Inventors & Innovators: Riyi Shi

Purdue graduates continue to develop innovations and breakthroughs that help move the world forward. Purdue Today will highlight these inventors and innovators by featuring two each month in the Purdue Today newsletter and on social media.

Today, we are featuring Riyi Shi.

Shi, Purdue professor of neuroscience and biomedical engineering in the Department of Basic Medical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine and Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering, is a medical scientist specializing in uncovering the mechanisms of central nervous system trauma and diseases and instituting new treatments through innovative experimentation and pioneering new strategies in the field.

His research contributions include originating the use of double sucrose gap technique for recording action potential conduction, establishing the methods of neuronal membrane resealing by polyethylene glycol (PEG), and identifying acrolein as a key pathological factor in spinal cord injury and multiple sclerosis.

Shi, along with retired Professor Richard Borgens and former Professor Andrew Blight, developed the Ampyra drug, the first and only FDA-approved drug to help multiple sclerosis patients improve their ability to walk and other motor skills.

Shi graduated from Shanghai Jiao Tong University and the University of North Texas before earning his PhD from Purdue in developmental neurobiology.

The Inventors & Innovators website contains Purdue alumni from business and industry; technology; medicine and health; and the food and consumer industries.