Every gift — public and private, large and small — helps provide the means for The University of Texas at Austin to conduct innovative research and programs, all of which are helping us change the world. Here are just a few ways we’re making a global impact.
Destroying a single cancer cell — and leaving nearby healthy cells alive — is possible with a laser “microscalpel” that produces extremely brief, high-energy light pulses that sear a targeted cell so quickly and accurately that the lasers’ heat has no time to escape and damage nearby healthy cells.
Destroying a single cancer cell — and leaving nearby healthy cells alive — is possible with a laser “microscalpel” that produces extremely brief, high-energy light pulses that sear a targeted cell so quickly and accurately that the lasers’ heat has no time to escape and damage nearby healthy cells. Assistant professor of mechanical engineering Adela Ben-Yakar developed the technology, which could expand its use to destroy other unhealthy materials, such as small tumors of the vocal cords, cancer cells left behind after the removal of solid tumors, individual cancer cells scattered throughout brain or other tissue, and plaque in arteries. Within a few years, Ben-Yakar expects to shrink the probe’s 15-millimeter diameter threefold so it would match endoscopes used today for laparoscopic surgery. With your support, further research efforts like this at the Cockrell School of Engineering can continue.
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An after-school pilot program at UT Elementary School is helping to expand students’ diets to include nutritious foods and instill a desire to eat healthy and lower student obesity rates.
An after-school pilot program at UT Elementary School is helping to expand students’ diets to include nutritious foods and instill a desire to eat healthy and lower student obesity rates. Students learn basic cooking skills and introductory gardening through Garden to Table lessons, a component of the WellNest program, an extension of the school’s Healthy Families Initiative. Additionally, the WellNest program incorporates physical activity three days a week. Two days a week students work with the school’s physical education instructor and one day a week with coaches from Ignite a Dream, an Austin-based nonprofit that administers a team practice in either tennis or soccer. According to data taken over the past three years, the prevalence of being overweight and obese among students has gone from 63 percent down to 50 percent since introducing the Healthy Families Initiative.
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For those who suffer from diabetes, insulin pills could replace necessary injections, thanks to new research by chemical and biomedical engineers at The University of Texas at Austin.
For those who suffer from diabetes, insulin pills could replace necessary injections, thanks to new research by chemical and biomedical engineers at The University of Texas at Austin. This breakthrough research brings insulin pills closer to reality by addressing the problem of how pills can survive stomach acids to later deposit their contents in the opposing alkaline environment of the small intestine. Dr. Nicholas Peppas, professor of biomedical engineering, chemical engineering, and pharmaceutics at UT, has developed a polymer hydrogel that can quickly transport insulin through stomach acids and then actually linger in the small intestine where insulin needs to be ingested. Research efforts like this at the Cockrell School of Engineering can continue with your support.
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When skin cancer is suspected, the next step is an invasive biopsy. But what if light could be used to detect skin cancer?
When skin cancer is suspected, the next step is an invasive biopsy. But what if light could be used to detect skin cancer? An assistant professor in the Cockrell School of Engineering, James Tunnell, is developing a pen-size probe that would do away with the need for a biopsy. Weak pulses of light are emitted from the tip onto the skin or tissue and then recaptured by the probe and sent back to a computer system for analysis. The light measures the cellular and molecular signatures of skin cancer. In the United States, more than 1 million new cases occur annually, according to the National Cancer Institute. Early funding for developing the device has come from the Wallace H. Coulter Foundation.
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How to address rising seas and climate change? The Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences is poised to answer this challenge — and others — with the next pillar of scientific inquiry: computer modeling.
These are the questions of our time:
- How to conquer the twin killers of heart disease and cancer?
- How to respond to the global energy crisis?
- How to address rising seas and climate change?
- How to make sweeping changes in advanced materials and nano-manufacturing that will fuel the U.S. economy?
- How to mend a crumbling health-care system?
These challenges demand the swift action that only technology can offer. The Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences is poised to answer these challenges with the next pillar of scientific inquiry: computer modeling.
With help from W.A. “Tex” Moncrief and an anonymous donor, ICES has launched the National Initiative for Simulation-Based Engineering and Sciences. Funds will be invested in new and existing faculty and will support students working on interdisciplinary teams addressing these problems.
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The Jackson School of Geosciences has teamed up with major corporations, foundations, and individuals for GeoFORCE Texas, the country’s largest K-12 pipeline program inspiring the next generation of earth scientists.
The United States faces a shortage of earth scientists — the professionals who find energy, safeguard water, and help plan for natural disasters. The Jackson School of Geosciences has teamed up with major corporations, foundations, and individuals for GeoFORCE Texas, the country’s largest K-12 pipeline program inspiring the next generation of earth scientists. GeoFORCE recruits high school students of all backgrounds while targeting public schools in Houston and Southwest Texas, which have predominantly minority populations. Each summer, students travel with teachers to geologically significant locations around the country. GeoFORCE will educate 640 students in 2009. Ninety-seven percent of the seniors graduating from GeoFORCE this year are expected to attend college.
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A College of Fine Arts initiative will expand faculty positions, incorporate a musical theater production into the performance season of the Department of Theatre and Dance, and develop new musicals through a summer workshop.
Musical theater will get a boost with a new program in the College of Fine Arts. The initiative will expand faculty positions, incorporate a musical theater production into the performance season of the Department of Theatre and Dance, and develop new musicals through a summer workshop. Thanks to a lead gift from UT alumnus Allen Becker, the college has already hired two new lecturers to teach musical theater singing and dancing and has staged a production of Stephen Sondheim’s “Assassins.”
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UT Elementary School is working to reduce teacher turnover in low-income urban districts by preparing student teachers for the challenges they will face. The Urban Education Pilot Program focuses on early intervention and social and emotional learning.
UT Elementary School is working to reduce teacher turnover in low-income urban districts by preparing student teachers for the challenges they will face. The Urban Education Pilot Program focuses on early intervention and social and emotional learning. UT Elementary, the College of Education, and Austin ISD are working together to incorporate these methods into teacher training. They’ll also create a best-practices manual that can be distributed at national conferences. Support for the program comes from the RGK Foundation, the Powell Foundation, and Suzan and Julius Glickman.
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