On Sept. 30, 2003, University of Iowa (UI) Microbiology Professor Mark Stinski made the discoveries of CMV promoter and was named Iowa Inventor of the Year in 2003.

The University of Iowa Research Foundation received U.S. patents in 1992 for the utility of the human cytomegalovirus CMV promoter a tool widely used in the development of gene therapy and DNA vaccine products. Several CMV-based drugs have received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval to treat patients with cancer and other diseases.