The University of Nebraska system landed No. 57 among the National Academy of Inventors’ national list of American universities to have secured United States patents during the 2025 calendar year.

Of the 39 University of Nebraska patents, 22 are connected to UNMC, 15 of which have been licensed for further development and research.

Among UNMC’s 2025 U.S. patents are a pair issued to Jingwei Xie, PhD, in the Department of Surgery and the Mary & Dick Holland Regenerative Medicine Program. Dr. Xie’s growing body of work now includes 10 issued patents with another 18 pending. All are related to his ground-breaking work in producing next-generation materials and methods for wound healing, tissue growth, drug delivery and sample collection, among others.

A UNMC Distinguished Scientists in 2020 and the 2019 Harold M. Mauer Scientific Achievement Award winner in 2019, Dr. Xie is among UNMC’s most prolific innovators. He has submitted 40 new inventions to UNeMed and was the tech transfer office’s Innovator of the Year at UNeMed’s 2024 Innovation Awards.

Additional patents issued to UNMC innovators include a joint patent issued to researchers Howard Gendelman, MD, and Benson Edagwa, PhD, for their work on a nanoformulation related to their work on improving HIV treatments.

Tammy Kielian, PhD, and Hani Haider, PhD, also secured two patents apiece. Dr. Kielian’s work includes a novel approach to a rare disease afflicting children and an unrelated collaborative project with Bin Duan, PhD, that established a new way to build antimicrobial structures. Dr. Haider’s patents are a corrective foot brace and a tracking system related to computer assisted surgery.

Other UNMC patents include a new surgical graft from Jason MacTaggart, MD; a novel radiopharmaceutical from Jered Garrison, PhD; and new CAR T-cells from Hamid Band, MD, PhD, and Vimla Band, PhD.

Despite UNMC’s strong portfolio of novel innovations, this is the first year Nebraska has dropped from the international list of top 100 of institutions since 2017 when it first cracked the list at No.70. Last year, Nebraska secured 49 U.S. patents to land at No. 82 on the global list.

Nebraska apparently just missed the current top international 100, which ended in a tie at No. 98 with four institutions at 40 patents apiece. Presumably, Nebraska’s 39 pushed it to No. 102 in the world, one short of a ninth-straight year in the top 100.