Life-saving Innovations
R. Michael Roe, an NC State University entomologist whose in-depth research on insect biology has led to innovative products that protect human health, has been selected as a 2025 fellow in the National Academy of Inventors. NAI fellows are chosen based on the societal and economic impact of their inventions.
The founder of four startup companies, Roe holds 16 U.S. patents and four foreign patents. Through commercialization agreements with 10 companies, his inventions have generated products to prevent insect-borne diseases around the world.
Roe’s research hit the U.S. supermarket and drug store shelves this summer in a natural, plant-based insect and tick repellent spray. A compound found in bananas and wild tomato plants is the basis for the new spray, which protects wearers from mosquitoes for up to eight hours and ticks for four hours, with superior protection to DEET-based products in lab tests. An NC State University startup company called Mimikai, which produces repellent products under its name, received Environmental Protection Agency certification.
Over four decades, Roe’s work has yielded new technologies that protect people against deadly tick- and mosquito-borne diseases. His collaborations with researchers in other disciplines, including colleagues in NC State University’s Wilson College of Textiles and College of Natural Resources, resulted in the first tick- and mosquito bite-proof garments that are insecticide-free, now part of the Rynoskin outdoor and sports line from Har-Son Inc.
To protect U.S. soldiers, Roe co-developed an innovative mosquito bite-resistant combat shirt for the military, as well as clothing for everyday use. In addition, he developed a crop cover, “Plant Armor,” to provide insect protection without pesticides. Vector Textiles, a startup that Roe founded with other faculty researchers at NC State, is commercializing both of those technologies. Time magazine listed the bite-resistant clothing as one of the top U.S. inventions of 2025.
Roe co-invented the first insecticide-free bed net, which is four times more effective in killing mosquitoes than insecticide-treated nets. He has collaborated with the Gates Foundation on malaria prevention in Africa, where the mosquito-borne disease kills more than 500,000 people each year. The most recent startup based on his NC State research, Athena Vector Technology, is developing a perlite-based mosquito spray for homes in malaria-ravaged regions. The technology is being commercialized in the U.S. to prevent Lyme and other tick-borne diseases.
Roe is a William Neal Reynolds Distinguished Professor in the Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology and a faculty member with NC State’s Toxicology Program. He joins the NAI’s 2025 class, whose members hold more than 5,300 U.S. patents and include recipients of the Nobel Prize, the National Medals of Science and Technology & Innovation, and members of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, among others.
Roe is among a handful of NAI fellows in NC State’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. They include Sylvia Blankenship, Thomas Ranney and Craig Yencho from the Department of Horticultural Science; and Kenneth Swartzel and Rodolphe Barrangou from the Department of Food, Bioprocessing and Nutrition Sciences.
This post was originally published in College of Agriculture and Life Sciences News.
