AUSTIN (KXAN) -- A scientist and professor at the University of Texas at Austin was selected for induction into the National Inventors Hall of Fame for work that led to the development of the COVID-19 and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccines.  Jason McLellan, professor in the Department of Molecular Biosciences and Robert A. Welch Chair in Chemistry at UT, will be inducted into the hall in May for his work on structure-based vaccine design that led to the development of vaccines to fight COVID-19 and RSV, according to a release from UT. McLellan will be honored with 16 other inductees, including Barney Graham -- who worked with McLellan on both vaccines -- at a celebration in Washington, D.C., on May 8. McLellan, 43, is among the youngest new inductees in National Inventors Hall of Fame history, per the release. UT Austin honoring researchers who helped develop COVID-19 vaccine “Jason McLellan’s research and technologies helped save lives around the globe and restore our way of life after the darkest days of the pandemic,” UT President Jay Hartzell said. “Jason embodies the American ingenuity behind our nation’s most notable innovations to improve society and everyday life. He is a worthy addition to the National Inventors Hall of Fame and a testament to our university-wide commitment to having meaningful impact in the world.” According to UT, McLellan specializes in understanding the structure and function of viral proteins and applying that information to the rational design of vaccines and other therapies. He and his team collaborated with Graham and other researchers at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases’ Vaccine Research Center (VRC) to design a stabilized version of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, which biotechnology companies, including Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech, used as the basis for COVID-19 vaccines. In 2023, the Food and Drug Administration approved the RSV vaccine Arexvy, which used McLellan and Graham’s research to stabilize the RSV fusion protein and enable the body to develop strong antibodies against it, according to UT. PAST COVERAGE | First RSV vaccine with UT ties expected to be available by next year “Getting into structure-based vaccine design, you think, ‘If I can help make one vaccine, that would be an incredible career achievement.’ But we've already done it twice, for RSV and coronaviruses, and now we have other things in clinical trials for different viruses,” McLellan said. “There are not a lot of viral vaccines that have been created in the history of man, and so to help contribute to two of them and possibly more — I’m very proud of that.” UT said McLellan will join other university affiliates in the Inventors Hall of Fame, including UT Professor Emeritus and Ethernet inventor Robert Metcalfe; the late professor Edith Clarke, who was inducted posthumously for developing the graphical calculator; and UT alumni cancer researcher and Nobel laureate James Allison and National Instruments founders James Truchard and Jeff Kodosky. McLellan has received several honors for his work, including being named the Texas Inventor of the Year in 2021. He has also received the National Academy of Sciences Award in Molecular Biology; the Research!America Building the Foundation Award; the International Vaccine Institute’s Bioscience Park MahnHoon Award; the Edith and Peter O’Donnell Award from the Texas Academy of Medicine, Engineering, Science and Technology; the UT President’s Research Impact Award; and the AAAS Golden Goose Award. McLellan moved his laboratory to UT in January 2018 and joined the faculty in the Department of Molecular Biosciences.