Dollars for Profs

Dig Into University Researchers' Outside Income and Conflicts of Interest

Published Dec. 6, 2019

This database was last updated in December 2019 and should only be used as a historical snapshot. There may be new or amended records not reflected here.

Financial doc
Filing Type

Conflict of Interest

Institutions must file significant disclosures to the National Institutes of Health if they determine financial relationships could affect the design, conduct or reporting of the NIH-funded research. The NIH provided us with their entire financial conflict of interest database, with filings from 2012 through 2019.

Should you be removed from our database? Contact us at [email protected]. Read more below.

Chad Mirkin

Northwestern University at Chicago, Department: Dermatology

Should you be removed from our database? Contact us at [email protected]. Read more below.

Disclosed Conflict of Interest with

AuraSense Therapeutics, LLC

Disclosed Value
Listed Reason
Payment for services (e.g., consulting fees, honoraria, paid authorship)

This research is to develop efficient approaches to use gold nanoparticles within topical creams to effect antisense inhibition of gene expression in the elidermis. This could be used to target gene mutations that lead to genetic disorders associated with epidermal hyperplasia. The proposed experiments will build on prior mouse studies to test the ability of these agents to penetrate into human epidermis in a human translated skin model. Similar therapeutic approaches using engineered nanoparticles are the goal of the biotechnology company AuraSense Therapeutics, LLC, in which Professor Mirkin is a founder and discloses both receipt of remuneration and equity interest. Given the close relationship of the work and goals of AuraSense and this proposal, continued development of these topically applied nanoparticles funded through this grant may result in a perceived conflict of interest that should be managed.

Listed Research Project
Topical Delivery of siRNA Nanconjugates: Suppressing Epidermal Hyperplasia

Small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) are a widely used research tool to inhibit the expression of genes, but the delivery of siRNAs to humans, including through topical application for skin disease, is a significant challenge. We have developed gold nanoparticles densely coated with siRNAs (siRNA-Au NPs) and have shown their ability to penetrate the stratum corneum and knock down gene expression in mouse and human skin. The results of this proposed preclinical investigation that seeks to reverse pathologic skin thickening will establish polyvalent siRNA-gold nanoparticles as a new modality for treating skin disorders.

Filed on April 19, 2013.

Tell us what you know about Chad Mirkin's disclosure

We're still reporting about conflicts of interest. Is there something you'd like to tell us about this disclosure?

Name Institution Type Company Disclosed Value
Chad Mirkin Northwestern University at Chicago Conflict of Interest Exicure $100,000 - $149,999
Chad Mirkin Northwestern University at Chicago Conflict of Interest Exicure $100,000 - $149,999
Chad Mirkin Northwestern University at Chicago Conflict of Interest AuraSense, LLC Value cannot be readily determined
Chad Mirkin Northwestern University at Chicago Conflict of Interest Exicure Value cannot be readily determined
Chad Mirkin Northwestern University at Chicago Conflict of Interest AuraSense Therapeutics, LLC Value cannot be readily determined
Chad Mirkin Northwestern University at Chicago Conflict of Interest Exicure Value cannot be readily determined
If you see an error in the database or a reason we should not disclose a record, please contact us at [email protected] and we'll evaluate it on a case-by-case basis.
Sources: National Institutes of Health, public records requests filed at multiple public state universities

Notes: When a more specific filing date is not available for an individual financial disclosure or conflict of interest form, we use the year the form was filed. If the year was not disclosed, we report the range of years covered by our public records requests. In a few cases, a start date was provided instead of a filing date. In those cases, we use the start date instead.

Fewer than 10% of records from the University of Florida and fewer than 1% of records from the University of Texas system were removed because they did not contain enough information.

ProPublica obtained additional financial disclosures and conflict of interest forms that we have not yet digitized and added to the database. You can download those disclosures in the ProPublica Data Store.

Close Comment Creative Commons Donate Email Facebook Mobile Phone Podcast Print RSS Search Search Twitter WhatsApp
Current site Current page