ST. LOUIS -- Four Saint Louis University researchers were named to the 2025 Class of Senior Members of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI). They are among 164 emerging inventors from across 64 NAI member institutions. 

SLU’s four inductees include Enrico Di Cera, M.D., the Alice A. Doisy professor and chairman of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; Koyal Garg, Ph.D., associate professor of biomedical engineering; Nicola Pozzi, Ph.D., associate professor of biochemistry and molecular biology; and Silviya Zustiak, Ph.D., professor of biomedical engineering and pharmacology and physiology. 

NAI Senior Members are active faculty, scientists, and administrators from NAI Member Institutions who have demonstrated remarkable innovation producing technologies that have brought, or aspire to bring, real impact on the welfare of society. They also have growing success in patents, licensing, and commercialization, while educating and mentoring the next generation of inventors.

Enrico Di Cera, M.D.

Di Cera is recognized for his decades of research and discoveries related to the structure and function of thrombin and pro-thrombin. His research is dedicated to understanding the structure and function of proteins involved in the blood coagulation cascade, with an emphasis on understanding the role of thrombin, prothrombin and prothrombinase. His laboratory also solved the first structures of prothrombin, revealing its plasticity and mechanism of activation.

His patents underlie technology and licenses used by Aronora, including a first-in-class protein C activator enzyme, designed to target pathological blood clots without disabling hemostasis. A third patent enables low-cost, high-volume production of correctly folded and functional thrombin variants. Aronora recently completed Phase II clinical trials with this product to prevent and treat thrombosis in end-stage renal disease where heparin is contraindicated during hemodialysis.

Di Cera has sat on numerous NIH and NCI Study Sections and been a reviewer and editor for numerous journals. He has more than 250 publications, reviews, books, and book chapters. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a Fellow of the St. Louis Academy of Sciences, and a member of the Italian National Academy of Sciences.

Koyal Garg, Ph.D.

Garg is recognized for the discovery and development of regenerative and rehabilitative solutions to the problems of bone, muscle, and soft tissue injury and loss. Her laboratory develops bio-inspired materials to serve as templates and delivery vehicles for stem cells, cellular products, biomolecules, and pharmaceuticals to treat volumetric muscle loss (VML). 

This technology is licensed to GenAssist.

GenAssist is developing MyoMatrix, product designed to replace lost muscle tissue following severe injuries. Founding partner Gabe Haas was an undergraduate researcher working Garg’s lab, under a CURE grant. GenAssist was part of the first cohort for Saint Louis University’s Chaifetz Center for Entrepreneurship’s New Venture Accelerator in 2024. 

She has secured over $2.5 million in external research funding, published more than 50 papers and book chapters, and has two patent applications.

Nicola Pozzi, Ph.D.

Pozzi’s research seeks to understand the molecular mechanisms of thrombosis and hemostasis. Since starting his own lab in 2016, he has focused efforts on Antiphospholipid Syndrome (APS), an autoimmune disorder that predisposes individuals to blood clots but where diagnosis and management is challenging with no cure.

Pozzi has pioneered many new technologies for the study of protein structure and dynamics. He has developed new diagnostic methods in APS, which are starting to be used in clinical trials with APS Action, an international network of physicians and scientists.

He identified multiple therapeutic targets in APS and thrombosis for potential treatment and designed novel anti-thrombotic therapeutics that would be first-in-class. His thrombin production patents are licensed to Aronora.

His research has generated four patent applications, more than 70 publications and reviews, and he has secured funding from numerous philanthropic, industry, and government sources. 

Silviya Zustiak, Ph.D.

Zustiak leads a research laboratory focused on hydrogel biomaterials and soft tissue engineering. Applications of her work include nanocomposite biomaterials as cell scaffolds and drug screening platforms, biomaterials as localized drug delivery devices, and elucidating structure-function relationships of matrix and cell-matrix interactions. Her multidisciplinary and collaborative work merges the fields of engineering, materials science, and biology, with 19 active collaborations nationally.

Zustiak has secured four patents on her discoveries, one patent pending, five book chapters and more than 75 publications in high-impact journals.

She is recognized for her patented technologies related to the fabrication of hydrogel materials for drug and biotherapeutic discovery, delivery, and controlled release. She has engaged multiple companies in product development in these areas.

The 2025 class of Senior Members will be celebrated during the Senior Member Induction Ceremony at NAI’s 14th Annual Conference June 23-26, in Atlanta, Georgia.  

Saint Louis University

Founded in 1818, Saint Louis University is one of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious Catholic institutions. Rooted in Jesuit values and its pioneering history as the first university west of the Mississippi River, SLU offers more than 15,200 students a rigorous, transformative education of the whole person. At the core of the University’s diverse community of scholars is SLU’s service-focused mission, which challenges and prepares students to make the world a better, more just place.