Research
Aztec Conquest Altered Genetics among Early Mexico Inhabitants, New DNA Study Shows
For centuries, the fate of the original Otomí inhabitants of Xaltocan, the capital of a pre-Aztec Mexican city-state, has remained unknown. Researchers have long wondered whether they assimilated with the Aztecs or abandoned the town altogether. According to new anthropological research from The University of Texas at Austin, Wichita State University and Washington State University,… » Continue Reading
UT Chemist Wins Japan Prize (50 Million Yen) for Innovative Semiconductor Materials
Willson and a colleague first conceived of chemically amplifed resists in 1979, when Willson was a researcher at IBM Corp.
Engineered Immune Cells Resist Infection from HIV and Could Ultimately Replace Drug Therapy
Researchers cut and pasted a series of HIV-resistant genes into T cells, specialized immune cells targeted by the virus.
Socially Isolated Rats are More Vulnerable to Addiction, Report Researchers
Rats that are socially isolated during a critical period of adolescence are more vulnerable to addiction to amphetamine and alcohol. Amphetamine addiction is also harder to extinguish in the socially isolated rats. These effects, which are described this week in the journal Neuron, persist even after the rats are reintroduced into the community of other rats.
Lack of Key Enzyme in the Metabolism of Folic Acid Leads to Birth Defects
Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin have discovered that the lack of a critical enzyme in the folic acid metabolic pathway leads to neural tube birth defects in developing embryos.
Designer Bacteria May Lead to Better Vaccines
Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin have developed a menu of 61 new strains of genetically engineered E. coli that may improve the efficacy of vaccines for diseases such as flu, pertussis, cholera and HPV.
Virus Caught in the Act of Infecting a Cell
The detailed changes in the structure of a virus as it infects an E. coli bacterium have been observed for the first time, report researchers from The University of Texas at Austin and The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UT Health) Medical School this week in Science Express.
UT Austin Scientists Will Assess Health of New York-Long Island Barrier Protection in Wake of Sandy
A rapid response science team from the University of Texas at Austin’s Institute for Geophysics will help map the impact of Hurricane Sandy on the beach/barrier systems off the south shore of Long Island.
UT Austin Names Director for Commercialization Efforts
The University of Texas at Austin has appointed Dan Sharp, a veteran intellectual property and technology lawyer, to be the director of the Office of Technology Commercialization (OTC) and associate vice president for research. Sharp’s appointment, effective Jan. 1, comes after an extensive search of candidates and a review of leading technology commercialization offices across the country.
Bumblebees Do Best Where There Is Less Pavement and More Floral Diversity
Landscapes with large amounts of paved roads and impervious construction have lower numbers of ground-nesting bumblebees, which are important native pollinators, a study from The University of Texas at Austin and the University of California, Berkeley shows.
