BioengineerWins Lemelson-MIT Prize

摘要

Stanford University physicist and bio-engineer Stephen Quake has won the $500,000 2012 Lemelson-MIT Prize for midcareer inventors. Inspired by computer chips, Quake devel- oped tiny chips containing miniature pipes and valves that can control the flow of biological fluids. These labs-on-a-chip are now used for tasks such as growing protein crys- tals and measuring the expression of cancer genes. Quake invented the first instrument that sequences single DNA molecules and used it to sequence his own genome. His prenatal test for Down syndrome looks for an extra chromosome 21 in fetal DNA floating in a pregnant woman's blood.