News: Research

Read the latest news from the College of Natural Sciences at The University of Texas at Austin

Research

Compact Accelerator Technology Achieves Major Energy Milestone

Bjorn “Manuel” Hegelich led the development of a compact laser accelerator that produces an electron beam with an energy of 10 billion electron volts.

A piece of scientific equipment lit from the outside by green light. In a window in the side of the equipment, a pink light glows.

Research

Coal Power Killed Half a Million People in U.S. over Two Decades

Deaths from coal were highest in 1999, but by 2020 decreased by about 95%, as coal plants have installed scrubbers or shut down.

A white plume of exhaust spews from power plant smokestacks

Research

Bacteria Store Memories and Pass Them on for Generations

Bacteria use iron levels to store memories and pass them on to later generations, scientists have found.

Microscopic image of E.coli bacteria

Research

Chemist’s Innovation Spurs Drugs that Hang on Through Thick and Thin

The newly launched Hyku Biosciences provides a platform for covalent drug development which may be a better approach for treating diseases like cancer.

Using SuTex, short for sulfur-triazole exchange chemistry, Ken Hsu has created an approach to target sites on proteins that have extra electrons to share. This covalent bond is very stable compared with bonds formed by traditional drugs. Credit: Zhihong Li

Research

Researchers Find a New Avenue to Combat Biofilm Threat

A team of researchers at The University of Texas at Austin and other institutions have unlocked a clue about how bacteria form biofilms.

Electron microscope image of bacterial biofilm

Research

Peering Inside a Quantum Computer Creates New Phases of Information

Physicist Matteo Ippoliti helped explore how measurements can alter information states in an innovation created by Google.

Illustraiton of colored blocks with arrows and clocks evoking a sense of time and information flowing through a system

Research

Researchers Identify Potential New Target for Treating T Cell Leukemia

A team led by Lauren Ehrlich found a link between myeloid cells and the cancer that often strikes children.

Green and red cells under a microscope

Research

Cancer Drug Restores Immune System’s Ability to Fight Tumors

Drug candidate developed by Everett Stone and his team is effective in mice with cancers of skin, bladder, blood and colon.

Microscope image of cancer cell with immune cells attached

Research

How Breast Cancer Hijacks a Natural Enzyme to Boost Mutations

Kyle Miller and his team discovered a potential new target for drug therapies: structures in our DNA called R-loops.

Red dots under a microscope indicate the location and quantity of R-loops in cancer cells

Department of Computer Science

Paving the Way for a New Era in Crash Consistency Testing

Researchers from The University of Texas at Austin’s Department of Computer Science have created the Chipmunk system, a breakthrough innovation.

A chipmunk perches on a mossy branch while eating a peanut