Nanosphere, Inc. is a nanotechnology-based healthcare company, offering proprietary breakthrough technologies that provide a unique and powerful solution to greatly simplify diagnostic testing. Nanosphere was founded in 2000 based upon nanotechnology discoveries at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois by Dr. Robert Letsinger and Dr. Chad Mirkin. Among other achievements, these discoveries made possible the consistent manufacturing and functionalization of gold nanoparticles with oligonucleotides (DNA or RNA), or antibodies that can be used in diagnostic applications to detect nucleic acid or protein targets, respectively.