Nadrian Seeman Named Winner of 2005 World Technology Award

By James Devitt

NYU Chemist Nadrian Seeman has been named winner of the 2005 World Technology Award for Biotechnology by the World Technology Network (WTN), a global peer-elected association of the world’s leading science and technology innovators. Seeman is the Margaret and Herman Sokol Professor of Chemistry.

“We are happy to announce that the 2005 World Technology Award for Biotechnology will go to Dr. Seeman, whose ground-breaking work in DNA-based nanotechnology is paving the way for a revolution in computing and robotics,” said WTN chairman and founder, James P. Clark. “Dr. Seeman’s research represents the cutting edge of biotechnology.”

Seeman and his colleagues at NYU have developed the field of DNA nanotechnology, which has grown so that it is now pursued by numerous labs around the world. The systems they have produced enable the specific organization of a variety of other chemical species, relevant to nanoelectronics, photonics, and drug design.

They have also built machines that work on the nano-scale, such as a device that allows for the translation of DNA sequences, thereby serving as a factory for assembling the building blocks of new materials. The invention has the potential to develop new synthetic fibers, advance the encryption of information, and improve DNA-based computation. The device, developed with NYU Chemistry graduate student Shiping Liao, emulates the process by which RNA replicas of DNA sequences are translated to create protein sequences.

In addition, Seeman was cited by Nanotech Briefs last fall as one of the first annual “Nano50” leaders in nanotechnology. The work honors him as an innovator in the category of bio/medical research.

Seeman was named the recipient after the World Technology Network stripped the initial winner, Woo Suk Hwang, of the honor in January. Hwang was awarded the honor in November 2005 for his research on stem cells and human cloning, which has since been found to be falsified.