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    Doggone Adorable

    Young Texas entrepreneurs launch insanely cute startup with cuddly Corgi

    John Egan
    Apr 5, 2017 | 4:05 pm
    Waffles Corgi memory foam stuffed animal
    Meet Waffles, the memory foam Corgi.
    Courtesy photo

    Cuteness alert: Two Austin entrepreneurs are selling one of the most adorable stuffed animals you’ve ever laid your eyes on.

    University of Texas students Sherrill Feng and Andy Shaw, who are business partners and life partners, launched a company called Memory Plush in December. Their venture’s first product is aww-inspiring: Waffles the Corgi, a plush and portable dog made of memory foam and polyester.

    In late March, Feng and Shaw started a campaign on Kickstarter to raise money for making and marketing Waffles. As of Tuesday, April 4, the campaign had amassed more than $22,000 and had attracted nearly 470 backers. The Kickstarter campaign, which has crushed its fundraising goal of $7,500, ends April 27.

    On Kickstarter, one Waffles goes for $39. A personalized, embroidered Waffles will set you back a bit more: $54. Discounts are available if you order more than one.

    On a website called Corgi Things, Feng explains how she and Shaw came up with the idea for Waffles the Corgi. In the fall of 2016, the couple took a weekly class together at UT called Longhorn Startup Seminar. As they were heading home from that class one day, the pair hatched a plan for making memory-foam pillows that look like stuffed animals, with the idea that these pillows would be sturdier and more versatile than ordinary stuffed animals.

    “After much brainstorming, we decided that a Corgi was a good animal to start with since they are adorable, a great shape to be used as a pillow, and fun/quirky,” Feng wrote on Corgi Things, which is dedicated to Corgi-related products.

    Funny thing is, neither Feng nor Shaw is a business student. Feng is studying urban design, and Shaw is majoring in management information systems. Yet both have a longtime love of stuffed animals.

    “I tend to be a crafty, artistic person,” Feng wrote, “and actually had to learn how to sew fairly recently when making mockups of our plushes.”

    As for Shaw, he’s “a business fanatic, so he loves the idea of creating and innovating,” Feng wrote.

    The result of their partnership is Waffles, which Feng and Shaw promote as a side pillow, travel companion, or cuddle buddy.

    “He is also perfect for taking to the office, because he provides comfort due to his adorable appearance and cuddly form,” Feng tells CultureMap. “You can also just leave him to chill at home on the couch or bed as a super-soft lounge pillow. His versatility makes him perfect to use anywhere.”

    Waffles’ soft “coat” is made of polyester. To clean the Corgi, you remove the memory-foam cushion through a Velcro opening on Waffles’ tummy and then toss his “fur” in the washer.

    Aside from its cute-and-cuddly appeal, Waffles is a product with a purpose. For every Waffles “adopted,” Feng and Shaw’s company will donate $1 to Queen’s Best Stumpy Dog Rescue, a California-based nonprofit that provides rehabilitation and “rehoming” services for Corgis and Corgi mixes.

    In the works is a tricolor Pembroke Welsh Corgi produced with the same materials as Waffles, Feng says.

    “Our goal is to make more memory-foam dog breeds in the future so that all dog lovers can get a memory-foam dog that resembles their own, or if they can’t get a dog, they can get the next best thing to one,” she tells CultureMap.

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    news/innovation

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    brain scientists at work

    Rice University scientists invent new algorithm to fight Alzheimer's

    Jef Rouner
    Oct 24, 2025 | 3:00 pm
    Vicky Yao and Qiliang Lai of Rice University work on a laptop.
    Photo courtesy of Rice University
    Vicky Yao, an assistant professor of computer science and member of the Ken Kennedy Institute at Rice University, and Qiliang Lai, a Rice postdoctoral researcher

    A new breakthrough from researchers at Rice University could unlock the genetic components that determine several human diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.

    Alzheimer's disease affected 57 million people worldwide in 2021, and cases in the United States are expected to double in the next couple of decades. Despite its prevalence and widespread attention of the condition, the full mechanisms are still poorly understood. One hurdle has been identifying which brain cells are linked to the disease.

    For years, it was thought that the cells most linked with Alzheimer's pathology via DNA evidence were microglia, infection-fighting cells in the brain. However, this did not match with actual studies of Alzheimer's patients' brains. It's the memory-making cells in the human brain that are implicated in the pathology.

    To prove this link, researchers at Rice alongside Boston University developed a computational algorithm called “Single-cell Expression Integration System for Mapping genetically implicated Cell types," or SEISMIC. It allows researchers to zero in on specific neurons linked to Alzheimer's, the first of its kind. Qiliang Lai, a Rice doctoral student and the lead author of a paper on the discovery published in Nature Communications, believes that this is an important step in the fight against Alzheimer's.

    “As we age, some brain cells naturally slow down, but in dementia ⎯ a memory-loss disease ⎯ specific brain cells actually die and can’t be replaced,” said Lai. “The fact that it is memory-making brain cells dying and not infection-fighting brain cells raises this confusing puzzle where DNA evidence and brain evidence don’t match up.”

    Studying Alzheimer's has been hampered by the limitations of computational analysis. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) map small differences in the DNA of Alzheimer's patients. The genetic signal in these studies would often over-emphasize the presence of infection fighting cells, essentially making the activity of those cells too "loud" statistically to identify other factors. Combined with greater specificity in brain regional activity, SEISMIC reduces the data chatter to grant a clearer picture of the genetic component of Alzheimer's.

    “We built our seismic algorithm to analyze genetic information and match it precisely to specific types of brain cells,” Lai said. “This enables us to create a more detailed picture of which cell types are affected by which genetic programs.”

    Though the algorithm is not in and of itself likely to lead to a cure or treatment for Alzheimer's any time soon, the researchers say that SEISMIC is already performing significantly better than existing tools at identifying important disease-relevant cellular signals more clearly.

    “We think this work could help reconcile some contradicting patterns in the data pertaining to Alzheimer’s research,” said Vicky Yao, assistant professor of computer science and a member of the Ken Kennedy Institute at Rice. “Beyond that, the method will likely be broadly valuable to help us better understand which cell types are relevant in different complex diseases.”

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