Pictured Above: Michael Hindle, Ph.D.

Two VCU inventors from separate scientific disciplines – pharmaceutics and computer science — were formally recognized in June by the National Academy of Inventors for their contributions to society from their efforts in Richmond.

Michael Hindle, Ph.D., was inducted into the NAI Fellows Program, along with 168 other American academic inventors who gained the organization’s highest professional distinction.
 
Hindle leads the Aerosol Research Group on the MCV Campus of VCU and holds the Peter R. Byron Distinguished Professorship in the VCU School of Pharmacy. Hindle, along P. Worth Longest, Ph.D., a professor in the Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering at VCU College of Engineering, have collaborated for years to address challenges found in the field of medical aerosols.

He said the honor reflected the successful collaboration of the pharmacy-engineering team for the past 15 years.

See the January 2023 story on VCU News about Hindle’s career and NAI induction.

While smaller particles are more effective in delivering drugs into the lungs and airways, tiny particles are often exhaled immediately when taking a dose. Traditional aerosol delivery systems — think asthma inhalers — effectively deliver just 10% of an aerosolized dose. While acceptable for most asthma and COPD sufferers who use standard inhalers, more efficient devices are needed to effectively use inhaled drugs for complex medical conditions and in challenging patient populations such as neonates. The VCU team developed new technologies to formulate and deliver tiny particles to the lungs with much higher efficiency.

“One takeaway is how fortunate we are at VCU to have the support of VCU TechTransfer and Ventures,” Hindle said of the university’s office responsible for IP protection, licensing, and commercialization. “From my experience, VCU TechTransfer and Ventures opens the door for inventors, they provide honest technology evaluations, and then access to expert patent and licensing support. Not all universities are so lucky.”
 
With guidance from VCU TechTransfer and Ventures, in 2022 Hindle and Longest
licensed some of their IP to Quench Medical, a Minnesota-based company that identified lung cancer, severe asthma and cystic fibrosis as potential initial applications for the VCU inventors’ technology. In April, Quench secured a second $2 million Phase 2 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the National Cancer Institute for continued development of an inhaled therapy for lung cancer.

Also honored by the NAI was Milos Manic, Ph.D., a professor of computer science and director of the VCU Cybersecurity Center. He was named an NAI Senior Member, one of 95 active faculty, scientists, and administrators from NAI member institutions that “have demonstrated remarkable innovation producing technologies that have brought, or aspire to bring, real impact on the welfare of society.”

Manic’s creative thinking has created inventions using artificial intelligence for cybersecurity, energy efficiency and hard drive disk arrays, among other projects. One recent AI-based invention is the Autonomic Intelligent Cyber Sensor, co-developed with collaborators from Idaho National Laboratory. Through machine learning, AICS protects the nation’s critical infrastructure from cyberattacks. The sensor rapidly updates decoy virtual hosts — known as honeypots — to
distract hackers from targets, which provides time to identify the threat.

The NAI was founded in 2010 to recognize and encourage inventors with patents issued from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, enhance the visibility of academic technology and innovation, encourage the disclosure of intellectual property, educate and mentor innovative students, and translate the inventions of its members to benefit society.

Hindle becomes the eighth VCU inventor to be named an NAI Fellow. The others are:
Barbara D. Boyan, Ph.D., Executive Director of the Institute for Engineering and Medicine And Alice T. and William H. Goodwin Jr. Professor at VCU Biomedical Engineering

B. Frank Gupton, Ph.D., Floyd D. Gottwald Jr. Chair in Pharmaceutical Engineering and Chair of VCU Chemical and Life Science Engineering

Paul B. Fisher, M.Ph., Ph.D., Chair of VCU Human and Molecular Genetics, Director of the VCU Institute of Molecular Medicine, and Thelma Newmeyer Corman Chair in Cancer Research at the VCU Massey Cancer Center

Said M. Sebti, Ph.D.. Associate Director for Basic Research and Lacy Family Endowed Chair in Cancer Research, VCU Massey Cancer Center

Peter Pidcoe, PT, DPT, Ph.D., Director of the Engineering and Biomechanics Lab at VCU Physical Therapy

Wanchun Tang, MD, Director of the VCU Weil Institute of Emergency and Critical Care Medicine

Bennett Ward, Ph.D.. Director of Project Outreach at the VCU College of Engineering

Manic was one of three inventors from Virginia to be included in the academy’s 2023 class of senior members. He joins a list of eight Senior Members at VCU, including:

• Supriyo Bandyopadhyay, Ph.D., Electrical and Computer Engineering
• Massimo Bertino, Ph.D., Physics
•  Everett Carpenter, Ph.D., Chemistry
•  Swadesh Das, Ph.D., Human and Molecular Genetics
• Martin Mangino, Ph.D., Surgery
• P. Srirama Rao, Ph.D., Vice President of Research and Innovation
• Shunlin Ren, MD., Ph.D., Internal Medicine