Two Texas A&M Health faculty members selected as Class of 2026 Senior Members of the National Academy of Inventors

Two Texas A&M Health faculty members—Narendra Kumar, PhD, and Yubin Zhou, MD, PhD, FAIMBE, FRSC—have been named Senior Members of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI) Class of 2026.

The NAI program was created to recognize active faculty, scientists and administrators who have successfully produced, patented and commercialized technologies that have made an impact on the welfare of society and brought economic progress. Composed of 230 emerging inventors from 82 NAI member institutions, the Class of 2026 is the largest to date.

“I am so thrilled and humbled to be a part of NAI,” said Kumar, an associate professor from the Texas A&M University Irma Lerma Rangel College of Pharmacy. “This distinction is a testament to the progress we have made, making it a fitting tribute to our College of Pharmacy’s 20th anniversary.”

Kumar is a tenured associate professor at the Texas A&M Irma Lerma Rangel College of Pharmacy and cofounder of ProJ-diapeutics Inc (PJD). He holds a PhD from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in biotechnology and bioprocess engineering. He has received several awards, including the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America (CCFA) Research Fellowship Award, CCFA Career Development Award, American Gastroenterology Association Research Scholar Award, National Institutes of Health (NIH) Career Development Award, and NIH-SBIR award. Kumar’s research focuses on functional biology and clinical application of an enzyme, Jak3. His founding works on Jak3, and its clinical application led to development of first-in-class Jak3-targeted drug candidates for chronic inflammatory conditions. Prestigious sites such as Expertscape.com ranks Kumar’ expertise on Jak3 at the top 0.58% globally.

One focus of Kumar’s lab is creating new ways of detecting and treating long-term health issues. Using tools such as artificial intelligence and eco-friendly materials, his team takes a product-by-design target approach, which starts with the patient’s needs and builds from there. The goal is to create diagnostics and therapeutic products that are safe, effective and precisely targeted.

Kumar expects his research to uncover therapeutic interventions that help treat people with conditions like inflammatory bowel disease, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes and breast cancer.

“Currently, there is no cure for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, and about 1% or less of cases are due to genetic mutation,” Kumar said.

Kumar is exploring the connection between Alzheimer’s disease and metabolic syndrome. Research shows that conditions such as diabetes and obesity can raise a person’s risk for developing Alzheimer’s, and his team is working to better understand why. They are also examining how these risks vary by ZIP code, shedding light on how social and economic factors shape brain health in different communities. By identifying specific biological drivers, Kumar’s lab is moving closer to more personalized prevention and treatment strategies for these chronic conditions.

Also elected as Senior Member, Zhou is director of the Center for Translational Cancer Research at the Texas A&M Health Institute of Biosciences and Technology and a professor in the Department of Translational Medical Sciences at the Texas A&M Naresh K. Vashisht College of Medicine. He has a doctorate in chemistry and a Master of Science in chemistry and bioinformatics from Georgia State University. He received his medical degree and clinical training in internal medicine from the Zhejiang University School of Medicine.

“Being elected as a 2026 Senior Member of the National Academy of Inventors is a tremendous honor,” Zhou said. “We are recognized not only in academic excellence, but also in sustained patents impact, licensing, commercialization and societal benefit.”

Zhou’s lab, intersecting chemical biology, synthetic immunology and biomedical engineering, has generated over 10 U.S. issued patents and patent applications across several disciplines in optogenetics, chemogenetics, programmable immunotherapy, gene regulation systems and biosensing platforms.

Many of his lab’s inventions—including the light-switchable calcium channels, nano-optogenetic immunotherapy systems and chemogenetic gene regulators—have been widely adopted by more than 300 laboratories worldwide and have formed the basis of multiple patented and licensed platforms.

Currently, Zhou’s lab is developing creative ways to control immune cells using simple external signals such as light, heat, over-the-counter drugs, and small molecules found in foods or dietary supplements, including caffeine, chocolate, fish oil and vitamins. These signals act like remote controls that can turn on or shut off therapeutic cells or engineered proteins. Zhou’s goal is to build smarter and programmable personalized therapies that can be activated on demand by improving precision while reducing unwanted side effects.

In addition to the NAI recognition, Zhou is grateful for the support he and his lab have received from the university.

“I am deeply grateful to Texas A&M Health for fostering an innovation-driven environment—enabling us to move discoveries from bench to bedside—and the Texas A&M Innovation office and licensing partners for their continued assistance,” Zhou said.

Today, there are 945 Senior Members in the NAI holding over 11,000 U.S. patents. Kumar and Zhou will be inducted in June at the NAI’s 15th Annual Conference in Los Angeles.