Six Tufts Faculty Named National Academy of Inventors Senior Members
Six Tufts faculty members have been named to the 2024 class of senior members of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI). With this recognition, the six are among a total of 124 highly accomplished emerging academic inventors, as identified by NAI’s 60 member institutions.
NAI senior members are active faculty, scientists, and administrators from NAI member institutions who have demonstrated remarkable innovation producing technologies that have brought, or aspire to bring, real impact on the welfare of society. At the same time, they have increasing success in patents, licensing, and commercialization—while also educating and mentoring the next generation of inventors.
This year’s senior members from Tufts are:
- Joshua Kritzer, professor of chemistry, School of Arts and Sciences
- Cheryl London, Anne Engen and Dusty Professor in Comparative Oncology, and associate dean for research and graduate education, Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine
- Charlie Mace, associate professor of chemistry, School of Arts and Sciences
- Mohan Thanikachalam, research assistant professor, Department of Public Health and Community Medicine, School of Medicine
- Qiaobing Xu, professor of biomedical engineering and chemical and biological engineering, School of Engineering
- Pamela Yelick, professor of orthodontics and director of the Division of Craniofacial and Molecular Genetics, School of Dental Medicine
“We at Tufts have long known that the university’s research ecosystem is strengthened by the contributions of these six faculty members,” said Bernard Arulanandam, Tufts’ vice provost for research. “The university is proud to have their innovation and accomplishments now also recognized by the NAI.”
Mohan Thanikachalam is currently the lead investigator at Tufts University for the PURSE-HIS Study, a population-based cross-sectional study in 8,042 South Asians. The study aims to assess the prevalence and cause of overt and sub-clinical endovascular disease in urban, semi-urban, and rural communities in India. Thanikachalam previously established a new healthcare delivery model for comprehensive, cost-effective diabetes and cardiac care in India, and a biomedical engineering research facility to develop a range of implantable cardiac devices, including a patented implantable intraventricular assist device currently being commercialized.
Thanikachalam also led a joint effort between Tufts and MIT to develop the ViTrack®, a first-of-its-kind, cuff-less, wearable technology for real-world continuous, non-invasive blood pressure and other advanced hemodynamic parameters. The technology was awarded the Breakthrough Innovation in Cardiovascular Digital Health HRX 2023 by the Heart Rhythm Society and the American College of Cardiology Innovation Award in 2023. The technology is expected to be available in the market by 2025. He also led the development of a mobile phone-enabled peripheral neuropathy analyzer for persons with diabetes, and led efforts to develop a patch ultrasound sensor as a point-of-care device for home monitoring of extra-vascular lung water for remote management of congestive heart failure. Thanikachalam's research has been supported by various institutes of the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation.
Read more at TuftsNow.