Chad Mirkin wins Kabiller Prize in Nanoscience and Nanomedicine

Chad Mirkin, an investigator for SQI’s Center for Bio-Inspired Energy Science (CBES), has been selected to receive the $250,000 Kabiller Prize in Nanoscience and Nanomedicine, the world’s largest monetary award for outstanding achievement in nanotechnology and its application to medicine and biology.

 The honor is named after Northwestern University trustee and alumnus David G. Kabiller, who endowed the award in 2018. This is the first year Northwestern researchers were eligible to receive the prize, which was selected by an independent, international committee of scientists.

“(Mirkin’s) discovery and development of spherical nucleic acids (SNAs), which form a cornerstone of bionanotechnology, have changed the way we think about and use DNA and RNA,” the award selection committee said in a statement.

“He has synthesized many versions of SNAs, elucidated the fundamental chemical and physical properties that distinguish them from all other forms of matter, and used them in paradigm-shifting approaches to high-sensitivity, extra- and intracellular molecular diagnostic tools and pharmaceutical development. These include more than 1,800 commercial products in the life sciences, biomedicine and biotechnology to-date, including one of the first FDA-cleared, menu-driven, point-of-care medical diagnostic systems, platforms capable of analyzing the genetic content of single living cells, and structures exceedingly useful for the treatment of skin disorders and cancers via both gene regulation and immunomodulatory pathways.”

Mirkin will officially receive the award on Nov. 13 at a banquet in Chicago. Molly Stevens, a professor at Imperial College London, will also be presented with the Kabiller Young Investigator’s Award in Nanoscience and Nanomedicine on that date.

“This is a remarkable recognition for three decades of work performed by hundreds of talented researchers from all parts of the world,” Mirkin said in a press release issued by Northwestern. “I am very grateful to David Kabiller for his commitment to advancing nanotechnology discoveries in biology and medicine.”