Francis Barany

Dr. 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-generation sequencing (NGS). 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), International Federation of Clinical Chemistry Award for Significant Contributions in Molecular Diagnostics (2014), and National Academy of Inventors Fellow (2016). Barany holds 66 U.S. and over 100 international patents that are widely used by molecular diagnostic and sequencing companies. Barany previously founded Coferon Inc. and co-founded Acuamark Diagnostics Inc. and Unii Therapeutics; the latter for developing a new class of protein-degradation drugs. He has published over 125 peer-reviewed articles.