Affiliations
Jacob & Rosaline Cohn Professor of Chemistry
Department of Chemistry
Department of Materials Science and Engineering
Department of Biomedical Engineering
Department of Pharmacology
International Institute for Nanotechnology (IIN)
Querrey Simpson Institute for Regenerative Engineering (RENU)
Lurie Cancer Center
Chemistry of Life Processes Institute (CLP)
Research Statement
The Chemical Biology of Materials: Mimicking Biomacromolecules to Control, Probe, Study and Perturb Natural Systems.
The Gianneschi group is an interdisciplinary team of chemists, engineers, materials scientists and chemical biologists focused on fundamental and translational research into biomaterials, polymers, nanomaterials, in situ electron microscopy, biomimicry, therapeutics, diagnostics and novel functional materials.
Selected Publications
Reviews:
Exploration of Organic Nanomaterials with Liquid-Phase Transmission Electron Microscopy. Joanna Korpanty, Nathan C. Gianneschi. Acc. Chem. Res. 2023, 56, 17, 2298–2312. DOI: 10.1021/acs.accounts.3c00211.
Unraveling the Structure and Function of Melanin through Synthesis. Wei Cao, Xuhao Zhou, Naneki McCallum, Zihying Hu, Qing Ni, Utkarsh Kapoor, Christian Heil, Kristine Cay, Tara Zand, Alex Mantanona, Arthi Jayaraman, Ali Dhinojwala, Dimitri Deheyn, Matthew Shawkey, Michael Burkart, Jeffrey Rinehart, Nathan Gianneschi. J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2021. DOI: 10.1021/jacs.0c12322.
Insights into the Structure and Dynamics of Metal-Organic Frameworks via Transmission Electron Microscopy. Xinyi Gong, Karthikeyan Gnanasekaran, Zhijie Chen, Lee Robison, Megan C. Wasson, Kyle C. Bentz, Seth M. Cohen, Omar K. Farha, Nathan C. Gianneschi. J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2020, 142 (41), 17224–17235. DOI: 10.1021/jacs.0c08773
Biomedicine:
Protein-like Polymers Targeting Keap1/Nrf2 as Therapeutics for Myocardial Infarction. Joshua M. Mesfin‡, Kendal P. Carrow, Alexander Chen, Madeline P. Hopps, JoJo J. Holm, Quincy P. Lyons, Michael B. Nguyen, Jervaughn D. Hunter, Assa Magassa Elyse G. Wong, Kate Reimold, Sriya N. Paleti, Emily Gardner, Matthew P. Thompson, Colin G. Luo, Xiaoyu Zhang, Karen L. Christman*, Nathan C. Gianneschi* Advanced Materials, 2025, 37 (27), 2417885. DOI: 10.1002/adma.202417885.
Mutant Huntingtin Mimetic Protein-like Polymer Blocks Mitochondrial damage, Rescues Huntington’s Neurons, and Slows Onset of Neuropathology In Vivo. Wonmin Choi‡, Mara Fattah‡, Yutong Shang‡, Matthew P. Thompson., Kendal P. Carrow, Di Hu, Zunren Liu, Michael J. Avram, Keith Bailey, Or Berger, Xin Qi* and Nathan C. Gianneschi * Sci. Adv. 2024. 10 (44), eado8307. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.ado8307.
Topical application of synthetic melanin promotes tissue repair. Dauren Biyashev, Zofia E. Siwicka, Ummiye V. Onay, Michael Demczuk, Dan Xu, Madison K. Ernst, Spencer T. Evans, Cuong V. Nguyen, Florencia A. Son, Navjit K. Paul, Naneki C. McCallum, Omar K. Farha, Stephen D. Miller, Nathan C. Gianneschi, Kurt Q. Lu. npj Regen Med 2023, 8, 61. DOI: /10.1038/s41536-023-00331-1.
Soft Matter:
UV-Resistant Cell-free Reactions with Synthetic Melanin Additives. Lauren M. Irie, Dylan M. Brown, Julius Lucks, Nathan C. Gianneschi. ACS Synthetic Biology 2025, 14, 7, 2821–2831. DOI: 10.1021/acssynbio.5c00212.
Allomelanin-Inspired Polyurethane Nanocomposites with Multi-Radiation Resistance and Enhanced Mechanical Properties. Lauren M. Irie, Broderick Lewis, Ashley K.Nensel, Elisabeth I. Latawiec, Anni J. Kuningas, Michael R. Wasielewski , Zheng Wang, Kenneth R. Shull, and Nathan C. Gianneschi* ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces 2025, 17, 27, 39490–39502. DOI: 10.1021/acsami.5c05674.
Hierarchically Porous Carnosine-Zn-Microspheres. Yu Chen, Shai Zilberzwige-Tal, Nathan D. Rosenmann, Julia Oktawiec, Ashley K. Nensel, Qing Ma, Sasha Lichtenstein, Ehud Gazit, Nathan C. Gianneschi. Matter, 2025, 102108, ISSN 2590-2385. DOI: 10.1016/j.matt.2025.102108.
In-situ Monitoring of Droplet Behavior in Inverse Microemulsions. Megan E. Lott, Maria A. Vratsanos, Rhys W. Hughes, Nathan C. Gianneschi, Brent S. Sumerlin, ACS Nano, 2025, 19, 20, 19168-19176. DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.5c00623
Selected Honors/Awards
- 2025 Kabiller Young Investigator Award
- 2020 Elected to the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE)
- 2017 Finalist, Blavatnik Young Scientist Award
- 2016 Tianfu Distinguished Lecturer in Polymer Science and Engineering, Sichuan University
- 2016 Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry
- 2015 Outstanding Young Scientist Award, ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, PAT 2015
- 2014 UC San Diego Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Postdoctoral Scholar Mentoring
- 2013 Kavli Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences
- 2012 NIH Director’s Transformative Research Award
- 2012 Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellow
- 2011 NIH Director’s New Innovator Award
- 2011 UC San Diego Panhellenic Outstanding Professor Award
- 2009 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) – DOD AFOSR
- 2008 Camille & Henry Dreyfus Foundation New Faculty Award
