The National Academy of Inventors (NAI) has named five Case Western Reserve University researchers to its 2025 class of senior members in recognition of their success in patents, licensing, and commercialization.
Named NAI senior members were: Niloy Bhadra, Shuo Li, Michael Suster, David Wald and Christian Zorman.
NAI senior members are active faculty, scientists and administrators who “have produced technologies that have brought or aspire to bring, real impact on the welfare of society.”
“The NAI’s announcement is a terrific recognition of our faculty’s outstanding discoveries and achievements,” said Michael Oakes, senior vice president for research and technology management at Case Western Reserve. “Their work exemplifies how research universities can leverage federal grants, including overhead funding, to find important solutions to real-world problems. Research plays a vital role in advancing health, enhancing communities and driving economic growth.”
With 162 emerging inventors, the 2025 class of senior members is the largest to date and hails from 64 NAI member institutions nationally. Collectively, they are named inventors on more than 1200 U.S. patents.
The 2025 class of senior members will be inducted at NAI’s annual conference June 23-26 in Atlanta, Georgia.
CWRU’s new NAI senior members
Niloy Bhadra is an emeritus associate professor at MetroHealth Medical Center and was an associate professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, staff scientist in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the MetroHealth Medical Center and an adjunct assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Case School of Engineering. His research includes the implementation of neuroprosthetic systems in individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI) and investigation of electrical nerve blocks for the amelioration of spasticity, pain and autonomic dysfunctions. He has wide experience in kilo Hertz frequency alternating current (KHFAC) nerve block and in direct current (DC) nerve block. Bhadra, who was also an investigator at the Cleveland FES Center, has more than 60 publications on KHFAC and direct current nerve block and is an inventor on more than 70 patents in the field of electrical nerve block. Neuros Medical, which had licensed his patents for the treatment of recalcitrant post-amputation neuroma pain, recently achieved pre-marketing approval (PMA) for commercialization of their device from the FDA.
Shuo Li is the Leonard Case, Jr. endowed chair professor in engineering at Case Western Reserve, a professor in Department of Computer and Data Sciences at Case School of Engineering and a member of the Cancer Imaging Program at the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center. His ongoing research focuses on the development of image-centered artificial intelligence (AI) systems that are designed to solve the most challenging clinical and fundamental data analytics problems in various fields, including cardiology, radiology, urology, surgery, rehabilitation, and cancer.
Li has more than 300 publications and has served as editor for six Springer books and associate editor for several prestigious journals. Li is also a fellow of SPIE.
Michael Suster is a research assistant professor in the Department of Electrical, Computer, and Systems Engineering at Case School of Engineering. His research is in biomedical microsystems—especially the development and clinical translation of miniaturized, microfluidic-based platforms featuring electronic measurement techniques and their application to point-of-care assessment of blood coagulation and red blood cell disorders. He is a co-inventor of the ClotChip, a portable sensor to quickly assess the clotting ability of a person’s blood. The technology was developed at CWRU and licensed to XaTek, where Suster serves as the consulting technical lead in commercializing the ClotChip system.
David Wald is the John D. Crissman and Francis D. Drake Professor in Pathology at the School of Medicine as well as co-leader of the Immune Oncology Program and Director of the Hematopoietic Biorepository and Cell Therapy Shared Resource at the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center. His research aims to identify and develop novel therapeutic strategies for cancer, with a particular focus on adoptive cell therapies. His laboratory has led efforts to develop small molecule, NK cell and T cell products that have all transitioned into early phase clinical trials.
Christian A. Zorman is the F. Alex Nason Professor I in the Department of Electrical, Computer, and Systems Engineering with secondary faculty appointments in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. He also serves as senior associate dean at Case School of Engineering and director of the Microfabrication Laboratory. He specializes in the development of emerging materials and nonconventional fabrication techniques for micro and nanosystems, with a focus on applications in aerospace, human health and flexible electronics. He has authored more than 300 publications in areas related to micro- and nanotechnology and holds 13 U.S. patents.