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Wednesday, March 3, 2010
3-D DNA sequencing helps win $30K Lemelson-MIT Student Prize
By Rodney H. Brown
MHT's Galen Moore: Cambridge Innovation Center celebrates 10th anniversary
MHT's Galen Moore: Honoring innovation in New England
Breaking down the MIT $100K
The Lemelson-MIT Student Prize this year has been awarded to MIT graduate student Erez Lieberman-Aiden, who most recently worked on developing the “Hi-C” method for three-dimensional genome sequencing, which not only sequences the base pairs of DNA, but how that DNA is folded in the nucleus of a cell.
For winning the Lemelson-MIT Student Prize, Lieberman-Aiden, a graduate student at the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, gets $30,000. The Lemelson-MIT Program called him a “Renaissance man” of science, whose research covers fields such as mathematics, linguistics, biotechnology and polymer physics.
Lieberman-Aiden developed the Hi-C sequencing method together with postdoctoral student Nynke van Berkum of UMass Medical School, and their advisors Eric Lander and Job Dekker.
The future of the discovery is wide open, according to Lieberman-Aiden, as the knowledge of how the DNA folds in three dimensions is vital. “It will be extremely valuable in the future in terms of understanding processes like differentiation, processes like cancer and eventually developing novel approaches to treating those diseases.”
Lieberman-Aiden said he was excited about both the win and the entire process of entering the program. “It’s a tremendous honor and it’s an opportunity really to think about your inventions,” he said.
Named as finalists from the more than 20 student entrants to the prize program were Amos Winter, a graduate student in mechanical engineering, who has invented both a locally manufacturable lever-powered wheelchair and a drilling device that emulates the razor clam, and Barry Kudrowitz, also a graduate student in mechanical engineering, who developed playful tools that help younger students get excited about design.
According to Joshua Schuler, executive director of the Lemelson-MIT Program, there was a record 23 entrants to the prize contest this year. “I think that’s a testament to the growing awareness of the program among MIT students, and their willingness to put themselves forward, which I think is just terrific,” Schuler said.
Three other students, from the California Institute of Technology, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, also were awarded the $30,000 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize.
Last year the prize was won by Geoffrey von Maltzahn, a researcher for the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology. Von Maltzahn is now working for Flagship Ventures, which held an event last night in which the three finalists were named.
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