Terry Matsunaga, PhD, was officially honored at the Fellows Induction Ceremony during the Annual Meeting of the National Academy of Inventors held on June 15th in Phoenix, Arizona. Dr. Matsunaga, a Research Professor in the COM-T Department of Medical Imaging and adjunct professor of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Arizona, was one of three UArizona Faculty named Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors for 2021. Election to NAI Fellow is the highest professional distinction accorded solely to academic inventors.
Dr. Matsunaga’s research focuses on using microbubble technology for cancer imaging and drug and gene delivery. As an inventor, he developed Definity™ microbubbles, a 1-5 micron microbubble technology using perfluorocarbons that can be injected during an echocardiogram to help diagnose or find problems in the heart. He was a principal in translating what became known as Perflutren microspheres into Phase I clinical trials, which culminated in the first human studies of the new intravascular ultrasound contrast agent MRX-115.
Listed as an inventor on 23 issued patents and on 17 patent applications, Dr. Matsunaga is also credited with having inventions licensed to two startup companies: Nanosonic Bioreagents and Triangle Biotechnology. Nanosonic Bioreagents specializes in manufacturing unique chemical analysis mixtures with applications in medical imaging, clinical therapy, chemotherapy, and ablation therapy. Triangle Biotechnology specializes in developing technologies that enable efficient acoustic processing of biological samples for next-generation sequencing and epigenetic assays.
Terry, who prefers to be addressed by his first name as opposed to Dr. Matsunaga, is extremely humble and credits the support of his family, colleagues, department, and students for his success. “I am also very thankful to all at the University of Arizona for giving me the opportunity to spawn research creativity that has led to this award. Frankly, it is they who deserve all the credit.”
