Gianneschi Group Research

Harnessing the power of materials chemistry to pioneer smart drug technologies, the Gianneschi Group aims to transform and heal diseases once thought untreatable and incurable

Heart disease is the largest cause of death in the world representing a significant clinical area of unmet need. In the images above, the data show that Keap1i-PLP is an effective therapeutic helping the heart heal after heart attack. Images of the heart show in blue, the scar tissue forming after a heart attack. Therapeutic intervention reverses this and leads to a healing response instead of an inflammatory one. The Protein-Like Polymer (PLP) technology is the first of its kind, developed at Northwestern. Here, we use precision polymer science to mimic naturally occurring proteins for engaging cellular machinery, hence establishing a new drug discovery, design and development paradigm. 

SOCIETAL IMPACT

Despite incredible advances in medicine, people are diagnosed with incurable diseases every day. In some cases, we know the exact cause of the disease and yet cannot intervene. In many ways, we live in an incredibly exciting time, with a tremendous wealth of knowledge related to how our bodies function. This gives us an unprecedented opportunity to develop new therapies. The challenge is that our current ways of tackling these diseases have not worked. To overcome that challenge, we need new types of chemistry. By wielding advanced chemical science tools, we can begin to develop entirely new kinds of therapeutics and indeed, new ways to discover and design them. Our particular focus is on mimicking natural biological molecules with precision materials chemistry, designed and made in the laboratory. These new types of materials have tremendous promise against today’s incurable diseases.

Real World Applications

The Gianneschi Group helped launch Grove Biopharma to pioneer Bionic Biologics™, breakthrough smart drugs targeting intracellular protein interactions to tackle diseases once thought untreatable