Exicure co-founder receives award

SKOKIE - Exicure co-founder and director Chad A. Mirkin, Ph.D., has been named the recipient of the 2016 Dan David Prize in the Future Time Dimension.

Mirkin was awarded the prize for his groundbreaking contributions to the field of nanoscience. His work led to the invention of 3-D structures called spherical nucleic acids, which are currently being developed by Exicure.

The prize will be presented May 22 at Tel Aviv University in Tel Aviv, Israel.

"The Dan David Prize recognizing Chad Mirkin's work is continued validation of the SNA technology's great potential to fulfill the promise of nucleic acid therapeutics in organs beyond the liver," said Dr. David Giljohann, chief executive officer of Exicure. "This is another high honor for Chad and for our SNA platform."

The international Dan David Prize is awarded annually for outstanding contributions to humanity in three time dimensions: past, present, and future. This year, the future time dimension prize recognizes proven, exceptional, and distinct excellence in the field of nanoscience.

Spherical Nucleic Acids are nanoscale, spherical arrangements of densely packed and radially oriented nucleic acids. The architecture overcomes one of the most difficult obstacles to nucleic acid based therapeutics: safe and effective delivery into cells and tissues of therapeutic importance without the need for additional physical or chemical methods or components. The SNAs can be designed to be extremely potent and highly targeted gene regulation and immune-modulatory agents.