University of Pittsburgh faculty members José-Alain Sahel and Prashant N. Kumta have been elected Fellows of the National Academy of Inventors.
Sahel, Distinguished Professor of the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and Endowed Chair of the Eye and Ear Foundation, is a global trailblazer in vision restoration research. Kumta, Distinguished Professor of Bioengineering and and Edward R. Weidlin Endowed Chair in the Departments of Bioengineering, Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science, and Chemical and Petroleum Engineering at the Swanson School of Engineering, and an appointment to the Department of Oral and Craniofacial Sciences at the School of Dental Medicine. He is a pioneer in a breathtaking array of research fields, including advanced nanostructured materials for energy storage, energy conversion, tissue engineering and biomaterials.
The NAI Fellows program highlights academic inventors who have demonstrated a spirit of innovation in creating or facilitating outstanding inventions that have made a tangible impact on the quality of life, economic development, and the welfare of society. Sahel and Kumta are the 13th and 14th Pitt faculty to be named NAI Fellows since its inaugural class in 2015.
The 2023 Fellow class hails from 118 research universities, governmental and non-profit research institutions worldwide. This class includes 89 individuals from the Association of American Universities (AAU) institutions and 128 individuals from R1 universities that boast very high research activity. Collectively, the 2023 Fellows hold over 4,600 issued U.S. patents.
“Drs. Sahel and Kumta come from very different research fields, but they both share characteristics of illustrious Pitt innovators past and present,” said Evan Facher, Vice Chancellor for Innovation and Entrepreneurship and Associate Dean for Commercial Translation at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. “They do not limit themselves to a single approach to solving a problem and they are committed to translating scientific discoveries into real-world products and services that make a difference in people’s lives.”
Under Dr. Sahel’s leadership, Pitt’s Department of Ophthalmology has become a global leader in vision restoration research across multiple fronts, ranging from cell therapies, gene therapies, and optogenetics, to advanced high-resolution imaging, optic nerve regeneration, prosthetic vision and brain stimulation, and more.
Excitingly, in the spring of 2022, Dr. Sahel, together with collaborators from institutes in Paris and Basel, Switzerland, published a paper in Nature Medicine reporting the first-ever case of partial vision recovery in a blind patient using optogenetic therapy – manipulating proteins and cells with light.
Dr. Sahel has been prolific in developing and licensing intellectual property. He is a co-inventor on more than 40 patents worldwide, many of which have been licensed to startup companies, including Fovea Pharmaceuticals, which was later acquired by Sanofi Aventis. Others include GenSight Biologics Inc., Pixium Vision Inc., Tilak Healthcare, Chronolife, Prophsee, and Sparing Vision.
Pitt’s clinical partner, UPMC, opened a new research hospital in Pittsburgh’s Uptown neighborhood this year, Mercy Pavilion, centered on Dr. Sahel’s work as director of the UPMC Vision Institute, along with that of Gwendolyn Sowa, director of the UPMC Rehabilitation Institute. In tandem with the construction of new research hospital, the Henry L. Hillman Foundation in Pittsburgh last year committed $20 million to support vision research under Dr. Sahel’s purview.
Dr. Kumta’s work in nanomaterials has resulted in innovations across fields as varied as energy storage, tissue engineering, and biomaterials.
He began his career researching economical and scalable ways to create nanostructured materials for high performance lithium-on batteries, forming a partnership with Energizer to bring those innovations to market. He also developed new approaches for creating non-oxide ceramics used in supercapacitors and electrocatalysts for hydrogen fuel cells.
Later he moved into biomaterials and biotechnology, inventing “NanoCaPs,”or nanostructured complexes made of calcium phosphate that can deliver plasmid genes and growth factors to promote bone regeneration. This technology promises to provide significant relief to people suffering from bone loss due to traumatic injury and diseases such as osteoporosis and bone cancer.
He also created new biodegradable metallic alloys for use in tracheal stents and bone fixation devices. His work in tissue engineering is also helping to create customized implant tissue scaffolds for patients.
Kumta has been issued 42 patents for his innovations, which have been licensed to numerous companies, including to Changs Ascending Enterprise Company, Biobone LLC, Formabone Inc., InCube Labs; the National Energy Technology Laboratory and Flexcellz Inc.
He is also developing the next generation of innovators, having served as mentor to 45 pre-doctoral graduates students and 34 postdoctoral researchers.