Dr. Kiana Aran of Cardea Bio wins the 2021 Nature Research Award for Scientific Achievement
LONDON & SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nature, a world-leading scientific journal, today announced Dr. Kiana Aran, associate professor at Keck Graduate Institute, and Chief Scientific Officer at Cardea Bio, Inc., won the 2021 Nature Research Award for Inspiring Women in Science in the Scientific Achievement category.
Over her short career, Dr. Aran’s innovative work on harnessing the power of biology through modern electronics has significantly advanced the field of biosensing and enabled myriad applications in human health and beyond. For example, her work combining CRISPR and transistors has produced the world’s first CRISPR-powered transistor for amplification-free DNA detection. Dr. Aran’s contributions to science have been featured in preeminent journals including Nature, Science, Advanced Journals, and the CRISPR Journal.
“When I was informed that I was the winner, I was shocked because all the other candidates are outstanding! I’m honored to be selected in a field of visionary women doing fantastic and inspirational research. My hope is that this award can serve as an inspiration for future women working in research.” Dr. Kiana Aran states in a pre-recorded interview. She continued, “On November 4, we’re hosting a live interview session to talk about what it means to win this prize and the attendees can ask me questions. During that session, I’ll also share how I’m planning to spend the $40,000 prize money – something that I’m truly excited about!”
Editor-in-Chief at Nature, Dr. Magdalena Skipper, stated, “Despite increasing numbers of women who chose to pursue research careers, we still see too few who take on senior roles of responsibility and leadership. There are many reasons for it, among them is that many do not feel sufficiently supported, and that their efforts early on in their careers are not sufficiently recognized.”
CEO of Cardea Bio, Michael Heltzen adds, “We always saw Dr. Aran as a leader and a rock star in science, so for us it was natural to recognize the importance of her early efforts, given her impressive scientific achievements and potential. Working closely together with Dr. Aran, it’s hard not to notice her impact as a leader, source of inspiration, and dedicated mentor to other scientists around the world!”
Skipper concluded, “This year, I was struck by how many of our outstanding applicants' work at the interface between disciplines. Breaking down traditional silos and working collaboratively to take advantage of the expertise of others, will be key in advancing research in the years to come.”
Dr. Aran’s efforts have been recognized through multiple awards in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), including the Clinical OMICs 10 under 40 Award and the Athena Pinnacle Award in science. Earlier in 2021, The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded Dr. Aran the Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award. The NSF CAREER award recognizes promising early-career scientists who “have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization.”
This Nature Research Award recognizes early-career women researchers, where the winner has made an exceptional demonstrable contribution to scientific discovery, and has faced significant challenges, personal or professional. The winner has also exhibited the potential for developing and leading an independent research group.
Live interview session
As a follow-up to this award, Dr. Aran will be interviewed by TEDx speaker, 2017 San Diego Business Journal’s Business Woman of the Year, and President and co-founder of LunaPBC, Dawn Barry, during a webinar on November 4, 2021.
In addition to the interview, the audience will have the opportunity to engage in an AMA (ask me anything) session. Finally, Dr. Aran will share a profound announcement at the end of the webinar on how she plans to spend the $40,000 prize money from Nature.
Free sign-up for the webinar here.
About Cardea Bio
Cardea has linked computers to the live molecular signals running biology. Its multi-omics technology consists of a Tech+Bio Infrastructure (hardware, software, and wetware) and Chipsets manufactured with proprietary graphene-based, biology-gated transistors, called Cardean Transistors™.
Cardean Transistors leverage graphene, a nanomaterial that is biocompatible and a near perfect conductor as it is only one atom thick, in contrast to the common semiconductor material, silicon. Cardea thereby gains a signal resolution high enough to listen into molecular signals in a manner that replaces optical and static measurements with interactive live-streams of multi-omic signals and analyses.
Cardea is on a long-term mission they call “Linking up to Life” to empower its partners with Tech+Bio solutions that make significant positive impacts on the world via innovative applications that are “Powered by Cardea.” For more information about Cardea Bio, Inc. visit www.cardeabio.com.
Contacts
Investor Relations and Media Inquiries
Rob Lozuk, Chief Business Officer
publicrelations@cardeabio.com
