Robert Kimberly, M.D., senior associate dean for Clinical and Translational Research at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine, has been elected as a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors.
Election to NAI fellow status is the highest professional distinction accorded solely to academic inventors who have demonstrated a prolific spirit of innovation in creating or facilitating outstanding inventions that have made a tangible impact on quality of life, economic development and the welfare of society.
Kimberly, the Howard L. Holley Professor in the Division of Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology in the Department of Medicine, is one of 148 newly elected fellows in the class of 2018, joining more than 1,000 NAI fellows, representing more than 250 research universities and government and nonprofit research institutes. The 2018 fellows are named inventors on nearly 4,000 issued United States patents, bringing the collective patents held by all NAI fellows to more than 35,000 issued U.S. patents.
Kimberly and colleagues hold patents in genetics and the contributions of genetic variation to disease, including how genetic variants affect the ability of antibodies to bind to certain receptors. Differences in binding affinity affect not only autoimmune disease risk but also the efficiency of response to therapeutic monoclonal antibodies.
He also holds patents on several novel therapeutic monoclonal antibodies for treatment of autoimmune disease and cancer. Ongoing investigations of heretofore undescribed recombinants in the human gene cluster for receptors for antibodies may have important implications for precision therapeutics as part of initiatives in precision medicine.
The 2018 NAI fellows will be highlighted with a full-page announcement in the Jan. 25, 2019 issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education and in upcoming issues of Technology & Innovation.
Kimberly is the seventh UAB faculty member to be elected a fellow of NAI. The complete list of fellows is available on the NAI website.