Baylor College of Medicine

New Capabilities

Produced the landmark metformin-brain pathway study

More than 150 million people take metformin every year to manage Type 2 diabetes. Doctors prescribed it starting in 1957, and for most of that time, assumed it worked primarily in the liver and gut. A Baylor team found that at clinically relevant low doses, the drug deactivates Rap1 in the ventromedial hypothalamus—a brain region controlling metabolism.

Updated May 30

New Capabilities

Institution where breakthrough was achieved

Human norovirus eluded laboratory cultivation for nearly six decades, which prevented vaccine development for a pathogen that sickens 700 million people annually. Baylor College of Medicine researchers broke this barrier using the drug TAK-779 to achieve 10 to 15 consecutive rounds of viral replication in lab-grown human intestinal tissue, yielding stable virus stocks for the first time.

Updated May 27