The editors of R&D Magazine and MicroNano Newsletter have selected DNA buckyballs created by Dan Luo, Cornell assistant professor of biological and environmental engineering, as one of the 25 "most innovative products of 2006" in the Inaugural MicroNano 25 competition. The winners were featured in the July issue of MicroNano Newsletter and the August issue of R&D Magazine.

Luo has devised a variety of new nanostructures by creating artificial DNA molecules that are designed to adhere to one another in such a way as to self-assemble into unusual shapes. By linking artificial DNA to polystyrene molecules, he created tiny geodesic spheres about 400 nanometers in diameter that could be used as vehicles to carry drugs into cells or as cages to study chemical reactions on the nanoscale.