Tom Burris, Ph.D., associate chair of the University of Florida College of Pharmacy Department of Pharmacodynamics and director of the UF Genetics Institute, received the Invention of the Year award during Standing InnOvation 2024, an annual event hosted by UF Innovate | Tech Licensing to honor UF researchers who either disclosed, optioned, or licensed technologies or who received an issued patent within the last fiscal year.
Burris is one of six winners of the Invention of the Year award recognized during the Oct. 30 ceremony. He was honored for his development of an exercise mimetic derived from a natural product source, which was disclosed this year and is currently in the process of being patented.
Exercise mimetics are a class of drugs that mimics the biological effects of physical exercise, and Burris’s creation uses an edible plant source to target a pair of receptors to activate the same physiological pathways involved in exercise metabolism. For those living with obesity and metabolic diseases like diabetes, for whom regular exercise isn’t an option, this drug could provide powerful health benefits, Burris said.
“It’s certainly an honor to receive this award. It means a lot, because it’s recognition from the university and UF Innovate | Tech Licensing of the potential significance of this discovery,” Burris said. “Exercise is associated with many general health benefits. For people who either can’t exercise as much as they want or who have health conditions or injuries that restrict their ability to exercise, synthetic or natural compounds that can help mimic some of the health benefits of exercise can target a variety of diseases. These compounds can also produce several benefits for our general health as we age, such as keeping our muscles functional so that we don’t have a major decrease in strength, which can also cause frailty and injuries that lead to morbidity and mortality.”