Halas awarded Benjamin Franklin Medal in Chemistry

Rice University’s Naomi Halas is the recipient of the 2025 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Chemistry.
 Photo Credit: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University

Rice University’s Naomi Halas is the recipient of the 2025 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Chemistry, awarded “for the creation and development of nanoshells — metal-coated nanoscale particles that can capture light energy — for use in many biomedical and chemical applications.”

Halas’ work has pioneered new insights into how light and matter interact at the smallest scales. When she joined Rice in 1989 to support the efforts of the late Richard Smalley in advancing the burgeoning field of nanoscale science and technology, her experience working on laser science in the research-intensive milieus of IBM Yorktown and AT&T Bell Laboratories gave her a unique perspective: Halas recognized that the nanoscale world was not something foreign — it was, fundamentally, chemistry.

“A lot of people were talking about nano like it was something completely new,” said Halas, who is University Professor at Rice, the institution’s highest academic rank. “But I realized it was really just chemistry viewed in a different way, and that really got me thinking about how I can combine the worlds of laser science and nanoscience.”

That shift in perspective led to the development of a new family of nanoparticles with tunable optical properties, triggering a series of influential discoveries and enabling applications in fields ranging from cancer therapy to water purification to light-driven chemistry and renewable energy.

Biology Graduate Student Contributes to Research in Neurodegenerative Disease

PhD student Asmer Aliyeva
Photo Credit: Courtesy of University at Albany

Asmer Aliyeva, a fourth-year PhD candidate in the biology department at the College of Arts and Sciences, is working to reveal the molecular mechanisms behind neurodegenerative diseases. In collaboration with her colleagues in the Berglund Lab, Aliyeva aim is to identify possible therapeutic targets against this class of disease, with a focus on spinocerebellar ataxias (SCAs).

Spinocerebellar ataxias are a group of progressive neurodegenerative diseases that affect coordination and balance, for which there is currently no cure. Aliyeva’s research looks at transcriptomic changes in patient-derived cell lines that could holds clues for common disease mechanisms associated with different types of SCAs. 

Recent findings suggest that dysregulation of alternative splicing plays a key role in disease progression, which could lead to new biomarkers and therapeutic discoveries. Aliyeva recently led a study on this topic, coauthored with members of the Berglund Lab at the RNA Institute, published in the journal Human Molecular Genetics. 

Aliyeva's research also examines how defects in alternative splicing contribute to the disease and whether these changes can be used as potential biomarkers for monitoring disease onset and progression. This work is a crucial first step in providing a better understanding of potential pathways for future treatments of these diseases.

Native bee populations can bounce back after honey bees move out

A native bee sits on a purple flower on the left, while a honey bee sits on a yellow flower on the right.  Photo Credit: © Margarita López-Uribe

Managed honey bees have the potential to affect native bee populations when they are introduced to a new area, but a study led by researchers at Penn State suggests that, under certain conditions, the native bees can bounce back if the apiaries are moved away.

The research, published in the Journal of Insect Science, examined the effects of migratory beekeeping — the practice of moving honey bee colonies to a different location for part of the year — on native bee populations. 

The researchers found that when managed honey bees were moved into an area, the population of native bees decreased in abundance and diversity. However, in places where apiaries were kept for years and then removed, the native bee populations once again increased in both total numbers and species diversity.

Margarita López-Uribe, the Lorenzo L. Langstroth Early Career Professor of Entomology in the College of Agricultural Sciences and co-author of the paper, said the findings suggest that while migratory beekeeping can be a disturbance to native bees, it may also be possible for those populations to recover.

Spliceosome: How Cells Avoid Errors When Manufacturing Mrna

Quality control during splicing: When an error in the precursor mRNA is detected, the spliceosome is blocked, the recruited control factors interrupt the “normal” cycle, and a molecular short circuit causes the spliceosome to disassemble.
Image Credit: © K. Wild, K. Soni, I. Sinning

A complex molecular machine, the spliceosome, ensures that the genetic information from the genome, after being transcribed into mRNA precursors, is correctly assembled into mature mRNA. Splicing is a basic requirement for producing proteins that fulfill an organism’s vital functions. Faulty functioning of a spliceosome can lead to a variety of serious diseases. Researchers at the Heidelberg University Biochemistry Center (BZH) have succeeded for the first time in depicting a faultily “blocked” spliceosome at high resolution and reconstructing how it is recognized and eliminated in the cell. The research was conducted in collaboration with colleagues from the Australian National University.

Genetic research unlocks new ways to prevent and treat multiple long-term conditions

Image Credit: Scientific Frontline stock image

The largest study to date to analyze millions of both genetic and patient records on the long-term health conditions of later life has identified opportunities for new ways to prevent and treat multiple overlapping conditions.  

Currently, nine million people in the UK live with two or more long-term conditions at the same time – known as multimorbidity. Their treatment accounts for half of the NHS budget. 

Led by the University of Exeter Medical School and funded by the Medical Research Council and the National Institute for Health and Care Research, the GEMINI study looked at both genetics and clinical information from more than three million people in the UK and Spain.  

Published in eBioMedicine  research has identified genetic overlaps in 72 long-term health conditions associated with ageing, to identify where specific genes are linked to two or more conditions. With more than 2,500 combinations of conditions analyzed, the program aims to unlock cases where a drug or prevention strategies can prevent or delay the onset of multimorbidity. It also revealed genetic connections that explain why certain conditions may be more likely to co-occur in the same patient. 

