DeSimone Captures Big Nanoscience Prize

Joseph DeSimone, William R. Kenan Jr. Distinguished Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at NC State, has received the inaugural $250,000 Kabiller Prize in Nanoscience and Nanomedicine from Northwestern University’s International Institute for Nanotechnology. DeSimone also serves as the Chancellor’s Eminent Professor of Chemistry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The Kabiller Prize and the $10,000 Kabiller Young Investigator Award in Nanoscience and Nanomedicine were established by IIN earlier this year with a generous donation from Northwestern trustee and alumnus David G. Kabiller. Recipients are selected by an international committee of experts in the field.

“These awards were established not only to recognize the people who are designing the technologies that will drive innovation in nanomedicine, but also to educate and shine a light on the great promises of nanomedicine,” said Kabiller, co-founder of a global investment management firm.

The Kabiller Prize is among the largest monetary awards in the United States for outstanding achievement in the field of nanotechnology and its application to medicine and biology. DeSimone’s innovative research applying nanotechnology to medicine captures the vision of the Kabiller Prize.

“Joe is a Renaissance scientist, who has made some of the most important advances in the field of nanomedicine,” said IIN Director Chad Mirkin.

One of those advances is PRINT (Particle Replication in Non-wetting Templates) technology, invented by DeSimone in 2005. The technology enables the fabrication of precisely defined, shape-specific nanoparticles for advances in disease treatment and prevention. Nanoparticles made with PRINT technology are being used to develop new cancer treatments, inhalable therapeutics for treating pulmonary diseases, such as cystic fibrosis and asthma, and next-generation vaccines for malaria, pneumonia and dengue.

“I’m thrilled and humbled to be recognized with the inaugural Kabiller Prize by such a world-class institution as Northwestern’s International Institute for Nanotechnology,” DeSimone said. “The PRINT technology invented in my laboratory continues to be developed for many different applications to improve human health, and my students are leading that charge. This recognition is really a testament to their brilliant efforts.”

DeSimone founded a startup company based on PRINT called Liquidia Technologies that is building on the promise of vaccine clinical trial results. The company already has spun out two more companies to use PRINT to improve human health, one in ophthalmology and one in oral health.

“The invention of PRINT technology and its application toward improvements in human health will shape the field of nanomedicine for decades to come and improve the quality of life for many,” said Eric Neilson, vice president for medical affairs and Lewis Landsberg Dean at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

IIN also announced that Warren Chan, a professor at the Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Toronto, is the recipient of the inaugural Kabiller Young Investigator Award.