Dr. Natalie Artzi is a biomedical scientist-engineer renowned for her contributions to structural nanomedicine. She developed materials that activate based on chemical cues, enabling targeted drug delivery and creating a novel “depot effect” where nanotherapeutics release to neighboring cells to enhance immune therapy, resulting in translational research application. Dr. Artzi has received many awards, including Harvard University’s first ARPA-H grant, the Acta Biomaterialia Silver Medal, Mid-Career Award from the Society for Biomaterials, and Massachusetts Life Science Center for Women Entrepreneurs.

2025 NASA Symp

Supercharging Immunotherapy Through Nanotechnology: Chemical Structure Matters

Structural nanomedicines are therapeutic constructs designed to maximize efficacy while minimizing toxicity by precisely organizing functional components. My lab designs biomaterials that overcome barriers to the spatiotemporal distribution of immunotherapies, enabling their combination with both existing and novel treatments. In this talk, I will demonstrate how material design and structure shape therapeutic outcomes, altering the spatiotemporal dynamics of immune responses in cancer treatment. Structural nanomedicines have the potential to answer fundamental questions in immunobiology and revolutionize treatments for cancer and autoimmune diseases.