VIMM and VCU Massey Cancer researcher Paul B. Fisher, MPh, PhD, was recently selected to join a prestigious national organization of academic inventors. Dr. Fisher has been elected as a member of the
National Academy of Inventors
(NAI), a nonprofit organization that enhances the visibility of academic technology and innovation as a means to ultimately benefit society. He will be inducted among 155 renowned NAI Fellows on April 5, 2018, in Washington, D.C. This is the highest professional accolade bestowed to academic inventors. The NAI Fellows Selection Committee chose Fisher because he “has demonstrated a highly prolific spirit of innovation in creating and facilitating outstanding inventions that have made a tangible impact on quality of life, economic development and the welfare of society.”
Dr. Fisher said “I am excited and honored to be placed in the company of so many high impact and outstanding scientists and entrepreneurs. In this role, I look forward to contributing to an enhanced national culture of academic invention through translation of our innovative research into patented inventions with potential for improved diagnosis and treatment of cancer, neurodegeneration and infectious diseases. Our discoveries also have significant commercial potential.”
Research from Dr. Fisher’s lab has resulted in an enhanced understanding of cancer progression and metastasis that has culminated in the development of viruses that selectively kill cancer cells, informed a more effective delivery of therapeutic viruses and proteins in vivo in pre-clinical animal cancer models and led to innovative approaches for non-invasively imaging metastases in vivo. Dr. Fisher has over 55 issued U.S. patents in addition to multiple foreign patents. He has nearly 600 primary and review papers. He founded GenQuest, Inc., when at Colubmia University, College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York. GenQuest, Inc. merged with Corixa Corporation, traded on NASDAQ and was acquired by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). He co-founded Cancer Targeting Systems, Inc., a Virginia- and Maryland-based company focused on imaging and therapy for metastatic cancer in 2014. He recently also co-founded InVaMet Therapeutics, focusing on small molecule anti-invasive and anti-metastatic drugs, and InterLeukin Combinatorial Therapeutics, which develops novel cytokine-based therapies for cancer.
NAI Fellows have produced more than 9,400 licensed technologies and companies and created more than 1.3 million jobs, with over $137 billion in revenue generated based on their discoveries.
