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Lemelson-MIT Prize To Stephen Quake

by Linda Wang
June 18, 2012 | A version of this story appeared in Volume 90, Issue 25

Stephen Quake
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Credit: George Nikitin
Stephen Quake
Credit: George Nikitin

Stephen Quake, a professor of bioengineering and applied physics at Stanford University and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, is the winner of this year’s $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize, which honors midcareer scientists whose inventions are making a broad impact on society.

Quake is being recognized for his contributions to drug discovery, genome analysis, and personalized medicine. His invention of microfluidic large-scale integration (LSI) technology, for example, has enabled automation of biology at the nanoliter scale.

The technology—inspired by the integrated circuit—combines thousands of miniature pumps, pipes, chambers, and valves on a microchip. Quake’s group was the first to use microfluidics technology in the determination of protein structure through X-ray crystallography. He cofounded Fluidigm in 1999 to commercialize LSI technology.

Quake is also a pioneer in genome sequencing. His achievements include the development of a noninvasive prenatal test for Down syndrome and other chromosomal abnormalities.

The Lemelson-MIT program also administers the $100,000 Lemelson-MIT Award for Sustainability and the $30,000 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize. The program is funded by the Lemelson Foundation, which was established in 1993 by the late inventor Jerome H. Lemelson and his wife, Dorothy.

Nominations are being accepted for the 2013 Lemelson-MIT Prize. For more information, visit web.mit.edu/invent/a-prize.html.

Linda Wang compiles this section. Announcements of awards may be sent to l_wang@acs.org.

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