Jonathan Sessler Named 2016 Inventor of the Year
Dr. Jonathan Sessler, the Doherty-Welch Chair in Chemistry at The University of Texas at Austin College of Natural Sciences has been named the 2016 UT Inventor of the Year.
Image Credit: Photo by Marsha Miller
AUSTIN, Texas — Dr. Jonathan Sessler, the Doherty-Welch Chair in Chemistry at The University of Texas at Austin College of Natural Sciences, has been named the 2016 UT Inventor of the Year for work that has added to the basic scientific understanding of pharmaceuticals and helped form a commercially successful business in that field.
Sessler and Miller would eventually collaborate and prove to be extremely adept at bringing basic research to fruition, establishing the biotech firm Pharmacyclics, which would go on to be sold for $21 billion in 2015.
The firm was created to make the most of Sessler’s discovery of a new class of molecules called texaphyrins (for their origins at UT Austin) and developed Ibrutinib, a powerful cancer treatment for leukemias and lymphomas. The company’s lead anti-cancer compound is ibrutinib, a powerful treatment for leukemia and lymphoma. Pharmacyclics, purchased by AbbVie in 2015, became one of the greatest commercial successes from UT.
The inventor of more than 75 issued or allowed U.S. patents, Sessler has been featured in numerous national and international media reports, most recently in 2015 when Pharmacyclics was sold. Sessler is the winner of many research and teaching awards, and he is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the National Academy of Inventors.
Sessler received his B.S. in chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley, and his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Stanford University.
