Category: Research

Twelve research projects — including four led by Texas A&M Science faculty — have been chosen for funding as part of The Texas A&M University System National Laboratories Office’s multi-element program to increase engagement between researchers from the A&M System and the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

New research by a multi-institution team featuring several Texas A&M biologists has identified the genetic cause of the skin cancer melanoma in the hybrid offspring of two species of swordtail fish, leading to possible new therapies for treating cancer in humans.

Texas A&M biologists have discovered a fundamental mechanism conserved from fungi to humans that contributes to how the circadian clock regulates rhythms in protein production and protein abundance — critical factors in properly timing the administration of protein-targeting drugs to ensure efficacy and avoid toxicity.

Carbon, known universally as the basic building block of life, is generally thought by scientists to have formed inside the cores of stars. The Texas Active Target (TexAT) particle detector designed and built by Texas A&M physicists is playing a major role in a novel collaborative experiment to test whether other particles – specifically stray neutrons – could be involved in the element’s creation.

As the first person to identify the experimental drug remdesivir as the only viable medicine for treating COVID-19 in a January research study, Texas A&M chemist Wenshe Ray Liu has two words to describe preliminary results from its use in a University of Chicago clinical trial: “quite exciting.”

Texas A&M chemists led by Wenshe Liu are seeking to stop COVID-19 and other coronaviruses in their cellular tracks by developing drugs capable of preventing the virus from replicating once inside its human host and also neutralizing its presence in human plasma.

Joint work between the laboratories of Texas A&M chemists Matthew Sheldon and Dong Hee Son has resulted in a breakthrough in the decades-long global quest to identify techniques for ultrafast optical control of magnetism using a classic material, gold. Their work, published in "Nature Photonics," could lead to alternate ways to generate electricity from light and possible new strategies for solar energy.

Using a clever strategy to “trick” the system so that only viruses containing peptides with noncanonical amino acids are capable of reproducing, the Wenshe Liu research group in Texas A&M Chemistry has found a way to stack the phage display libraries construction deck, effectively expanding the genetic code of bacteriophages and paving the way for new peptide-based therapeutics.

A new study co-authored by Texas A&M biologist Charles Criscione in collaboration with colleagues in Canada provides rare genetic evidence to support a role for kin selection in the evolution of host-manipulating behaviors in lancet liver flukes — insight that suggests such altruistic traits can evolve simply because they improve the chances of survival and reproduction of genetically related family members.

A multidisciplinary international team of scientists and engineers led by Texas A&M chemist Sarbajit Banerjee has discovered a neuron-like electrical switching mechanism in a solid-state material and how it reversibly morphs between conducting and insulating behavior on command, bringing researchers one step closer to developing brain-emulating materials for energy efficient computing.

In research reported in the "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences," Texas A&M biologists have found genetic evidence linking circadian clock genes and clock-regulated molecular pathways to the Monarch butterfly's uncanny ability to sense changes in day length that trigger their annual migration and the reproductive dormancy they exhibit during it — a clock-controlled seasonal response the biologists prove is clearly connected to the vitamin A pathway in the iconic insect's brain.

GMTO Corporation officials have signed the largest contract in Giant Magellan Telescope history, paving the way for final design and construction of the massive telescope structure -- another key milestone for Texas A&M and its fellow international partners in building the next-generation wonder expected to see first light late in the next decade.

Texas A&M University and Teysha Technologies have signed a sponsored research agreement to streamline the development of natural degradable polymers that break down in water as a possible solution to the global plastics pollution crisis currently weighing in at an estimate exceeding 10 million metric tons and growing.

In a recent paper published in the September issue of the "Journal of Microscopy," Texas A&M biologist Lawrence Griffing makes the case for an unidentified gentleman in a circa-1680s painting by one of England’s first successful female artists, Mary Beale, actually being the long-sought portrait of 17th century scientist Robert Hooke.

Recent Nature Nanotechnology-reported research by Texas A&M physicist Alexey Belyanin explores the structure and dynamics of electrons in graphene, providing new insight into how it interacts with light at the nanoscale level and with femtosecond time resolution affecting the design of future nanophotonic devices as well as materials used in computers and telecommunications.