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A concerning increase in global rates of severe invasive infections becoming resistant to key antibiotics has a team of infectious disease researchers at the Houston Methodist Research Institute studying a recently emerged strain of bacteria called Streptococcus dysgalactiae subspecies equisimilis (SDSE). SDSE infects humans via the skin, throat, gastrointestinal tract and female genital tract to cause infections ranging in severity from strep throat (pharyngitis) to necrotizing fasciitis (flesh-eating disease).

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Houston Methodist researchers will be part of a national consortium funded by an up to $49 million award from the U.S. Government’s Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) to develop a vaccine against two of the most common and destructive strains of herpesviruses that latently infect a majority of Americans and can lead to acute infections, multiple forms of cancer, autoimmune disease and birth defects.

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Houston Methodist researchers have developed an advanced mathematical model that predicts how novel treatment combinations could significantly extend progression-free survival for patients with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), the most common type of lung cancer.

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The question isn’t if, but when, the next pandemic will hit. Research and observation have identified strong potential for the next pandemic-causing virus to come from one or more of five different virus families.

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For the next two years, 120 Division I Rice University athletes will be part of a concussion study with Houston Methodist researchers to identify reliable and novel concussion biomarkers in their gut microbiomes in ways that standard brain imaging cannot.

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When second-year neurology resident Dr. Keelie Denson asked her ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) patients what they found most lacking in ALS care, the answer was easy for Angela Amar. She and her three children, now adults, had been caring for her husband Robert for more than 14 years.

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Early-stage cervical cancer patients see better survival and decreased recurrence rates after open radical hysterectomy than minimally invasive laparoscopic approaches, according to a 5-year study led by Houston Methodist researchers and published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

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A team led by a Houston Methodist physician established a hypothesis that the microenvironments of tumors in the pancreatic head versus the body and tail, particularly the immunotherapy receptors found on each section of the pancreas, differ. This could impact the way cancer of the pancreas is treated.

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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.