A Cullen College of Engineering professor will be furthering his research into developing small, modular reactor systems and tuning the properties of catalysts after receiving a pair of grants expected to total more than $2 million in funding.

The University of Houston has entered into an exclusive license option agreement with AuraVax Therapeutics Inc., a Houston, TX based biotech company developing novel vaccines to help patients defeat debilitating respiratory diseases such as COVID-19. Under terms of the agreement, AuraVax has the option to exclusively license a new intranasal COVID-19 vaccine technology developed by Dr. Navin Varadarajan, M.D. Anderson Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.

The development of point-of-care tests – and as of late, for COVID-19 – has been the primary focus of Dr. Katerina Kourentzi, Research Associate Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering in the William A. Brookshire Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Houston's Cullen College of Engineering.

Thousands of chemical processes used by the energy industry and for other applications rely on the high speed of catalytic reactions, but molecules frequently are hindered by molecular traffic jams that slow them down. Now an entirely new class of porous catalysts has been invented, using unique fins to speed up the chemistry by allowing molecules to skip the lines that limit the reaction. 

The complexity and mystery of zeolites – porous aluminosilicate crystals – was what first attracted Dr. Jeffrey Rimer, the Abraham E. Dukler Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, to his current field of research.

The Semiconductor Research Corp. awarded a three-year, $240,000 grant to University of Houston researchers to design a new electrodeposition process and solution to create a new alloy with superior qualities and broad applications.

Cerium Oxide Catalyst Will Remove Oxygen, Reduce Processing Requirements

The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded a three-year grant to a UH Cullen College of Engineering research team led by Alamgir Karim, professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering. The team’s project, titled “Ordering of Block Copolymer Systems with Enhanced Molecular Interactions and Diffusional Dynamics,” received $399,718.

B Cells Gone Bad Could be the Culprit in Rheumatoid Arthritis

Biomolecular researcher Navin Varadarajan recently published in Arthritis & Rheumatology journal a first-of-its-kind study -  a comprehensive profile of B cells in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). B cells are lymphocytes, or white blood cells, that make protein antibodies that attack a patient’s healthy proteins in patients with RA.