, Arizona State University
  • Lucy, University of Pennsylvania
  • NerView Surgical, McMaster University (Canada)
  • Panoptica Technologies, Georgia Tech University
  • PowerHouse, MIT
  • Quantum Power Systems, University of Texas at Austin
  • Routora, University of Notre Dame
  • Sentivity.ai, Virginia Tech
  • Shinra Energy, Harvard University
  • Solid Air Dynamics, RWTH Aachen (Germany)
  • Spine Biotics, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill
  • The Good Company, Michigan Tech
  • UNCHAIN, Lehigh University
  • VivoFlux, University of Rochester
  • Vocadian, University of Oxford (UK)

This year's group joins more than 910 RBPC alums that have raised more than $6.9 billion in capital, according to Rice.

The University of Michigan's Intero Biosystems, which is developing the first stem cell-driven human “mini gut,” took home the largest investment sum of $902,000 last year. The company also claimed the first-place prize.

The University of Michigan's Intero Biosystems was the star of the show at the 2025 Rice Business Plan Competition, bringing home both the top-place finish and the largest total investment. Photo courtesy Rice University.

Rice Business Plan Competition doles out $2M to 2025 student teams

big winners

Celebrating its 25th year, the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship hosted the celebrated Rice Business Plan Competition this month, doling out more than $2 million in investment and cash prizes to the top-performing teams.

“For 25 years, the Rice Business Plan Competition has helped shape how Rice Business shows up in the world by creating a platform where student-entrepreneurs can tackle some of the most complex challenges of our time in energy, in health care, in technology and beyond,” Peter Rodriguez, dean of Rice Business, the presenting sponsor of the event, said in a news release. “If we’re serious about changing the world — and I believe we are — then it’s our responsibility to open doors for students everywhere to imagine bold solutions and build what comes next.”

Over the course of the three-day event, the 42 startups competing this year from colleges or universities around the world presented their plans before more than 300 angel, venture capital, and corporate investors. The teams were selected from the event’s largest applicant pool to date and represented 34 universities across four countries, according to Rice. Winners were announced at the company showcase and awards ceremony April 12 in downtown Houston.

Seven finalists were selected, though each team left the competition with some form of funding, according to Rice. The University of Michigan's Intero Biosystems was the star of the show, bringing home both the top-place finish and the largest total investment. Rice's own Pattern Materials also had a strong showing, placing fourth in the pitch competition and also earning the fourth-highest investment total.

Here are the teams that won big in 2025. See a full list of winners and prizes here.

Intero Biosystems, University of Michigan - $902,000

The team finished in first place for its GastroScreen, the first stem cell-driven human “mini gut” that is ideal for organ function testing before testing on humans, and also claimed the largest total investments among the competition.

  • $150,000 Goose Capital Investment Grand Prize
  • $250,000 Goose Capital Investment Prize
  • $200,000 The OWL Investment Prize
  • $100,000 Houston Angel Network Investment Prize
  • $100,000 nCourage Investment Network’s Courageous Women Entrepreneur Investment Prize
  • $100,000 Investment Prize from Nancy Chang
  • $1,000 Mercury Elevator Pitch Competition - Overall Winner
  • $1,000 Anbarci Family Company Showcase Prize
  • TMC Innovation Healthcare Accelerator Bootcamp Invitation Prize

MabLab, Harvard University – $301,500

The team placed second for its rapid test capable of detecting multiple adulterants in laced drugs and spiked drinks.

  • $100,000 Investment Prize, sponsored by David Anderson, Anderson Family Fund, Jon Finger and Finger Interests
  • $100,000 The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) Texas Angels Investment Prize
  • $25,000 nCourage Investment Network’s Courageous Women Entrepreneur Investment Prize
  • $50,000 Valhalla Investment Network Investment Prize
  • $25,000 The Eagles Investor Investment Prize
  • $500 Mercury Elevator Pitch Competition - Life Science*
  • $1,000 Anbarci Family Company Showcase Prize

re.solution, RWTH Aachen University — $76,500

The team placed third for its water-based technology that recycles polyesters without generating salt waste, making textile recycling viable.

  • $50,000 Investment Prize, sponsored by David Anderson, Anderson Family Fund, Jon Finger and Finger Interests
  • $25,000 Pearland EDC Spirit of Entrepreneurship Cash Prize
  • $500 Mercury Elevator Pitch Competition - Energy/Cleantech
  • $1,000 Anbarci Family Company Showcase Prize

Pattern Materials, Rice University – $134,500

The Houston-based team placed fourth for its laser-induced graphene technology that can be rapidly performed, enabling low-cost, scalable production of the material.

