Four ASBMB Members Named 2025 National Academy of Inventors Fellows
核心洞察
The National Academy of Inventors (搜索) (NAI) named four American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (搜索) (ASBMB) members as 2025 fellows: Carol Carter, Carlito Lebrilla, Alan Saltiel and Timothy Springer.
NAI Fellow status is the highest professional distinction awarded solely to academic inventors holding U.S. patents with tangible societal impact.
Alan Saltiel led preclinical development of troglitazone, an FDA-approved type 2 diabetes (搜索) drug, and developed the first MAP kinase inhibitors approved for melanoma (搜索) and other cancers.
The National Academy of Inventors (搜索) (NAI) has announced its 2025 fellows, a class that includes four members of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (搜索) (ASBMB): Carol Carter, Carlito Lebrilla, Alan Saltiel and Timothy Springer. NAI fellows hold U.S. patents and have created or facilitated inventions that have made a tangible impact on the quality of life, economic development and the welfare of society. Election to NAI Fellow status is the highest professional distinction accorded solely to academic inventors. The 2025 class will be honored at the NAI 15th Annual Conference on June 4, 2026.
Drug Discovery Contributions of Alan Saltiel
Among the honorees, Alan Saltiel, a distinguished professor of medicine and pharmacology at the University of California, San Diego, carries particularly notable translational achievements in drug development. His laboratory focuses on how cells use and store energy in response to hormones and nutrients in health and disease, with a major emphasis on uncovering the molecular mechanisms of insulin action. He discovered key proteins that help insulin manage sugar and identified new mechanisms of cellular communication that shape metabolic health.
Saltiel has led drug discovery efforts in diabetes, obesity and cancer. He led preclinical studies on troglitazone, a drug approved for treating type 2 diabetes (搜索). He also developed the first mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase inhibitors for cancer treatment, which received U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for melanoma (搜索) and other cancers. Saltiel is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and a fellow of ASBMB and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
Virology and HIV Research of Carol Carter
Carol Carter is a distinguished professor of microbiology and immunology at the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University. Her laboratory studies the viral assembly events necessary for pathogens such as human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1 (搜索)) to escape from host cells, as well as the cellular machinery recruited for this process. Her work isolating and purifying viral-encoded proteases and capsid proteins advanced understanding of their structure and potential as drug targets.
Carter discovered an interaction between a motif encoded in a structural protein of HIV-1 (搜索) and a host protein, Tsg101 (搜索), which is essential for viral particle assembly and escape from infected cells by budding, opening new fields of investigation in virology and cell biology. In 2024, Carter was elected a fellow of the National Academy of Sciences.
Analytical Chemistry and Glycobiology of Carlito Lebrilla
Carlito Lebrilla is a professor of chemistry and biochemistry and molecular medicine at the University of California, Davis. His laboratory identifies and characterizes molecules that shape nutrition, health and disease, focusing on oligosaccharides and glycosylation of proteins and lipids. Lebrilla invented and developed advanced analytical tools, including mass spectrometry methods and separation techniques, to analyze biomolecules such as carbohydrates. These tools have been useful in monitoring how human milk oligosaccharides interact with infant gut bacteria and in understanding the role of various fibers in adult diets.
Recognition and Impact
The NAI fellows are recognized for holding U.S. patents and for creating or facilitating inventions that have made a tangible impact on quality of life, economic development and the welfare of society. The 2025 class will be formally honored at the NAI 15th Annual Conference on June 4, 2026.