John T. McDevitt, PhD

Dr. John T. McDevitt is the Scientific Founder and a shareholder of Oraliva, Inc. He is Full Professor in the Department of Biomaterials at NYU Dentistry and a member of NYU’s Bioengineering Institute . He also holds a joint appointment at Tandon School of Engineering (Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering). Prior to coming to New York, Dr. McDevitt was the Brown-Weiss Professor of Bioengineering and Chemistry at Rice University (2009-2014). He rose through the academic ranks at the University of Texas at Austin where he was positioned for 20 years. McDevitt completed his Ph.D. degree in Chemistry from Stanford University.

Professor McDevitt is a pioneer in the development of ‘programmable bio-nano-chip’ technologies. He has a strong track record of translating essential bioscience, artificial intelligence and medical microdevice discoveries into real-world clinical practice. He has served as the Scientific Founder for a number of diagnostic and clinical services companies. McDevitt and his team have raised over $45M in Federal and Foundation support. His recent research has been sponsored by major programs funded by the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) division of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) at NIH, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Cancer Prevention Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Army and the United Kingdom’s Home Office Scientific Development Branch.

Professor McDevitt and his team have written more than 200 peer-reviewed scientific manuscripts and have contributed to more than 100 patents and patent applications. The work was recognized with the “2016 AACC Wallace H. Coulter Lectureship Award,”“Best of What's New Award” in the Medical Device Category for 2008 by Popular Science as well as for the “Best Scientific Advances Award” in 1998 by the Science Coalition. Dr. McDevitt’s individual honors include the Presidential Young Investigator Award, the 2010 California Polytechnic Distinguished Alumni Award and the Exxon Education Award. Over the past 10 years, Dr. McDevitt has served as the Principal Investigator for 6 major clinical trials and 2 clinical pilot studies, all involving the programmable bio-nano-chip. Through these clinical efforts, mini-sensor ensembles are being developed for major diseases in the areas of oral cancer, cardiac heart disease, trauma, drugs of abuse, ovarian cancer and prostate cancer.