Duke Researchers Selected to National Academy of Inventors

Two Duke innovators will become NAI Fellows: Aravind Asokan, for gene therapy delivery work, and Adam Wax, for medical imaging and optics advances

NAI logo over background of close up pipette work in a lab.

The National Academy of Inventors (NAI) today released the list of newly inducted fellows, and two Duke researchers have been selected to join this prestigious organization: professors Aravind Asokan and Adam Wax.

Asokan is recognized as a pioneer in gene therapy research. His work focuses on improving the capabilities of what are known as adeno-associated viral vectors, the engineered viruses often used to deliver genetic treatments inside the body. Asokan’s inventions have earned him numerous patents, many of which have been licensed to leading biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies.

He has co-founded six companies, including Bamboo Therapeutics (acquired by Pfizer), StrideBio (acquired by Ginkgo Bioworks), and Torque Bio. Beyond a technology pipeline, Asokan has also created a talent pipeline, mentoring dozens of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows – many of whom have gone on to leadership roles in industry, including within his own startups.

Asokan is a professor of surgery and of molecular genetics and microbiology at the Duke University School of Medicine, a professor of biomedical engineering at the Pratt School of Engineering, and an affiliate of the Duke Regeneration Center and the Center for Advanced Genomic Technologies.

Headshot of Aravind Asokan
Professor Aravind Asokan

Wax is an expert in medical imaging and optical technologies. His innovations are being used to improve medical imaging systems like endoscopy for esophageal cancer and optical coherence tomography, for industrial uses and ophthalmology.

Wax is a professor of biomedical engineering at the Pratt School of Engineering, professor of physics at the Trinity College of Arts & Sciences, and a member of the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences and the Duke Cancer Institute.

Headshot of Adam Wax
Professor Adam Wax

Wax’s patents have been licensed to industry, notably two startups he founded: Oncoscope (acquired by SpectraScience) and Lumedica. He also has helped train many rising researchers though his lab and beyond. Wax has served as director of graduate studies and the head of the master’s program in the biomedical engineering department. Learn more about Wax’s work in this Pratt article.

The addition of Asokan and Wax brings the total number of NAI Fellows at Duke up to 28, joining luminaries such as Nobel Prize winners Robert Lefkowtiz and Paul Modrich.

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.

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.