Institute of Biosciences and Technology Research Highlights
Research Centers
Center for Cancer Biology and Nutrition
The goals of the Center for Cancer Biology and Nutrition are: to aid in eliminating cancer and allied diseases by understanding their causes at the cellular and molecular levels; to discover how cells communicate with each other and how improper communication causes cancer; and to discover how nutrition and plant products can both prevent and treat cancer.
Center for Extracellular Matrix Biology
The goal of the Center for Extracellular Matrix Biology is to discover new ways to treat and prevent diseases in human and animal connective tissues. Research at the molecular and cellular levels is done on the structure and function of healthy and diseased bone and cartilage as well as connective tissue diseases caused by bacterial infections. Research results will help fight osteoporosis, arthritis and infectious diseases, including Lyme disease.
Center for Genome Research
The Center for Genome Research seeks to understand human disease in molecular terms. Special emphases include: DNA structure and human hereditary neuromuscular diseases (such as muscular dystrophy and hereditary mental retardation syndromes); viral gene expression (for example, pox viruses); and effects of environmental factors (like carcinogens and radiation) on DNA structure and function.
The Margaret M. Alkek Center for Environmental and Genetic Medicine
In April 2002, the Institute of Biosciences and Technology opened the Margaret M. Alkek Center for Environmental and Genetic Medicine, with $1.6 million in private support. Heading the center is Distinguished Professor Stephen H. Safe, D.Phil., whose research in toxicology and breast cancer is world-renowned. The center also has large research programs seeking the causes and cures for birth defects, whether genetically or environmentally induced.
Affiliated Institutions
Graduate and Postdoctoral Education
The institute conducts graduate and postdoctoral education in cooperation with university programs at Texas A&M University in College Station, Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, the University of Texas-Houston Health Science Center and the University of Texas-M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. Doctoral studies are conducted at the institute in conjunction with these and other institutions, which includes UT-Houston's graduate school.
Houston's Texas Medical Center has been a key partner since April 1992, with the opening of the Institute of Biosciences and Technology. Scientists from IBT and the Texas Medical Center have been undertaking interdisciplinary research on molecular, cellular, systemic, and whole animal biology that bridges the gap between basic science and the application of new biotechnology in medicine.
