Photo compilation of headshots of Scott Bruder and Anant Madabhushi

National Academy of Inventors names 2020 NAI Fellows

Case Western Reserve University biomedical engineering leaders Scott Bruder, Anant Madabhushi honored for ‘spirit of innovation’

Scott Bruder and Anant Madabhushi, a pair of Case Western Reserve University biomedical engineering innovators and leaders in their respective fields over the last two decades, were honored today as fellows of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI). 

The NAI Fellows Program highlights academic inventors who have demonstrated a “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.”

Bruder and Madabhushi join a list of eight others who were named fellows or senior members of the NAI while at Case Western Reserve.

CWRU relationships ‘inspired spectrum of work’ for Bruder in tissue repair

Photo of Scott Bruder

Bruder is an adjunct professor of biomedical engineering who previously served on the medical school’s faculty in orthopedic surgery for 13 years. 

He also leads his own consulting firm, The Bruder Consulting & Venture Group, which assists medical-device, regenerative-medicine and biotechnology companies, investment banks, venture partners and private equity firms to accelerate their product development efforts.

“I’ve spent my career translating basic science into clinical products in tissue repair and regeneration,” he said, “and now we’re helping others do the same.”

Bruder lives in New Jersey, but his connection to Case Western Reserve is long and ongoing. He recently taught in an online, virtual course to medical students, and has a daughter finishing a master’s program at the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing.

He’s also a double alumnus, earning his MD and PhD, and was named a School of Medicine Distinguished Alumnus in 2014—the same year he received a Professional Achievement Award from the university.

“Over the past 25 years, I’ve proudly waved the Case Western Reserve flag at every point,” Bruder said. “I wouldn’t be where I am today and honored by the NAI without my connection to Case Western Reserve. Both my medical scientist training and ongoing collaborative relationships at the university have inspired the spectrum of work that I’ve had the blessing to be a part of since 1985.”

That was the year Bruder arrived at Case Western Reserve to study with renowned biology professor Arnold Caplan, who, in 2019, celebrated his 50th year at the university. Caplan is also director of the Skeletal Research Center and known as the “father of MSCs,” a reference to Mesenchymal Stem Cell biology and regenerative medicine research.

That’s the branch of research Bruder also pursued, developing new tissue repair and regeneration technology at several private companies, including Osiris Therapeutics (which emerged from the university), Stryker, Johnson & Johnson and Becton, Dickinson & Company.

He has more than 20 issued and pending U.S. and international patents; has authored or co-authored more than 125 peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters and abstracts; and has given more than 200 lectures at international conferences, universities and industry events.

Bruder received the Pierre Galletti Award from the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering; the Prix Galien Award for the Medical Device Technology of the Year (Trevo ProVueTM); an AIMBE fellow; and a member of the NJ Inventors Hall of Fame for Research and Entrepreneurial Leadership.

He received the Marshall R. Urist Award for Excellence in Tissue Regeneration Research from the Orthopaedic Research Society; the Ann Doner Vaughn Award from the Kappa Delta Foundation of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons; and the Marshall R. Urist Young Investigator Award from the Association of Bone & Joint Surgeons. 

Madabhushi ‘pushing the boundaries’ of AI in precision medicine

Photo of Anant Madabhushi

Madabhushi, the Donnell Institute Professor of Biomedical Engineering and director of the Center for Computational Imaging & Personalized Diagnostics at Case Western Reserve, said he was “honored by the recognition and acknowledgement of our endeavors” and credited many of his trainees and mentees for the award.

“This is really a testimony to the amazing work ongoing by our students, postdocs and scientists at the center,” he said. “We are pushing the boundaries of what artificial intelligence can do for precision medicine.”

His work on “Smart Imaging Computers for Identifying lung cancer patients who need chemotherapy” was celebrated by Prevention Magazine as one of the top 10 medical breakthroughs of 2018. 

In 2019, Nature Magazine hailed him as one of five scientists developing “offbeat and innovative approaches for cancer research.” In 2019 and 2020, Madabhushi was named to The Pathologist’s Power List of 100 inspirational and influential professionals in pathology.

Madabhushi has authored more than 400 peer-reviewed publications and more than 100 patents either awarded or pending in artificial intelligence, radiomics, medical image analysis, computer-aided diagnosis and computational pathology. He previously started two companies and has had 16 of his technologies licensed, one of which has gone on to get FDA approval.

He is a Wallace H. Coulter Fellow, a Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) and a Fellow of the Institute for Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE). 

In 2015, he was named by Crain’s Cleveland Business as one of “Forty under 40” making positive impact to business in Northeast Ohio. 

In 2017, he received the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBS) award for technical achievements in computational imaging and digital pathology. 

CWRU’s fellows

Previous fellows and senior fellows from Case Western Reserve, include:

  • Umut Gurkan, the Warren E. Rupp Associate Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the Case School of Engineering—senior member in August 2020
  • Interim medical school Dean Stanton L. Gerson, also director of the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center (Case CCC)—senior member in 2019
  • Pamela B. Davis, former dean of the School of Medicine—fellow in 2019
  • Mark A. Griswold, a professor in the Department of Radiology at School of Medicine—fellow in 2017
  • Then-Case School of Engineering Dean Jeffrey Duerk and Francis Papay, a professor of surgery in Cleveland Clinic’s Lerner College of Medicine at Case Western Reserve—both fellows in 2016
  • Robert H. Miller, then-professor of neurosciences and the university’s vice president for research, and P. Hunter Peckham, the Donnell Institute Professor of biomedical engineering and orthopedics and founder of the Cleveland Functional Electrical Stimulation Center—both fellows in 2013.

Details on NAI 2020 fellows

NAI Fellows hold more than 42,700 issued U.S. patents, which have generated over 13,000 licensed technologies and companies and created more than 36 million jobs. In addition, over $2.2 trillion in revenue has been generated based on NAI Fellow discoveries, the academy said.

The 2020 Fellow class represents 115 research universities and governmental and nonprofit research institutes worldwide. 

They collectively hold over 4,700 issued U.S. patents. Among the 2020 Fellows are 24 recipients of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, six recipients of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, and two Nobel Laureates, as well as other honors and distinctions. Their collective body of research covers a range of scientific disciplines, including biomedical engineering, computer engineering, materials science, and physics.

The class of Fellows will be inducted at the 2021 Fellows Induction Ceremony at the 10th annual Meeting of the National Academy of Inventors this June in Tampa.

The complete list of NAI Fellows is available on the academy’s website.


For more information, contact Mike Scott at mike.scott@case.edu