When International Institute for Nanotechnology director and chemistry Prof. Chad Mirkin found out last week that he would be the recipient of the 2023-2024 Harvey Prize in Science and Technology, he traced the moment back to a conversation he had with chemistry Prof. Joseph Hupp in Norris University Center decades ago.
Over lunch, Mirkin mentioned a novel way of thinking about chemistry. Instead of working with atoms and electron-based bonds, Mirkin told Hupp he could take tiny particles — nanoparticles, of which there were many coming online at that time — and learn to modify them with DNA and control bonding characteristics.
That train of thought would eventually lead to his discovery and development of spherical nucleic acids — globular forms of DNA and RNA created by a nanoparticle core surrounded by pieces of linear structures.
“These materials that are made by taking these particles and assembling them into these highly ordered networks have all sorts of fantastic properties in their own right to go beyond biology and medicine,” Mirkin told The Daily.
First introduced by Mirkin in 1996, the distinct chemical and biological features of SNAs enable efficient and large-scale entry into cells, which in turn contributes to advances in “extracellular and intracellular diagnostics, gene regulation and editing, chemotherapy, immunotherapy and vaccine development,” according to a Tuesday Northwestern news release.
As Mirkin explored this idea, he and his team made gold nanoparticles with DNA on their surface. When they added complementary DNA to link the particles, something unexpected happened. Visible to the naked eye was a color change from red to “Northwestern purple,” Mirkin said.
It was then they realized this could be “a new sensor for DNA,” with the particles acting as labels for studying different DNA sequences.
“We could create new diagnostic tools based upon that, and that set us on a 30-year odyssey in the biotechnology front,” Mirkin said.
The Harvey Prize is administered by the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa.
Each year, the Technion awards two $75,000 annual prizes, named after American industrialist and inventor Leo Harvey, to recognize “breakthroughs in science and technology.” This year, it recognized Mirkin for his work on SNAs and Harvard Prof. David R. Liu’s gene editing research.
Mirkin and Liu will receive their prizes at the Technion Board of Governors events in June 2026.
This is far from the first recognition Mirkin’s work in this area has received. In 2024, Mirkin was one of three Kavli Prize in Nanoscience recipients for his discovery of SNAs.
According to the Technion, the Harvey Prize is regarded as a “Nobel predictor,” with more than 30% of Harvey Prize recipients having subsequently won a Nobel Prize. Mirkin is the second Northwestern faculty member ever to receive the Harvey Prize, with chemistry Prof. Tobin J. Marks receiving the 2017 prize.
This award comes during a year of political and financial turmoil for the University, as administration and faculty have navigated the federal funding freeze.
Mirkin told The Daily he had almost $10 million in grants frozen this year — some from the National Institutes of Health, but mostly from the Department of Defense.
On Wednesday afternoon, The New York Times reported that Northwestern and the White House were nearing a deal that would restore “hundreds of millions” in federal funding.
Mirkin commended NU’s administration and Board of Trustees for stepping up and supporting faculty research amid the funding freeze.
“It took a lot of fortitude, a lot of commitment and integrity, to really do the right thing in that regard — to keep science moving in the right direction while we were caught up in a political storm,” Mirkin said.
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