According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 2.8 million Americans contract antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections each year, and about 35,000 of those infections result in death. To help improve these outcomes, Hongjun “Henry” Liang, Ph.D., a professor at the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center (TTUHSC) School of Medicine’s Department of Cell Physiology and MolecularBiophysics and the TTUHSC Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, is developing new hydrophilic nanoparticles, known as nanoantibiotics, that target bacterial infections, especially those resistant to treatment with known antibiotics. In addition to his groundbreaking work in nanoantibiotics, Liang also holds several patents related to the development of new bionanotechnologies. His U.S. Patent No. 11,332,555 for Polymer-encased Nanodisks (“Polymer-encased Nanodisks with Enhanced Buffer Compatibility”), filed on October 7, 2020 and issued on May 17, 2022, was licensed to Anatrace, a leading detergent supplier, lipids and other reagents for molecular biology and membrane protein research. Liang has been granted three additional U.S. patents since arriving at TTUHSC in 2015. To recognize these important contributions to biomedical science and engineering, Liang has been named to the 2024 class of Senior Members of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI). He will be inducted at the 13th NAI Annual Conference on June 17 in Raleigh, North Carolina. Lindsay Penrose, Ph.D., associate professor in the School of Medicine’s Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, was named a 2023 NAI Senior Member. will attend the 2023 conference and will be recognized at the 2024 conference with Liang. The NAI is a membership organization composed of U.S. and international universities, government research institutes and nonprofit organizations with more than 6,000 individual inventors and fellows representing 30 countries.
The Senior Member class of 2024 consists of 124 academic inventors representing 60 NAI member institutions across the U.S., and Liang said he is honored and humbled to join them. “My long-term goal is to understand the fundamental science of biology and leverage this knowledge to develop engineering solutions for healthcare,” said Liang. “I am fortunate to benefit from the great intellectual support available at TTUHSC and I look forward to building new collaborations with colleagues across the country to address the challenges in biomedical sciences and engineering.” The nanoantibiotics created by the Liang team resemble small hairy particles composed of many hydrophilic polymer brushes grafted onto synthetic or natural nanoparticles with defined sizes and shapes. These synthetic compounds are designed to kill bacteria via membrane disruption using a different mode of membrane remodeling that damages bacterial membranes while leaving mammalian cells intact. To date, Liang’s research into nanoantibiotics has resulted in several peer-reviewed publications. On July 26, 2022, his most recent invention in the field of nanoantibiotics was granted US patent #11,395,804 (“Hydrophilic nanostructured membrane-active antimicrobials with high activity, selectivity and biodegradability”). “We are proud of the selection of Dr. Liang to join the 2024 NAI Class of Senior Members,” said Lance McMahon, Ph.D., TTUHSC senior vice president for research and innovation. “His innovative research has unlocked the potential of nanoparticle-based technologies to combat antibiotic resistance, a serious threat to human health. Dr. Liang joins a growing list of faculty inventors recognized by the NAI for their outstanding innovations in the biomedical sciences.” NAI recognition began in 2018 when Samuel Prien, Ph.D., professor of obstetrics and gynecology at TTUHSC School of Medicine, became the university’s first NAI Senior Member. Since then, Penrose and Ted Reid, Ph.D., vice chair of the School of Medicine’s Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, were also named NAI Senior Members in 2023. In addition, Prien was named a NAI Fellow in 2021, an honor also received in 2023 by P. HemachandraReddy, Ph.D., a professor in the School of Medicine’s Department of Internal Medicine. Last among TTUHSC’s NAI Senior Members, Liang expressed deep gratitude to the university’s Office of Research Commercialization and Office of Research Innovation, Collaboration and Entrepreneurship, or RICE, for their dedication and support of their translational adventures. “As we always say,” Liang added, “we are the future of healthcare.”
This article originally appeared in Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: National Academy of Inventors names TTUHSC’s Liang a senior member
