Rice Research Review

One hundred fifty years ago, Dmitri Mendeleev created the periodic table, a system for classifying atoms based on the properties of their nuclei. In 2021, a team of biologists studying the tree of life has unveiled a new classification system for cell nuclei, and discovered a method for transmuting one type of cell nucleus into another. The study, which appeared in the journal Science, emerged from several once-separate efforts involving dozens of institutions including Baylor College of Medicine, the National Science Foundation-supported Center for Theoretical Biological Physics (CTBP) at Rice University, the University of Western Australia and SeaWorld. Learn More

Research shows executives are likely to overestimate the financial benefits of strategy planning — as conducted by an overwhelming majority of large companies — by a factor of five. Executives at 88% of large companies engage in strategy planning, according to the research featured in a chapter of "Focus: How to Plan Strategy and Improve Execution to Achieve Growth," a book co-authored by Vikas Mittal, professor of marketing at the Rice's Jones Graduate School of Business, and Shrihari Sridhar, professor of marketing at Texas A&M University's Mays Business School. The objectives of the practice are setting goals, assigning resources, defining major initiatives, and creating and adjusting budgets, all with the hope of improving financial performance. Most of the time, it doesn’t work. Learn More 

The U.S. Army has backed research being done by Rice University, Houston Methodist and Baylor College of Medicine that involves the development of a “sleeping cap” to analyze the cleansing flow of fluid that drains the brain of common metabolic waste during sleep.  The primary goal is to noninvasively measure and modulate the flow of cerebrospinal fluid as it circulates through the brain and clears waste. Ultimately, the team aims to develop a lightweight, portable skullcap that can analyze and stimulate proper flow to treat sleep disorders in real time. Learn More