Each spring for the past several years the USC Stevens Center for Innovation has hosted a reception to celebrate inventors at the University of Southern California. Researchers whose technology was licensed for the first time during the previous calendar year received a lucite award to recognize their achievement.

In addition, researchers who were named on a U.S. Patent that was issued during the previous calendar year are inducted into the USC Chapter of the National Academy of Inventors. The USC Chapter of the NAI was launched in 2017 and, with more than 320 members, is now one of the largest in the United States.

Unfortunately, due to the current situation we are unable to host an in-person event. Instead, Executive Director Jennifer Dyer sent emails on May 12 to congratulate researchers on their achievements.

“While we aren’t able to hold an in-person event, we want to recognize USC inventors and the technologies that were licensed or patented in 2020,” said Dyer.

A list of the 25 USC Stevens Technology Commercialization Award winners is below. It is followed by a list of this year’s inductees into the USC Chapter of the National Academy of Inventors. Each list is sorted by inventor school.

Technology Commercialization Awardees

Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism

Laura Davis and Jennifer de la Fuente
Amy the Stylebot

Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

Joseph Dunham and Scott E. Fraser
Partially Locked Dendritic Nucleic Acid Hairpins With Disrupted Base Stacking

Peter Kuhn, James Hicks, Anand Kolatkar, Nicholas Matsumoto, Rafael Nevarez, and Carmen Ruiz Velasco
OCULAR Technologies and Software for Rare Cell Identification and Classification

Emily Liman
Proton Channels as Targets for Pharmaceutical Discovery

Charles McKenna
Bone-Targeted Antimicrobials for Biofilm-Mediated Osteolytic Infections

Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry

Parish Sedghizadeh
Bone-Targeted Antimicrobials for Biofilm-Mediated Osteolytic Infections

Danhong Zhu
Instruments and Methods for the Implantation of Cell-Seeded Substrates

Keck School of Medicine of USC

Tyler Ard
Schol-AR Augmented Reality Mobile Application

David Armstrong
Method for Treating Subjects Suffering From Chronic Ulcers

Preet Chaudhary
Novel Antigen Binding Domains

Alan Epstein
Multiple Monoclonal Antibodies for Identification of Various Cellular Properties

David Hinton and Mark Humayun
Instruments and Methods for the Implantation of Cell-Seeded Substrates

W. Martin Kast
C3.43 Cell Line for Testing Drugs or Vaccine Candidates

Janos Peti Peterdi
Targeting Macula Densa Cells as a New Therapeutic Approach for Kidney Disease

School of Pharmacy

Yong Zhang
Monoclonal Antibody Inhibitors Targeting Cathepsin B Protease

Viterbi School of Engineering

Steve Nutt and Lessa Grunenfelder
Method to Produce High-Permeability Composite Prepreg

Inductee Into the USC Chapter of the National Academy of Inventors

Viterbi School of Engineering

Francisco Valero-Cuevas
Implanted Passive Engineering Mechanisms and Methods for Their Use and Manufacture

In addition, 65 researchers who are already members of the USC NAI Chapter were awarded an additional patent in 2020. USC is also home to 21 NAI Fellows, a program that the NAI established “…to highlight academic inventors who have demonstrated a prolific spirit of innovation in creating or facilitating outstanding inventions that have made a tangible impact on 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.”