Two NIH Investigators Named NAI Fellows
NIH scientists Dr. John O’Shea and Dr. Steven Rosenberg have been selected as 2025 National Academy of Inventors (NAI) fellows.
The NAI is a 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.
O’Shea is a senior investigator and chief of the Molecular Immunology and Inflammation Branch at NIH’s National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS), a position he has held since 2002, where he studies cytokine signaling transduction. He served as the NIAMS scientific director of Intramural Research for 20 years, from 2005 until 2025.
Rosenberg is chief of the Surgery Branch at NIH’s National Cancer Institute. He pioneered the first effective immunotherapies for patients with advanced cancer. His basic and clinical studies of interleukin-2 directly resulted in FDA approval of this immunotherapy for the treatment of patients with metastatic melanoma and renal cancer. Many of these patients remain disease-free more than 25 years after treatment.
NAI Fellowship is the highest professional distinction awarded solely to inventors. Together, the 2025 class holds more than 5,300 U.S. patents and includes recipients of the Nobel Prize, the National Medals of Science and Technology & Innovation, and members of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, among others. This year’s 169 U.S. fellows represent 127 universities, government agencies and research institutions across 40 U.S. states.
Spanning every major field of discovery, including quantum computing, artificial intelligence and regenerative medicine, NAI fellows are tackling the biggest and most pressing issues of our time. Their success in translating research into products and services that improve lives demonstrates the continuing importance of the U.S. patent system.
The NAI Fellows program was founded in 2012 and has grown to include 2,253 distinguished researchers and innovators, who hold more than 86,000 U.S. patents and 20,000 licensed technologies. Their innovations have generated an estimated $3.8 trillion in revenue and 1.4 million jobs.