  • $5,000 prize, sponsored by Norton Rose Fulbright
  • $50,000 Valhalla Investment Network Investment Prize
  • $25,000 Pearland EDC Spirit of Entrepreneurship Cash Prize
  • $25,000 New Climate Ventures Sustainable Investment Prize
  • $25,000 Amentum and WRX Companies Rising Stars Space Technology and Commercial Aerospace Cash Prize
  • $500 Mercury Elevator Pitch Competition - Hard Tech
  • $1,000 Anbarci Family Company Showcase Prize
  • $3,000 Venture Builder Innovation Prizes

Xatoms, Western University and University of Toronto — $30,000

The team placed fifth for its AI- and quantum-driven platform for discovering solar-activated semiconductor materials.

  • $5,000 prize, sponsored by EY
  • $25,000 nCourage Investment Network’s Courageous Women Entrepreneur Investment Prize

Mito Robotics, Carnegie Mellon University— $5,000

The team placed sixth for its automated manual cell culture with AI-powered robotic scientists for life science research

  • $5,000 prize, sponsored by Chevron Technology Ventures

FarmSmart.ai, LSU – $106,000

The team placed seventh for its AI—driven assistant that synthesizes vast agricultural research into actionable, tailored intelligence, but earned the fifth-most investments among the group.

  • $5,000 prize, sponsored by Shell Ventures
  • $100,000 The OWL Investment Prize
  • $1,000 Anbarci Family Company Showcase Prize
  • Edward H. Molter Memorial Prizes for Wildcard Round - 1st place - Advance to Finals


Other significant awards

GreenLIB Materials, University of Ottawa – $152,000

  • $150,000 Goose Capital Investment Prize
  • $2,000 Venture Builder Innovation Prizes

Microvitality, Tufts University – $26,500

  • $25,000 Southwest National Pediatric Device Consortium Pediatric Device Cash Prize
  • $1,500 Edward H. Molter Memorial Prizes for Wildcard Round - 3rd place overall in WC

Nanoborne, University of Texas at Austin - $25,000

  • $25,000 NOV Golden Ticket to Supernova Accelerator and Cash Prize

Last year, the Rice Business Plan Competition facilitated over $1.5 million in investment and cash prizes. MesaQuantum from Harvard University landed the highest total investment last year, although it was not named a finalist. Protein Pints from Michigan State University won the pitch competition.

According to Rice, 910 startups have raised more than $6.9 billion in capital through the competition over the last 25 years.

The winners of the hackathon included a contact tracing tool for schools, a soap dispenser to promote handwashing, a virus-killing filter, and more. Photo via Rice University Public Relations

College students design COVID-19 innovations at Rice University competition

coronavirus creations

As fall creeps closer, the need for a safe way to reopen schools becomes more and more dire. A team of Rice University students created a software that might help on that front.

SchoolTrace, a software that uses the schedules of students and faculty for COVID-19 contact tracing in schools, won top honors in the 2020 Rice Design-A-Thon, which took place July 17 to 19 online this year due to the pandemic. The hackathon was planned to be held in person during the fall semester, but organizers moved up the date to focus on coronavirus solutions. Twenty-three teams — comprised of 116 undergraduate competitors — participated.

"We wanted to provide students with a meaningful summer opportunity and the potential for a significant public health impact," says Carrigan Hudgins, a Sid Richardson College senior and co-coordinator, in a news release. "At one point, we considered cancelling, but hosting it virtually instead actually allowed us to reach a broader base of students across Texas and out of state."

SchoolTrace and its contact tracing tech that doesn't raise privacy concerns with tracking sensors or mobile phone apps took the $1,000 first price. Justin Cheung, Nick Glaze, Mit Mehta, Tyler Montague and Huzaifah Shamim — all juniors majoring in electrical and computer engineering — also received $500 for excelling in the digital age of health care track.

The teams that came in second and third place received $800 and $600, respectively, and the winners of each of the three design tracks also scored $500. The prizes were sponsored by Rice's George R. Brown School of Engineering, Rice's student chapter of the Biomedical Engineering Society and the Southwest National Pediatric Device Innovation Consortium.

Aside from the cash prizes, the students also received valuable guidances and feedback from industry experts.

"Having the judges and our team vouch for the actual solution, when we can propose it to different competitions and incubators around Texas and the country, is more important than the cash prizes," says co-coordinator Franklin Briones, a Brown College senior who competed in previous design-a-thons at Rice. Briones and Hudgins co-coordinated this year's event with Wiess College senior Eric Torres.