Air pollution clouds the mind and makes everyday tasks challenging

Photo Credit: Chris LeBoutillier

People’s ability to interpret emotions or focus on performing a task is reduced by short-term exposure to particulate matter (PM) air pollution, potentially making everyday activities, such as the weekly supermarket shop, more challenging, a new study reveals.

Scientists discovered that even brief exposure to high concentrations of PM may impair a person’s ability to focus on tasks, avoid distractions, and behave in a socially acceptable manner.

Researchers exposed study participants to either high levels of air pollution - using candle smoke - or clean air, testing cognitive abilities before and four hours after exposure. The tests measured working memory, selective attention, emotion recognition, psychomotor speed, and sustained attention.

Publishing their findings in Nature Communications, researchers from the Universities of Birmingham and Manchester reveal that selective attention and emotion recognition were negatively affected by air pollution – regardless of whether subjects breathed normally or only through their mouths.

Air pollution impacts an aging society

Age-related health impacts of PM2.5.
Annual average AVSL (age-adjusted value of statistical life) and variation of premature deaths attributable to PM2.5 among individuals in different age groups from 2001 to 2019 across Japan’s 47 prefectures.
Image Credit: ©2025 Long et al.
(CC-BY-ND)

Air pollution is a growing health issue worldwide, and its impacts are often underestimated in aging societies like Japan. A new study led by researchers from the University of Tokyo highlights how fine particulate pollution, or PM2.5, not only worsens health outcomes, but also creates significant socioeconomic challenges in regions with aging populations and limited medical resources. The researchers hope these findings motivate policymakers to tackle the interrelated issues behind this problem.

PM2.5 refers to microscopic particles of pollution small enough to penetrate deep into the lungs and bloodstream, leading to severe respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. PM2.5 are small enough to evade the body’s natural defenses in the nose and throat, making direct prevention difficult. This becomes especially problematic in elderly populations.

“As we age, our immune systems weaken and our bodies are less able to defend against pollutants. Even moderate exposure can exacerbate pre-existing conditions, leading to higher hospitalization rates and premature mortality,” said lead author Associate Professor Yin Long. “Our study provides new insights into impacts of PM2.5 in aging regions, with a particular focus on the mismatch between those impacts and regional medical resource distribution.”

First distributed quantum algorithm brings quantum supercomputers closer

Dougal Main and Beth Nichol working on the distributed quantum computer.
Photo Credit: John Cairns.

In a milestone that brings quantum computing tangibly closer to large-scale practical use, scientists at Oxford University’s Department of Physics have demonstrated the first instance of distributed quantum computing. Using a photonic network interface, they successfully linked two separate quantum processors to form a single, fully connected quantum computer, paving the way to tackling computational challenges previously out of reach. The results have been published in Nature. 

The breakthrough addresses quantum’s ‘scalability problem’: a quantum computer powerful enough to be industry-disrupting would have to be capable of processing millions of qubits. Packing all these processors in a single device, however, would require a machine of an immense size. In this new approach, small quantum devices are linked together, enabling computations to be distributed across the network. In theory, there is no limit to the number of processors that could be in the network.  

Improved Brain Decoder Holds Promise for Communication in People with Aphasia

Brain activity like this, measured in an fMRI machine, can be used to train a brain decoder to decipher what a person is thinking about. In this latest study, UT Austin researchers have developed a method to adapt their brain decoder to new users far faster than the original training, even when the user has difficulty comprehending language.
Image Credit: Jerry Tang/University of Texas at Austin.

People with aphasia — a brain disorder affecting about a million people in the U.S. — struggle to turn their thoughts into words and comprehend spoken language.

A pair of researchers at The University of Texas at Austin has demonstrated an AI-based tool that can translate a person’s thoughts into continuous text, without requiring the person to comprehend spoken words. And the process of training the tool on a person’s own unique patterns of brain activity takes only about an hour. This builds on the team’s earlier work creating a brain decoder that required many hours of training on a person’s brain activity as the person listened to audio stories. This latest advance suggests it may be possible, with further refinement, for brain computer interfaces to improve communication in people with aphasia.

“Being able to access semantic representations using both language and vision opens new doors for neurotechnology, especially for people who struggle to produce and comprehend language,” said Jerry Tang, a postdoctoral researcher at UT in the lab of Alex Huth and first author on a paper describing the work in Current Biology. “It gives us a way to create language-based brain computer interfaces without requiring any amount of language comprehension.”

Genetic diversity is on the decline, but this trend can be slowed

Photo Credit: Tomáš Malík

Genetic diversity is crucial to the ability of animals and plants to adapt to changes in the climate and environment. A major international meta-analysis, published in the journal Nature, shows that genetic diversity is declining globally. But there is hope – effective conservation measures can slow this trend.

For a species to adapt to changes in its environment, a high degree of genetic variation between individual entities is crucial. The greater the diversity, the more likely it is that certain genes will make, for example, a plant more resistant to drought or an animal better adapted to higher temperatures. These genes can then be passed on to future generations and contribute to the survival of the species.

An international research team that includes Uppsala University, Stockholm University and the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency has analyzed genetic changes in 628 species over a period of more than 30 years. The study is based on data from more than 80,000 scientific papers and shows that genetic diversity is declining globally, especially among birds and mammals. At the same time, there are conservation measures that have proven to be effective.

“Overall, the study shows that there are effective conservation methods and data that allow for strategic targeting of actions. But then the genetic component needs to be considered,” says Sara Kurland, Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Earth Sciences and one of the researchers behind the study.