Houston Business Journal, April 7, 2007 HOUSTON - Working together to solve a medical research challenge has led to the formation of a joint venture by a small biotech research operation based at The University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston and a Houston-based technology company. When AptaMed, Inc. needed help to automate a key process in the development of strands of chemically modified DNA known as thioaptamers, it called NASA's Space Alliance Technology Outreach Program.