Here were the other award-winning innovations to come out of the program:

  • Second place and pediatric track winner — "Team SARS Wars: A New Hope." The team created a soap dispenser attachment that plays music and rewards children with stickers if they wash their hands for 20 seconds. Team members included: Anyssa Castorina, Aman Eujayl, Diego Lopez-Bernal, Janet Lu, Rubén Sebastián Marroquín, and Belén Szentes, all sophomores from Rice.
  • Third place — "The (d^3x/dt^3)(s)." COV-COM is a wall-mounted filtration system that catches and kills COVID-19 created by a team of juniors and seniors from the University of Texas at San Antonio. Team members included: Olivia Garza, Juan Herrera, Frida Montoya, Aishwarya Sathish, Samantha Strahan, and Morgan Struthers.
  • Global health track winner — "The Duncaroo Designers." The team from Rice created affordable desk partitions that could be used in schools with limited funds. Team members included: senior Rachel Bui and sophomores Jacob Duplantis, Charlie Gorton, Andrei Mitrofan, Anh Nguyen, and Vivian Wong.

Each of the teams were tasked Friday (July 17) evening with the prompt to "design and present a solution (either a product or a method) to address the treatment, prevention or non-medical related needs of the COVID-19 pandemic." Final presentations took place final presentations Sunday afternoon.

"The needs-finding for those problems was the most cumbersome part," Briones says in the release. "Not because it's hard to find problems, but because COVID-19 is so continually changing. It was hard to find which problem was the most important one."

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Houston college joins inaugural workforce accelerator supported by Google

hands-on training

Houston City College (HCC) is one of 15 community colleges from around the country to be selected for the first-ever Workforce Futures Accelerator.

The three-year effort is supported by Google.org, the tech company’s philanthropic arm, and led by the Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT), a non-profit educational organization that represents over 500 community, junior, and technical colleges. The accelerator focuses on helping colleges embed virtual, employer-sponsored training opportunities into short-term workforce training programs, giving participants access to opportunities that they might otherwise receive through internships or other "work-based learning" stints.

"The Workforce Futures Accelerator reflects the Houston City College mission of offering a high-quality, affordable education for workforce training and career development," Pretta VanDible Stallworth, HCC trustee and chair-elect of the ACCT board of directors, said in a news release. "Advancing student success and creating pathways to opportunities ensures that our students are well equipped to succeed and build a secure future in today's economy.”

Through the accelerator, HCC is tasked with fusing online project-based learning opportunities with its workforce education programs. The idea is to give students hands-on experiences working on projects sponsored by employers, allowing them to gain real-world knowledge in the process.

HCC will select two workforce programs that meet the accelerator’s criteria and insert into them into coursework. In the second and third year of the accelerator, the selected colleges are expected to scale the programs by adding instructors and programs to develop a network of to support their continued implementation.

“Participation by HCC will strengthen how we provide students with career-connected learning experiences that complement their classroom education and align with the needs of employers,” HCC Chancellor Margaret Ford Fisher added in the news release. “We are focused on ‘future forward’ strategies to meet the present and future needs of our region’s businesses.”

Two other Texas colleges were chosen to participate in the accelerator: Lamar Institute of Technology in Beaumont and Grayson College in Denison.

The remaining cohort includes:

  • Bergen Community College in Paramus, New Jersey
  • Central Louisiana Community College in Alexandria, Louisiana
  • Clark State College in Springfield, Ohio
  • Great Basin College in Elko, Nevada
  • Heartland Community College in Normal, Illinois
  • Hudson County Community College in Jersey City, New Jersey
  • Manchester Community College in Manchester, New Hampshire
  • Mesa Community College in Mesa, Arizona
  • Mohave College in Kingman, Arizona
  • San Joaquin Delta Community College in Stockton, California
  • San Juan College in Farmington, New Mexico
  • West Virginia University Parkersburg in Parkersburg, West Virginia

New report ranks Texas among top 10 states where AI could disrupt jobs

AI Workforce

A new nationwide report examining where AI could "reshape" the most jobs has ranked Texas No. 9 among the most at-risk states for AI job disruption.

The new SmartAsset report compared all 50 states and the District of Columbia to calculate the estimated percent of the workforce employed in the 26 occupations with the highest AI exposure, as determined by June 2026 research by the Virginia Economic Information and Analytics Division.

The findings revealed that 500,000 Texas workers, or 3.55 percent of the total workforce, are employed in occupations with "high exposure to potential AI disruption."

This also places the Lone Star State as the 9th most at-risk state in the U.S. where AI exposure can lead to "declining hiring demand, wage pressure, task automation, and other forms of disruption."

"States with larger concentrations of highly exposed occupations could experience more pronounced labor-market changes, particularly in roles where core tasks are more vulnerable to AI-driven restructuring," the report's author wrote.

