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CEPI to provide up to $4.98 USD million to Houston Methodist Research Institute-led consortium to use artificial intelligence for design of vaccines to fight diseases with pandemic potential. The project will support a consortium, led by HMRI, to design potential antigenic targets for up to 10 priority virus families with epidemic or pandemic potential. Laboratory-based tests will then be used to verify antigen designs for possible further development.

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Patients infected with beta and delta COVID-19 variants, and those who required hospital stays for COVID-19 infection, were more likely to experience heart issues associated with long COVID, according to a recent study published in the European Heart Journal – Cardiovascular Imaging. Patients recovering from the omicron variant were least likely to have microvascular involvement. The study also found that microvascular dysfunction started to be seen less often after nine months to one year following infection suggesting that this type of abnormality may be reversible.

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Surgeons at Houston Methodist Hospital successfully completed its 10,000th organ transplant yesterday.

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A recent Houston Methodist study may offer some guidance on when certain populations should get their next booster. A research team of computational medicine and data scientists from the Houston Methodist Research Institute predicted the immune response to COVID-19 vaccines with a math model they developed, and also found that current CDC dosing intervals may require customization to protect all individuals alike.

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Houston Methodist nanomedicine researchers have found a way to tame pancreatic cancer - one of the most aggressive and difficult to treat cancers - by delivering immunotherapy directly into the tumor with a device that is smaller than a grain of rice.

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Houston Methodist scientists reversed infertility in sterile mice by reducing HDL cholesterol with a bacterial protein in a promising development that shows further evidence linking high cholesterol to female infertility. The researchers worked with a protein called serum opacity factor that lowered cholesterol levels by over 40% in three hours.

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Patient Chris DeHart had a massive meningioma that required 9 surgeries and 3 surgical specialties to remove. He relied on a Houston Methodist 'dream team' of surgeons to solve his case.

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Removing ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) patients’ own dysfunctional cells, fixing them, then putting them back in patients’ bodies is a safe, well tolerated process that has been shown to slow or halt disease progression in a small number of patients, according to a study by the Houston Methodist Research Institute and Massachusetts General Hospital

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Exploring the heart from the inside out is now possible with a new app from Houston Methodist.

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By using artificial intelligence, Houston Methodist researchers are able to predict hospitalization outcomes of geriatric patients with dementia on the first or second day of hospital admission. This early assessment of outcomes means more timely interventions, better care coordination, more judicious resource allocation, focused care management and timely treatment for these more vulnerable, high-risk patients. The study is available online in Alzheimer’s & Dementia: Translational Research and Clinical Interventions, a journal of the Alzheimer’s Association.

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Two Houston Methodist cancer researchers have been awarded a half million dollars in funding from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) to further research two of the most lethal, difficult-to-treat cancers that all-too-often have poor prognoses -- triple-negative breast cancer and multiple myeloma.

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Texas already has a moderately high rate of flu cases in September. This doesn’t look good for flu season, which was uncharacteristically low last year because of masks and people isolating. Houston Methodist experts are encouraging the community to get the flu shot early. Experts say cases aren't usually seen this high until December, which is when the season usually peaks.

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Patients with prior COVID may be twice as likely to have unhealthy endothelial cells that line the inside of the heart and blood vessels, according to newly published research from Houston Methodist. This finding offers a new clue in understanding COVID-19’s impact on cardiovascular health.

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Houston Methodist researchers present clinical evidence supporting the safety and efficacy of injecting pain medication directly into the tibia during knee replacement surgery for better postoperative pain management. The study revealed patients receiving a mixture of morphine and vancomycin injected into the shin bone have less pain post-surgery than those who received the infusion without morphine during surgery.

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A new study at Houston Methodist shows that that a new temperature-controlled radiofrequency intervention is a safe and effective way to improve symptoms of chronic rhinitis. Chronic rhinitis involves symptoms such as a near constant runny nose, congestion, as well as nasal and throat itching and sneezing. In addition to costing billions of dollars each year in healthcare costs, the associated symptoms have significant and severe impacts on people’s quality of life and ability to go about day-to-day activities.

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We all know that people have reported brain fog and other neurological issues after having COVID-19. But a new study shows some sobering news – COVID-19 infections may have serious long-term effects. Major findings include that COVID-19 infections may predispose individuals to developing irreversible neurological conditions that may increase the likelihood of strokes and the chance of developing persistent brain lesions that can lead to brain bleeding. The findings appear online in press in the journal Ageing Research Reviews.

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A new Houston Methodist study explains clever ways the BA.1 and BA.2 omicron variants escape antibodies, contributing to the ability of these variants to spread rapidly and to be so successful in infecting people with the COVID-19 virus. Knowing this could lead to new therapeutic targets and help update vaccine formulations.

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The return to daylight saving time each spring affects the sleep patterns of millions of Americans and can wreak havoc on the many people already affected by sleep problems. Houston Methodist sleep expert Dr. Aparajitha Verma suggests a few simple sleep habits that can make all the difference when we spring forward March 13.

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.A drug used to treat cardiac failure has shown promising results in treating triple negative breast cancer, according to Houston Methodist researchers who released results this week on a new combined therapy with the potential to improve outcomes for these hard-to-treat breast cancer patients.

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Houston Methodist has received a $25 million philanthropic gift from Dr. Mary and Ron Neal to expand the hospital system’s cancer center.

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Houston Methodist’s SARS-CoV-2 genome sequencing team has partnered on a study led by Penn State that revealed 80% of white-tailed deer sampled across Iowa at the height of the 2020-2021 deer-hunting season tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Analysis of the virus genome sequences revealed infections were likely the result of multiple human-to-deer transmission “spillover” events followed by deer-to-deer transmission from April 2020 through January 2021.

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Patients who have cardiovascular disease are at increased risk of serious complications from the flu, according to a new study by Houston Methodist physician researchers published in the Journal of the American Heart Association. The study found that not only are traditional flu-related outcomes worse among some patients with CVD, but infection in those patients also is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular events and both CV-related mortality and mortality from all causes.