Chad Mirkin

About

Chad Mirkin is the George B. Rathmann Professor of Chemistry, Materials Science and Engineering, and (by courtesy) Chemical and Biological Engineering and Biomedical Engineering at Northwestern University. He is also the Director of the International Institute for Nanotechnology. His research focuses on fundamental and applied nanoscience, nanomaterials, nanobiotechnology, nanomedicine, and nanolithography. Mirkin's work involves developing methods for controlling the architecture of molecules and materials on the 1-100 nm length scale, and utilizing such structures in the development of analytical tools for chemical and biological sensing, lithography, catalysis, and optics. He has pioneered the use of biomolecules as synthons in materials science, such as colloidal crystal engineering with DNA, and the development of nanoparticle-based biodiagnostics and therapeutics, which are foundational for structural nanomedicine. Many of the concepts and materials developed within his laboratories are now the basis for commercial detection, lithography, and materials discovery systems.

Research topics

• Chemistry
• Nanotechnology
• Materials science
• Biology
• Computer Science
• Biochemistry
• Computational biology
• Optoelectronics
• Crystallography
• Organic chemistry

Selected publications

• Nanoparticle-Based Bio-Barcodes for the Ultrasensitive Detection of Proteins*

  Spherical Nucleic Acids · 2020 · 2039 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  An ultrasensitive method for detecting protein analytes has been developed. The system relies on magnetic microparticle probes with antibodies that specifically bind a target of interest [prostate-specific antigen (PSA) in this case] and nanoparticle probes that are encoded with DNA that is unique to the protein target of interest and antibodies that can sandwich the target captured by the microparticle probes. 1480Magnetic separation of the complexed probes and target followed by dehybridizatio…

  DOI

• DNA-Programmable Nanoparticle Crystallization*

  Spherical Nucleic Acids · 2020 · 1180 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  DOI

• Spherical Nucleic Acids*

  Spherical Nucleic Acids · 2020 · 680 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  This chapter provides a historical perspective of the development of spherical nucleic acid (SNA) conjugates and other three-dimensional nucleic acid nanostructures. It details the synthetic methods for preparing them, followed by a discussion of their unique properties and theoretical and experimental models for understanding them. The chapter presents important examples of technological advances made possible by their fundamental properties spanning the fields of chemistry, molecular diagnosti…

  DOI

• Bimolecularly passivated interface enables efficient and stable inverted perovskite solar cells

  Science · 2023 · 652 citations

  interface. We passivated surface defects and enabled reflection of minority carriers from the interface into the bulk using two types of functional molecules. We used sulfur-modified methylthio molecules to passivate surface defects and suppress recombination through strong coordination and hydrogen bonding, along with diammonium molecules to repel minority carriers and reduce contact-induced interface recombination achieved through field-effect passivation. This approach led to a fivefold longe…

  DOI

• Evolution of Dip-Pen Nanolithography (DPN): From Molecular Patterning to Materials Discovery

  Chemical Reviews · 2020 · 187 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  Dip-pen nanolithography (DPN) is a nanofabrication technique that can be used to directly write molecular patterns on substrates with high resolution and registration. Over the past two decades, DPN has evolved in its ability to transport molecular and material "inks" (e.g., alkanethiols, biological molecules like DNA, viruses, and proteins, polymers, and nanoparticles) to many surfaces in a high-throughput fashion, enabling the synthesis and study of complex chemical and biological structures.…

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• Hybrid protein nucleic acid supramolecular structures

  NSF · $642k · 2024–2027

• Collaborative Research: IIBR Instrumentation: The Nanosizer - A new tool for the preparation of arbitrary bioactive surfaces

  NSF · $450k · 2020–2024

• Project 1: Design Rules for Spherical Nucleic Acids that Target Cancer

  NIH · $23.4M · 2021

Frequent coauthors

• George C. Schatz

  Northwestern University

  189 shared

• Arnold L. Rheingold

  University of California, San Diego

  175 shared

• Charlotte L. Stern

  Northwestern University

  159 shared

• Byeongdu Lee

  Argonne National Laboratory

  124 shared

• Robert J. Macfarlane

  Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  118 shared

• Alexander M. Spokoyny

  California NanoSystems Institute

  102 shared

• David A. Giljohann

  Northwestern University

  93 shared

• Amy A. Sarjeant

  Bristol-Myers Squibb (United States)

  89 shared

Education

• Postdoctoral Fellow, Chemistry

  Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  1991

• PhD, Chemistry

  Pennsylvania State University

  1989

Awards & honors

• 2024 Kavli Prize in Nanoscience
• 2024 Guggenheim Fellow
• 2023 Materials Today Innovation Award
• 2023 King Faisal Prize
• 2022 John P. McGovern Science and Society Award

Similar researchers at Northwestern University

• Omar Farhah-184
• Monica Olvera de la Cruzh-70