Prof. Francis Barany named 2016 NAI Fellow

Prof. Francis Barany, whom is part of the Center leadership team, has been named as a 2016 NAI Fellow. Election as a NAI Fellow is the highest distinction given to academic inventors who have demonstrated a prolific spirit of innovation in creating outstanding inventions that have made an impact on quality of life, economic development, and welfare of society. According to the 2016 NAI Activities Report, NAI Fellows have generated more than 8,500 licensed technologies and companies and created more than 1.1 million jobs, with over $100 billion in revenue generated based on their discoveries.

Prof. Barany is Professor of Microbiology at Weill Cornell Medicine. Barany is best known for inventing the ligase chain reaction (LCR), ligase detection reaction (LDR), and Universal DNA arrays, which are the foundation of commercial tests to diagnose genetic diseases, detect infectious pathogens, identify cancer mutations, and identify diseases using DNA microarrays and targeted Next-Gen sequencing. He received a Helen Hay Whitney Fellow (1982-1985), Hirschl/Monique Weill-Caulier Career Scientist Award (1992-1997), Mayent/Rothschild Visiting Professor, Institut Curie (2000), Medical Diagnostics Research leader, Scientific American 50 (2004), Ezra Innovation Award, Cornell University (2011), and International Federation of Clinical Chemistry Award for Significant Contributions in Molecular Diagnostics (2014). Barany holds 53 U.S. and 105 international patents that are widely used by molecular diagnostic and sequencing companies. Barany founded Coferon Inc. and Acuamark Diagnostics Inc.; the later for detection of early cancer directly from blood. He has published over 120 peer-reviewed articles.

Prof. Barany will attend the Sixth Annual Conference of the NAI at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum in Boston, Massachusetts on April 6, 2017 where he will be inducted. U.S. Commissioner for Patents, Andrew H. Hirshfeld will provide the keynote address for the induction ceremony. In honor of their outstanding accomplishments, Fellows will be presented with a special trophy, medal, and rosette pin. Congratulations Prof. Barany!