Chad Mirkin: Thinking Big

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"The fun part of science is making a material that the planet has never seen before. It's a drug—you keep coming back for more."

Money Challenges

The business side has been less fun. Raising money has been a constant challenge. He got $50 million for Nanosphere from Chicago's Lurie Investments. Once the company grew to 100 people, Bain Capital of Boston chipped in $47 million.

Mirkin still serves on the board of directors of Nanosphere but has turned it over to professional managers, led by Chief Executive William P. Moffitt III. Meantime, Mirkin is busy starting and developing other companies like his second venture, NanoInk. Its focus is commercializing dip-pen nanolithography (DPN) and nanoscopic labeling schemes, which are currently being used by pharmaceutical companies to etch minute ID information on individual pills to fight counterfeiting. In addition, DPN and the Nscriptor tool based upon it are used by researchers to create arrays of proteins and genes consisting of thousands of nanoscopic spots that can be used to develop powerful new disease detection systems for medical doctors, to create and study tiny circuitry where the individual components are made of molecules, and to uncover some of the secrets of important processes like cell differentiation and viral infectivity. He and his venture partners have helped build the company up to about 50 employees, though there are no immediate plans for an IPO.

Back in the lab, his research group is working on creating nanoscale compounds that would travel to and enter tumor cells in the body and selectively kill them without causing the adverse side effects of conventional cancer medication. Though he insists he's more a researcher than an entrepreneur, his business experience has given him a new perspective on his lab work. "I think it's made me a better scientist," he says. "I realize how big of a gap there is between a discovery made at the bench and all that has to happen before it becomes a commercial product."

Luman is a freelance writer who specializes in business, technology, and science.

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