OSU 2024 Early Career Innovator of the Year Award. Congratulations to CRB member Dr. Kotaro Nakanishi, who is the recipient of the 2024 Early Career Innovator of the Year Award! Dr. Nakanishi is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. His research, funded by three NIH grants, seeks to understand how small non-coding RNAs and their binding proteins work together to control eukaryotic gene expression. His research group also discovered cleavage-inducing tiny RNAs (cityRNAs). He has filed patents for his technologies and is a co-founder of a company that aims to develop cityRNA-based therapeutics for diseases whose targets have been undruggable by conventional approaches.