MUSC Chapter of National Academy of Inventors Inducts 4 New Members

FRD Contact: Harriette E. Bayse
843-876-1901
bayse@musc.edu

Feb. 26, 2018

CHARLESTON, SC – The MUSC Chapter of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI) inducted four members at its fourth annual induction ceremony and celebration January 17.

Thomas Trusk, Ph.D., research associate professor, Department of Regenerative Medicine and Cell Biology and Joseph Ruscito, Zucker Institute of Applied Neurosciences (ZIAN) engineer, were inducted as members. Also inducted were two honorary members, Sarah Ball, PharmD, Department of General Internal Medicine and Ragan DuBose-Morris, Ph.D., Center for Telehealth.

“It is an honor to welcome such deserving individuals into our Chapter and to recognize their innovative contributions to medicine,” MUSC Foundation for Research Development Executive Director Michael Rusnak stated. “Our local chapter now has nearly 100 members and we look forward to adding many more in 2018.”

In addition to honoring these new members, FRD handed out 13 patent plaques to other inventors, bringing the total issued patents by MUSC inventors to more than 160. Patent plates honoring MUSC innovation will be added to the Innovation Garden Wall outside the Bioengineering Building. FRD now has supported more than 1600 invention disclosures, 700 patent filings, and 50 faculty startups representing over 800 MUSC inventors.

The Medical University of South Carolina has been a member institution of the NAI since 2014 and launched the MUSC chapter of the NAI in 2015. Universities and non-profit research institutes establish NAI chapters to recognize and encourage their community of inventors. Currently there are a total of 43 NAI Chapters worldwide encompassing nearly 2,400 chapter members. NAI chapter members collectively hold more than 14,000 issued U.S. patents and have made significant contributions to the innovation eco-systems of their respective institutions. 

About the National Academy of Inventors
The National Academy of Inventors (NAI) is a non-profit member organization comprising U.S. and international universities, and governmental and non-profit research institutes, with over 4,000 individual inventor members and Fellows spanning more than 250 institutions worldwide. 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.

About the MUSC Foundation for Research Development
MUSC Foundation for Research Development (FRD) has served as MUSC's technology transfer office since 1998. During that period, FRD has filed patent applications on more than 400 technologies, resulting in over 150 U.S. issued patents. Additionally, FRD has executed more than 150 licenses and spun out more than 50 startup companies. MUSC startups have had products approved by the FDA and acquired by publicly traded corporations while attracting substantial investment dollars into South Carolina. Innovations from MUSC, including medical devices, therapies and software, are positively impacting health care worldwide. Please visit us online at Foundation for Research Development.

About MUSC

Founded in 1824 in Charleston, MUSC is the oldest medical school in the South, as well as the state’s only integrated, academic health sciences center with a unique charge to serve the state through education, research and patient care. Each year, MUSC educates and trains more than 3,000 students and more than 850 residents in six colleges: Dental Medicine, Graduate Studies, Health Professions, Medicine, Nursing and Pharmacy. The state’s leader in obtaining biomedical research funds, in fiscal year 2019, MUSC set a new high, bringing in more than $284 million. Find out more about our academic programs.

As the health care system of the Medical University of South Carolina, MUSC Health is dedicated to delivering the highest quality and safest patient care while educating and training generations of outstanding health care providers and leaders to serve the people of South Carolina and beyond. Patient care is provided at 14 hospitals with approximately 2,500 beds and five additional hospital locations in development, more than 350 telehealth sites and connectivity to patients’ homes, and nearly 750 care locations situated in all regions of South Carolina. In 2021, for the seventh consecutive year, U.S. News & World Report named MUSC Health the No. 1 hospital in South Carolina. Learn more about clinical patient services.

MUSC and its affiliates have collective annual budgets of $4.4 billion. The nearly 25,000 MUSC team members include world-class faculty, physicians, specialty providers and scientists who deliver groundbreaking education, research, technology and patient care.