Pinchas Cohen, Dean of the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, has been named a Senior Member of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI).
Cohen is one of six USC faculty members welcomed to the 2025 class of Senior Members. NAI Senior Members are “active faculty, scientists, and administrators with success in patents, licensing, and commercialization and have produced technologies that have brought or aspire to bring real impact on the welfare of society,” according to the NAI website.
Cohen, USC Distinguished Professor of Gerontology, Medicine and Biological Sciences, is an internationally recognized expert on healthy aging and longevity. He is an expert in the study of mitochondrial microproteins and their therapeutic potential for diabetes, Alzheimer’s, and other diseases related to aging. A member of the USC chapter of the NAI since 2017, he holds several patents for novel peptides and is the cofounder of CohBar, a biotechnology company developing mitochondrial peptides for diabetes.
“I am deeply honored by this recognition from the NAI,” Cohen said. “It’s a privilege to join this group of innovators, each of whom have transformed their ideas into inventions that will improve lives around the globe.”
Cohen has received numerous awards for his research, including a National Institute of Aging “EUREKA” Award and the National Institutes of Health Director Transformative RO1 Grant. He also received the American Federation of Aging Research Irving S. Wright Award of Distinction and the Glenn Award for Research in Biological Mechanisms of Aging. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and of the Gerontological Society of America.
The National Academy of Inventors is a member organization comprised of U.S. and international universities, as well as governmental and non-profit research institutes, with over 4,600 individual inventor members and Fellows spanning more than 260 institutions worldwide. It was founded in 2010 to recognize and encourage inventors with patents issued from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), 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.
This year’s class of NAI Senior Members is the organization’s largest to date and is comprised of 162 individuals from 64 NAI Member Institutions across the nation. Collectively, they are named inventors on over 1200 U.S. patents. The 2025 class of Senior Members will be celebrated during the Senior Member Induction Ceremony at NAI’s 14th Annual Conference taking place June 23-26th, 2025 in Atlanta, Georgia.
“To see this program grow year over year is a testament to the dedication our Member Institutions have to fostering innovation on their campuses and supporting their inventive staff and faculty,” said Paul R. Sanberg, President of NAI. “This year’s class comes from a multitude of impressive fields and research backgrounds from across the world. We applaud their pursuit of commercialization to ensure their groundbreaking technologies can make a difference by tackling the world’s most pressing issues, improving quality of life across society, and advancing the economy.”
News release courtesy of the NAI; additional reporting by Beth Newcomb
