UC San Diego Professor Honored by Sony and Nature for Bioengineering Research
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Bioengineering Professor Kiana Aran is one of three inaugural winners of the Sony Women in Technology Award with Nature. She is recognized for her pioneering work fusing biology with electronics to enhance precision medicine—including the development of CRISPR-Chip, a CRISPR-powered electronic chip designed to detect genetic mutations in real time. The award is a collaboration between the Sony Group Corporation and Nature.
CRISPR, short for clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats, is a gene-editing technology that allows scientists to selectively modify the DNA of living organisms. After some market research and industry engagement, Aran and her team discovered that a serious quality control gap existed regarding the accuracy and efficiency of CRISPR-based therapies. The team decided to pivot to CRISPR quality control, which then enabled researchers to analyze the real-time activity of CRISPR reagents and optimize gene-editing workflows.
“This award is a profound recognition of our work at the intersection of bioengineering, microelectronics and synthetic biology, demonstrating the real-world impact of translational research,” said Aran. “It validates the journey of taking a fundamental discovery and evolving it into a commercially viable technology that directly supports the biotech and healthcare industries.”
In addition to her appointment in the Shu Chien Gene Lay Department of Bioengineering at UC San Diego, Aran holds a joint appointment in the School of Medicine’s Division of Geriatrics, Gerontology and Palliative Care.
Her work led to the founding of a startup company, CRISPR QC, which is committed to commercializing the technology for gene-editing quality control applications, Aran added. The company helps biotech and pharmaceutical companies improve how precise and reproducible their gene therapies are, thanks to deeper insights into CRISPR reagent performance.
The Sony Women in Technology Award with Nature was launched to honor outstanding international women researchers who are spearheading breakthroughs in STEM fields for the betterment of society and the planet. Each winner receives a prize of $250,000 to support and accelerate their research.
Aran said she plans to use the award to develop next-generation analytical platforms for precision medicine. “By integrating synthetic biology, bioelectronic sensing, and AI-driven analytics, my goal is to advance the detection of multi-omics biomarkers with unprecedented sensitivity and accuracy, enabling faster, more precise diagnostics for both healthcare and biosecurity applications," she said.

Sony Group Corporation CTO Hiroaki Kitano praised the award winners’ cutting edge work.
“We are very inspired by our honorees, each of them challenging the current state of the art in their fields,” said Kitano, who is the executive sponsor of the program. “We look forward to championing their work, as well as growing the program in the years to come.”
This year’s winners will also lead to a next generation of innovators, said Magdelena Skipper, editor-in-chief of Nature.
“Through their commitment to research excellence and innovation, this year’s winners are fantastic role models for the next generation of women considering careers in research and engineering,” she said.
When asked how she would encourage other academic researchers to develop impactful science strategies, Aran advised thinking beyond publications to focus on real-world applications and forming strategic partnerships with industry and investors.
“For translational researchers like myself, having the end in mind is critical—what am I developing, why does it matter, is it scalable, who will benefit from it? These questions guide every stage of my work, shaping what I need to learn, whom I need to collaborate with, and how to bring an idea from the lab to market,” she said.
“And there’s nothing more rewarding than seeing someone outside your technical field use your technology to solve a real-world problem,” she added. “The moment you realize that your work saves someone time, improves efficiency, or enhances patient care—that’s the kind of joy that makes you want to do it all over again.”

Sony Group Corporation is a creative entertainment company with a solid foundation of technology. Across its six business segments - Game & Network Services; Music; Pictures; Entertainment, Technology & Services; Imaging & Sensing Solutions; and Financial Services - Sony's purpose is to fill the world with emotion through the power of creativity and technology.
Nature Portfolio’s products and services across the life, physical, chemical and applied sciences is dedicated to serving the scientific community. Nature (founded in 1869) is the leading, international weekly journal of science.
Check out the Nature.com article for a profile of all the honorees.
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