Rice University Chemistry Department

05/04/2026

Rice seed grants are helping accelerate critical work in dementia and brain health, enabling researchers to build momentum ahead of upcoming state funding opportunities. Strategic early investment is paving the way for meaningful progress in understanding and treating neurological conditions.

An internal seed funding initiative will support 12 projects exploring brain health research.

04/01/2026

Congratulations to Rice University professor Zachary Ball and his team on developing a new method to study pyroglutamate, a key but overlooked protein modification.

Rice professor Zachary Ball recently published a paper describing a new way to target a common but understudied posttranslational modification called pyroglutamate.

03/19/2026

Congratulations to researchers, led by James Tour and Yi Cheng, developed a new method that uses PFAS—typically harmful environmental pollutants—to extract lithium from high-salinity brine. Instead of just removing PFAS from the environment, the team repurposes them by using their fluorine content to capture lithium efficiently.

James Tour and his research team developed a process to use PFAS to extract lithium from high-salinity brine pools in a study recently published in Nature Water.

03/02/2026

01/20/2026

Breaking barriers in lymphatic imaging!

Rice University’s SynthX Center, led by Han Xiao, has received up to $18M from ARPA-H to develop safer, ultra-high-resolution lymphatic imaging advancing diagnosis and treatment for rare lymphatic diseases and lymphedema.

Rice's SynthX Center has received an up to five-year, $18 million award from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health.

12/19/2025

Researchers here at Rice Chemistry have uncovered how a single filament can form a knot while sinking through a fluid—without collisions or external forces.

A team of researchers at Rice, Georgetown University and the University of Trento in Italy has uncovered a surprising physical mechanism that explains how a single filament can form a knot while sinking through a fluid under strong gravitational forces.

11/21/2025

Rice University has opened the Amyloid Mechanism and Disease Center to study how harmful protein clumps form and affect the brain. Led by biophysicist Pernilla Wittung Stafshede, the center brings together experts to better understand diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s and to help guide new treatments.

Link down below

Rice has launched the Amyloid Mechanism and Disease Center, a new campus hub dedicated to uncovering the molecular origins of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and other amyloid-related diseases.

10/23/2025

Rice Study Uncovers New Insight Into Parkinson’s Disease
A new study led by Rice University’s Prof. Pernilla Wittung-Stafshede reveals that the protein clumps (plaques) associated with Parkinson’s disease are not just cellular waste.

A new study has revealed that protein clumps associated with Parkinson’s can actively drain energy from brain cells.

09/23/2025

Professor James Tour and his team have discovered a way to turn toxic red mud from aluminum production into valuable materials in under one minute. Using flash Joule heating, they remove harmful metals, leaving aluminum-rich material that can be turned into ceramic tiles or reused for aluminum production.

Rice researchers have developed a faster and cleaner method for recovering aluminum and removing toxic metals from bauxite residue.