Nanomedicine: Why Scale and Chemical Structure Make a Difference

Presenter: Dr. Mirkin, Professor of Chemistry and Director of the International Institute for Nanotechnology at Northwestern University

Chad A. Mirkin is the Director of the International Institute for Nanotechnology and the George B. Rathmann Prof. of Chemistry, Chemical and Biological Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Materials Science & Engineering, and Medicine at Northwestern University. He is a chemist and a world-renowned nanoscience expert, who is known for his discovery and development of spherical nucleic acids (SNAs) and SNA-based biodetection and therapeutic schemes, Dip-Pen Nanolithography (DPN) and related cantilever-free nanopatterning methodologies, On-Wire Lithography (OWL), and Co-Axial Lithography (COAL), and contributions to supramolecular chemistry and nanoparticle synthesis. He is the author of over 790 manuscripts and over 1,200 patent applications worldwide (over 355 issued), and he is the founder of multiple companies, including AuraSense, Exicure, TERA-print, Azul 3D and Stoicheia, which are commercializing nanotechnology applications in the life sciences, biomedicine, and advanced manufacturing. Mirkin has been recognized with over 230 national and international awards, including the Kabiller Prize in Nanoscience and Nanomedicine, Dan David Prize, and NAS Sackler Prize in Convergence Research. He was a Member of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science & Technology and is one of very few scientists to be elected to all three US National Academies. He is also a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Inventors, among others. Mirkin has served on the Editorial Advisory Boards of over 30 scholarly journals, including J. Am. Chem. Soc., ACS Nano, and Nano Letters. At present, he is an Associate Editor of J. Am. Chem. Soc. and a Proc. Natl. Aca. Sci. Editorial Board Member, and he is the founding editor of the journal Small. Mirkin holds a B.S. from Dickinson College (1986, elected into Phi Beta Kappa) and a Ph.D. from the Penn. State Univ. (1989). He was an NSF Postdoctoral Fellow at the MIT prior to becoming a professor at Northwestern Univ. in 1991.