Texas' biggest cities, like Houston and Austin, are known for their thriving tech and business industries, and the study noted that many of the occupations within those sectors are the most at risk. The Virginia Economic Information and Analytics Division said the top five most AI-exposed occupations in the U.S. are: mathematicians, proofreaders, correspondence clerks, court reporters, and media and communication workers. Additionally, computer programmers, database administrators, web developers, telephone operators, and communications equipment operators round out the top 10 most at-risk positions.

These are the 16 remaining occupations most exposed to AI disruption, in order:

  • Data Entry Keyers
  • Statistical Assistants
  • Office Support Workers
  • Interpreters and Translators
  • Database Architects
  • Software Quality Assurance Analysts
  • Medical Transcriptionists
  • Software Developers
  • Writers and Authors
  • Payroll Clerks
  • Web Designers
  • Miscellaneous Computer Occupations
  • Insurance Claims Processors
  • Telemarketers
  • Computer Numerically Controlled Tool Programmers
  • Bookkeeping and Accounting Clerks

A separate SmartAsset report from April 2026 found about 20.5 percent of Texas workers use AI to do their jobs in some capacity. That trend will continue to shift further as employers and employees choose to adopt — or reject — AI implementation.

Across the U.S., Washington topped the list as the state with the highest concentration of AI-exposed jobs, with nearly 5.7 percent of the state's workforce employed in the 26 most at-risk positions. SmartAsset said Washington's high prevalence of technology companies is a significant factor that skyrocketed the state to the top of the list.

"Home to major technology companies including Microsoft, Amazon, T-Mobile and Expedia, the state has large numbers of computer programmers and software developers, two occupations with high exposure," the report said.

Meanwhile, Mississippi ranked No. 51 with the lowest concentration of AI-exposed jobs in the nation. About 22,500 workers in Mississippi, or 1.93 percent of its workforce, are at risk for AI disruption.

The top 10 states where AI could reshape the most jobs are:

  • No. 1 – Washington
  • No. 2 – Virginia
  • No. 3 – District of Columbia
  • No. 4 – California
  • No. 5 – Utah
  • No. 6 – Maryland
  • No. 7 – Colorado
  • No. 8 – New Hampshire
  • No. 9 – Texas
  • No. 10 – North Carolina
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This article originally appeared on CultureMap.com.

UH lands $1.2M NIH grant to fight superbugs using AI, quantum sensing

drug defense

The fight against antibiotic-resistant bacteria like MRSA is getting science fiction-like upgrades at the University of Houston thanks to a new four-year, $1.26 million grant from the National Institutes of Health.

The university says the recent funding brings total federal support up to $3.5 million for 11 years for the project, which uses AI and quantum-sensing technology to better understand how bacterial proteins develop resistance to drugs.

Any medical professional will tell you that one of the worst things that can happen is almost killing an infection. Bacteria that survive attacks from conventional antibiotic treatments emerge tougher, more resistant and more aggressive than before–making them much harder to treat. A good example is the superbug methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).

UH chemistry professors Yuhong Wang and Shoujun Xu are working on this issue. They know full well that fighting superbugs requires new technology and new approaches, which is what they aim to pioneer with their new grant.

“Drug-resistant bacterial infections such as MRSA are becoming harder to treat, creating an urgent need for faster ways to understand how antibiotics and other small molecules interact with bacterial proteins,” Wang said in a news release.

Wang and Xu’s work centers around GTP, a cellular fuel that can cause tiny changes to a cell's structure when it mutates. Sometimes, those shape changes make it easier for drugs to breach the wall and attack the cells.

The UH scientists are employing AlphaFold, an AI-powered tool that can scan large molecular libraries in seconds. From these models, they can see promising drug combinations for future testing.

Once identified, the team uses their invention, super-resolution force spectroscopy, to monitor the cells. Tiny magnetic beads are attached to genetic material, then magnified to see how strong that material is when pulled. They can measure this incredible microscopic process through an atomic magnetometer, typically used in quantum physics. Combined, all these tools allow a high-definition look at how each molecule might respond to new chemical approaches.

“We're the only chemists in the world that use an atomic magnetometer for biological research,” Xu said. “It's a technique developed by physicists, and there is usually a gap between techniques developed by physicists and biological applications. Yuhong and I have been bridging that gap together for the past 10 years.”

Eventually, Wang and Xu hope to develop powerful software that can be used by drug manufacturers to model cellular responses. With enough predictive data, the software could even get ahead of superbugs’ own mutation, allowing drugs to be developed before new strains arrive.

"We want an algorithm where you input a protein sequence, score the mutation hotspots, and develop new inhibitors before a drug-resistant species even emerges," Wang added.

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