The new Rice Synthetic Biology Institute is part of an $82 million investment the university put toward synthetic biology, neuroengineering, and physical biology in 2018. Photo via Rice.edu

Rice University announced this month that it has officially launched the new Rice Synthetic Biology Institute.

The institute aims to strengthen the synthetic biology community across disciplines at the university, according to an announcement from Rice. It is part of an $82 million investment the university put toward synthetic biology, neuroengineering, and physical biology in 2018.

RSBI will be led by Caroline Ajo-Franklin, professor of biosciences, bioengineering, and chemical and biomolecular engineering, with support from a faculty steering committee.

Caroline Ajo-Franklin, professor of biosciences, bioengineering, and chemical and biomolecular engineering, will lead the new institute. Photo via Rice.edu

“At Rice, we have such deep expertise in synthetic biology,” Ajo-Franklin said in the announcement. “Connecting that deep expertise through this institute will lead to better science and more innovation.”

Synthetic biology is a discipline in which "researchers design living systems with new properties to address societal needs," according to Rice, with applications in medicine, manufacturing and environmental sustainability.

The university says that there are currently 18 faculty and more than 100 students and postdoctoral scholars at Rice working in this field within the schools of engineering and natural sciences.

The institute will initially focus on four research themes:

  1. Controlling the biological synthesis and patterning of proteins and cells into living materials that self-replicate and self-repair across a range of length scales
  2. Understanding cells as natural sensors and repurposing them into living therapeutics to detect and treat diseases, maintain health and prevent infections
  3. Developing living electronics to convert biochemical information into information-dense electronic signals in real-time at the cell-material interface
  4. Supporting cross-cutting scholarship aimed at accelerating the Design-Build-Test-Learn cycle and understanding the ethical, legal and social implications of translating these technologies into the public domain.

“Rice University is an amazing place to learn, teach, research and innovate,” Ramamoorthy Ramesh, executive vice president for research, added. “The Rice Synthetic Biology Institute will ensure that our researchers are recognized on the international stage for the life-changing work they are doing in Houston and around the world.”

Last year, Rice also launched the new Center for Human Performance with Houston Methodist inside Rice’s Tudor Fieldhouse. The interdisciplinary space aims to advance the study of exercise physiology, injury prevention, and rehabilitation while serving Rice student-athletes.

The university also unveiled another massive, collaborative space this academic year: The 250,000-square-foot Ralph S. O’Connor Building for Engineering and Science. Click here to read more about the state-of-the-art building.

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Houston space tech startups share latest updates on lunar missions and more

space update

Houston-based space tech companies Axiom Space and Intuitive Machines recently shared updates on innovative projects and missions, each set to launch by 2027.

Axiom Space

Axiom Space, developer of the world’s first commercial space station and other space infrastructure, is gearing up to launch two orbital data center nodes to low-earth orbit by the end of 2025.

The Axiom Space nodes will lay the foundation for space-based cloud computing. Axiom says orbital data centers provide cloud-enabled data storage and processing, artificial intelligence, and machine learning directly to satellites, constellations, and other spacecraft in Earth’s orbit. This innovation will reduce reliance on earth-based systems, enhance wireless mesh networks and improve real-time operation of space-borne assets, according to Axiom.

Axiom has been working on the development of orbital data centers since 2022. The two nodes going into space in 2025 will be part of Kepler Communications’ 10-satellite data relay network, which is scheduled to launch by the end of this year. Axiom Space and Kepler Communications have been collaborating since 2023.

Kam Ghaffarian, co-founder, executive chairman, and CEO of Axiom, says his company already has deals in place with buyers of space-based cloud computing services. Orbital data centers “are integral to Axiom Space’s vision of era-defining space infrastructure, unlocking transformational capabilities and economic growth,” he says.

Axiom Space says it will be able to buy additional payloads on Kepler’s network to boost capacity for orbital data centers. The two companies will team up to provide network and orbital data center services to various customers.

Intuitive Machines

Meanwhile, Intuitive Machines, a space exploration, infrastructure and services company, has picked SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket to launch its fourth delivery mission to the moon. The launch will include two lunar data relay satellites for NASA.

Intuitive Machines says its fourth lunar delivery mission is scheduled for 2027. The mission will comprise six NASA commercial lunar payloads, including a European Space Agency drill set designed to search for water at the moon’s south pole.

“Lunar surface delivery and data relay satellites are central to our strategy to commercialize the moon,” Intuitive Machines CEO Steve Altemus says.

The first of five lunar data relay satellites will be included in the company’s third delivery mission to the moon. The fourth mission, featuring two more satellites, will be followed by two other satellite-delivery missions.

Houston doctor aims to revolutionize hearing aid industry with tiny implant

small but mighty

“What is the future of hearing aids?” That’s the question that led to a potential revolution.

“The current hearing aid market and technology is old, and there are little incremental improvements, but really no significant, radical new ideas, and I like to challenge the status quo,” says Dr. Ron Moses, an ENT specialist and surgeon at Houston Methodist.

Moses is the creator of NanoEar, which he calls “the world’s smallest hearing aid.” NanoEar is an implantable device that combines the invisibility of a micro-sized tympanostomy tube with more power—and a superior hearing experience—than the best behind-the-ear hearing aid.

“You put the NanoEar inside of the eardrum in an in-office procedure that takes literally five minutes,” Moses says.

As Moses explains, because of how the human cochlea is formed, its nerves break down over time. It’s simply an inevitability that if we live long enough, we will need hearing aids.

“The question is, ‘Are we going to all be satisfied with what exists?’” he asks.

Moses says that currently, only about 20 percent of patients who need hearing aids have them. That’s because of the combination of the stigma, the expense, and the hassle and discomfort associated with the hearing aids currently available on the market. That leaves 80 percent untapped among a population of 466 million people with hearing impairment, and more to come as our population ages. In a nearly $7 billion global market, that additional 80 percent could mean big money.

Moses initially patented a version of the invention in 2000, but says that it took finding the right team to incorporate as NanoEar. That took place in 2016, when he joined forces with cofounders Michael Moore and Willem Vermaat, now the company’s president and CFO, respectively. Moore is a mechanical engineer, while Vermaat is a “financial guru;” both are repeat entrepreneurs in the biotech space.

Today, NanoEar has nine active patents. The company’s technical advisors include “the genius behind developing the brains in this device,” Chris Salthouse; NASA battery engineer Will West; Dutch physicist and audiologist Joris Dirckx; and Daniel Spitz, a third-generation master watchmaker and the original guitarist for the famed metal band Anthrax.

The NanoEar concept has done proof-of-concept testing on both cadavers at the University of Antwerp and on chinchillas, which are excellent models for human hearing, at Tulane University. As part of the TMC Innovation Institute program in 2017, the NanoEar team met with FDA advisors, who told them that they might be eligible for an expedited pathway to approval.

Thus far, NanoEar has raised about $900,000 to get its nine patents and perform its proof-of-concept experiments. The next step is to build the prototype, but completing it will take $2.75 million of seed funding.

Despite the potential for making global change, Moses has said it’s been challenging to raise funds for his innovation.

“We're hoping to find that group of people or person who may want to hear their children or grandchildren better. They may want to join with others and bring a team of investors to offset that risk, to move this forward, because we already have a world-class team ready to go,” he says.

To that end, NanoEar has partnered with Austin-based Capital Factory to help with their raise. “I have reached out to their entire network and am getting a lot of interest, a lot of interest,” says Moses. “But in the end, of course, we need the money.”

It will likely, quite literally, be a sound investment in the future of how we all hear the next generation.