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5 most popular innovation stories in Houston this week

A Houston biotech startup raising $10 million and three Houston innovators to know were among the top trending stories this week. Photo via Getty Images

Editor's note:Another week has come and gone, and it's time to round up the top headlines from the past few days. Trending Houston tech and startup news on InnovationMap included innovators to know, an update from Greentown Houston, events not to miss, and more.

3 Houston innovators to know this week

This week's roundup of Houston innovators includes Jim Havelka of InformAI, Christa Westheimer of New Stack Ventures, and Charles Turner of Kare Technologies. Courtesy photos

In the week's roundup of Houston innovators to know, I'm introducing you to three innovators recently making headlines — from health tech founders to a venture capital rising star. Click here to continue reading.

10+ can't-miss Houston business and innovation events online in February ​

Register for some of these informative online events happening throughout the month of February. Photo via Getty Images

February may be the shortest month, but it's jam-packed with online innovation and startup events that Houston innovators need to know about.

Here's a roundup of virtual events not to miss this month — from workshops and webinars to summits and pitch parties. Click here to continue reading.

Houston biotech startup announces merger and $10M series A

A biotech startup focused on developing therapeutics for neurodegenerative and autoimmune diseases has some big news to share. Photo via Getty Images

A Houston company has emerged from stealth mode to announce a merger and a round of financing.

Coya Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biotech startup that focuses on creating therapeutics for neurodegenerative and autoimmune diseases, announced that it has completed a merger with Nicoya Health Inc. and raised $10 million in its series A. The round was led by Florida-based Allele Capital Partners LLC. Howard Berman, founder and board of directors for imaware, has been named CEO of Coya, as well as a member of the company's board of directors. Click here to continue reading.

Report: Lone Star State snags spot as world's 9th largest economy by GDP

New study found that Texas has the 9th largest economy. Photo by gguy44/Getty Images

If Texas were a country — and plenty of Texans wish that were the case — it would rank among the world's 10 largest economies. Economic development officials are now touting that fact as evidence of Houston and the rest of Texas being a great place to start or relocate a business.

In a January 27 news release, the nonprofit Texas Economic Development Corp. noted that based on 2019 data from the International Monetary Fund, Texas would boast the world's ninth largest economy if it were a country. The news release lists the state's gross domestic product, or GDP — a key indicator of economic size and strength — as $1.9 trillion. Click here to continue reading.

Greentown Houston shares progress on Midtown building and adds new corporate partners

Greentown Houston has revealed what it will look like in the new Houston Innovation District. Graphic courtesy of Greentown

Construction is underway on the Bayou City's first-ever clean tech incubator known as Greentown Houston.

Via a virtual ceremony on Feb 2, Mayor Sylvester Turner and a team from Massachusetts-based Greentown Labs revealed what the massive space in the new innovation district will look and feel like from the outside in.

The building's exterior will be painted grey and will be flocked by verdant green accents and foliage. According to a statement, Greentown Houston is also working with the Houston Arts Alliance to create a large mural by a local artist on the east side of the building. Click here to continue reading.

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A research team housed out of the newly launched Rice Biotech Launch Pad received funding to scale tech that could slash cancer deaths in half. Photo via Rice University

A research funding agency has deployed capital into a team at Rice University that's working to develop a technology that could cut cancer-related deaths in half.

Rice researchers received $45 million from the National Institutes of Health's Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, or ARPA-H, to scale up development of a sense-and-respond implant technology. Rice bioengineer Omid Veiseh leads the team developing the technology as principal investigator.

“Instead of tethering patients to hospital beds, IV bags and external monitors, we’ll use a minimally invasive procedure to implant a small device that continuously monitors their cancer and adjusts their immunotherapy dose in real time,” he says in a news release. “This kind of ‘closed-loop therapy’ has been used for managing diabetes, where you have a glucose monitor that continuously talks to an insulin pump. But for cancer immunotherapy, it’s revolutionary.”

Joining Veiseh on the 19-person research project named THOR, which stands for “targeted hybrid oncotherapeutic regulation,” is Amir Jazaeri, co-PI and professor of gynecologic oncology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. The device they are developing is called HAMMR, or hybrid advanced molecular manufacturing regulator.

“Cancer cells are continually evolving and adapting to therapy. However, currently available diagnostic tools, including radiologic tests, blood assays and biopsies, provide very infrequent and limited snapshots of this dynamic process," Jazaeri adds. "As a result, today’s therapies treat cancer as if it were a static disease. We believe THOR could transform the status quo by providing real-time data from the tumor environment that can in turn guide more effective and tumor-informed novel therapies.”

With a national team of engineers, physicians, and experts across synthetic biology, materials science, immunology, oncology, and more, the team will receive its funding through the Rice Biotech Launch Pad, a newly launched initiative led by Veiseh that exists to help life-saving medical innovation scale quickly.

"Rice is proud to be the recipient of the second major funding award from the ARPA-H, a new funding agency established last year to support research that catalyzes health breakthroughs," Rice President Reginald DesRoches says. "The research Rice bioengineer Omid Veiseh is doing in leading this team is truly groundbreaking and could potentially save hundreds of thousands of lives each year. This is the type of research that makes a significant impact on the world.”

The initial focus of the technology will be on ovarian cancer, and this funding agreement includes a first-phase clinical trial of HAMMR for the treatment of recurrent ovarian cancer that's expected to take place in the fourth year of THOR’s multi-year project.

“The technology is broadly applicable for peritoneal cancers that affect the pancreas, liver, lungs and other organs,” Veiseh says. “The first clinical trial will focus on refractory recurrent ovarian cancer, and the benefit of that is that we have an ongoing trial for ovarian cancer with our encapsulated cytokine ‘drug factory’ technology. We'll be able to build on that experience. We have already demonstrated a unique model to go from concept to clinical trial within five years, and HAMMR is the next iteration of that approach.”

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