James Crowe Jr., MD, director of the Vanderbilt Vaccine Center at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC), has been named a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI).
Crowe, the Ann Scott Carell Professor in the Departments of Pediatrics and of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology in the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, is one of 155 fellows elected this year and the fourth fellow from Vanderbilt elected since 2015.
Election as an NAI Fellow is a high honor bestowed upon academic leaders who have demonstrated a prolific “spirit of innovation” in creating or facilitating outstanding inventions that have made a tangible positive impact on society.
Crowe was recognized for developing innovative technologies for the isolation and study of antiviral antibodies and for significantly advancing, through his pioneering work in computational immunology, the rational design of vaccines and antibodies.
He and his colleagues have isolated human monoclonal antibodies for many pathogenic viruses, including Zika, HIV, dengue, influenza, Ebola, norovirus, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and rotavirus. Their research has led to patents and licensures for several neutralizing antibodies and vaccines, some of which have progressed to clinical trials.
“Vanderbilt has been a great place to do basic science studies in humans that can be translated into development of new biologic drugs, which are novel and thus valuable as inventions,” Crowe said. “The scientific, medical and tech transfer environment here is well integrated to facilitate our group’s success in inventing the drugs of tomorrow.”
Those elected to the rank of NAI Fellow are named inventors on U.S. patents. Nominated by their peers, they are chosen by the distinguished NAI Fellows Selection Committee for outstanding contributions to innovation, discovery, technology and impact on society.
The 2017 fellows will be recognized Jan. 19, 2018, in The Chronicle of Higher Education and in upcoming issues of Science and the NAI journal, Technology and Innovation. They will be inducted into the academy April 5 during the 7th annual NAI Conference in Washington, D.C.
There are now 912 NAI fellows representing more than 250 research universities and governmental and non-profit research institutes. The 2017 fellows are named inventors on nearly 6,000 issued U.S. patents, bringing the collective patents held by all NAI fellows to more than 32,000 issued U.S. patents.
Previously named NAI fellows from Vanderbilt are John Gore, PhD, director of the Vanderbilt University Institute of Imaging Science, elected in 2015, and Harold (Hal) Moses, MD, director emeritus of the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, and Philippe Fauchet, PhD, dean of Vanderbilt University School of Engineering, both elected last year.
A member of the National Academy of Medicine, Crowe has won numerous awards for his research and for his mentorship of medical and graduate students and postdoctoral fellows.
Earlier this year he received the Stanley J. Korsmeyer Award from the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the Samuel Rosenthal Prize for Excellence in Academic Pediatrics from the Leighton A. Rosenthal Family Foundation and Milton A. and Charlotte R. Kramer Charitable Foundation in Cleveland, Ohio.