The University of Texas at Austin College of Pharmacy faculty continue a solid track record of innovation and discovery. Professor of Molecular Pharmaceutics and Drug Delivery and Glaxo Wellcome Professor Maria A. Croyle, Ph.D. was named a member of the National Academy of Inventors 2024 Class of Fellows, joining a prestigious list of researchers from 135 research universities, governmental and non-profit research institutions worldwide. She is the only faculty member from UT Austin to be inducted into this year’s Fellows Program. All awardees will be inducted as NAI Fellows at the NAI 14th Annual Meeting on June 26, 2025, in Atlanta, Georgia.
The Croyle Lab operates primarily in the development of thin film technology, a small translucent strip that can be stored at room temperature for up to three years while maintaining therapeutic payload potency. The technology stands poised to remove the need for lyophilization, or freeze drying, in pharmaceutical manufacturing and eliminate cold chain logistics in vaccine and biologic transport and storage. This novel platform introduces the possibility of improving global access to a variety of vaccines and medicines by offering a technology capable of reducing costs of production, distribution and supply chain maintenance.
The lab’s thin film has led to the creation of Jurata Thin Film, a start-up company tasked with bringing the technology to marketplace. UT Austin’s Discovery to Impact, a group tasked with leading research commercialization and innovation efforts at the University, awarded Jurata as part of its inaugural investment from the UT Seed Fund.
Croyle is also a recipient of this year’s prestigious and highly competitive Hill Prize, earning $500,000 in funding from Lyda Hill Philanthropies. The invention was also listed as a finalist in the 2023 SXSW Innovation Awards in Patient Safety and earned Croyle a Best Paper win in the 2022 Co-op Research Excellence Awards.