Rice Research Review

If identical versions of 20 people lived out their lives in dozens of different worlds, would the same people be popular in each world? If you substitute "fruit flies" for "people" in that question, you have a fair description of a Rice University study showing that the evolution of social structures and the positions of individuals within those structures are based partly on genetics. Cloned fruit flies played a starring role in the study published in Nature Communications and that researchers jokingly likened to "The Truman Show," with video cameras observing how the flies behaved in a controlled environment. Learn More

Researchers from Rice University and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center created a new microscope that can quickly and inexpensively image large tissue sections, potentially during surgery, to determine whether an entire tumor has been removed. The microscope can rapidly image relatively thick pieces of tissue with cellular resolution, and could allow surgeons to inspect the margins of tumors within minutes of their removal. 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