The Pittcon Program Committee is pleased to announce that Dr Chad A Mirkin, Professor of Chemistry, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, will deliver the Pittcon 2011 Plenary Lecture, "Polyvalent DNA Architectures: New Modalities For Intracellular Gene Regulation and Detection" on Sunday, 13 March 2011, at 4:30pm., in the Sidney Marcus Auditorium, Georgia World Congress Center, Atlanta, Georgia.

Dr Chad A Mirkin is the director of the International Institute for Nanotechnology, the George B Rathmann Professor of Chemistry, Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Professor of Materials Science & Engineering, and Professor of Medicine."

Dr Mirkin summarised, "Over the past decade, we have developed methods for modifying nanoparticles with oligonucleotides and explored how they can be used as designer constructs for preparing highly ordered, highly functional materials. Over the course of these studies, we have discovered many unusual fundamental properties that make these materials particularly useful in biodiagnostics and intracellular gene regulation."

This lecture will focus on the use of these modified nanoparticles in the highly selective and sensitive detection of nucleic acids and proteins. It will also introduce the concept of the "antisense" particle and other similarly functionalised particles. Such particles exhibit a range of unique properties that make them very well-suited for gene regulation. They can also be tailored to control the binding strength to complementary target sequences offering a means to control the degree of protein expression.

Mirkin is a chemist and a world renowned nanoscience expert, who is known for his development of nanoparticle-based biodetection schemes, the invention of Dip-Pen Nanolithography, and contributions to supramolecular chemistry. He is the author of over 410 manuscripts and over 370 patents and applications, and the founder of three companies, Nanosphere, NanoInk, and AuraSense which are commercialising nanotechnology applications in the life science and semiconductor industries. At present, he is listed as the most cited chemist in the world (Thomson Reuters), and the top most cited nanomedicine researcher in the world (Nanomedicine Registry). Dr Mirkin has been recognised for his accomplishments with over 60 national and international awards.

The Plenary Lecture will be part of the Opening Session for Pittcon 2011 which will be held in Atlanta, Georgia, from 13-18 March 2011, Georgia World Congress Center. The Plenary Lecture is followed immediately by a complimentary mixer and poster session. Click here to get more information on Pittcon 2011.