Rice Research Review

Rice University computer scientists created a new method that cut indexing time for genomic researchers who sometimes wait days or weeks for search results from enormous DNA databases. RAMBO, which is short for "repeated and merged bloom filter," is a new method that trims indexing times for such databases from weeks to hours and search times from hours to seconds. Learn More 

Flood disasters like Hurricane Harvey lead some people to move far from the places they had called home. But a study from Rice University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison finds that middle-class people who made long-term plans to stay in their neighborhoods before they flooded are less likely to relocate even if they suffered significant damage. The study’s findings are outlined in “Best Laid Plans: How the Middle Class Make Residential Decisions Post-Disaster,” which appears in the journal Social Problems. Learn More

Rice University bioengineers collaborated on a six-year study that systematically analyzed how the surface architecture of breast implants influences the development of adverse effects, including an unusual type of lymphoma. The study’s findings, published in Nature Biomedical Engineering, show the surface topography of an implant can drastically affect how the immune response perceives it, which has important ramifications for an implant’s design. Learn More