Natalie Boehnke
Assistant Professor
Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
Email: [email protected]
B.S., Chemistry, Purdue University, 2008-2012
Ph.D., Chemistry, University of California, Los Angeles, 2012-2017
Postdoctoral Research, Nanotechnology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2017-2022
About:
Prof. Natalie Boehnke received her B.S. in Chemistry from Purdue University in 2012, where she worked in the laboratory of Prof. Jean Chmielewski to synthesize collagen mimetic peptides. At Purdue, Natalie was a Trustees Scholar and received a Stine Research Award for her undergraduate work. She also interned at Novartis Pharmaceuticals in Technical Research and Development (TRD), working on continuous manufacturing using photochemical microreactors. Natalie then obtained her Ph.D. from UCLA in 2017, working with Prof. Heather Maynard on the synthesis and characterization of biodegradable hydrogels and nanogels. As an NIH Biotechnology Training in Biomedical Sciences and Engineering (BTBSE) trainee, she interned at Baxter (now Takeda) to gain a better understanding behind the characterization of protein-based therapeutics in a GMP environment. After graduation, Natalie joined Prof. Paula Hammond’s group at MIT to develop toolsets to integrate biology and engineering approaches for the accelerated translation of nanomedicine. During her postdoc, Natalie received a Department of Defense Horizon Award and NIH/NCI K99 Pathway to Independence Award for her work. Natalie joined the faculty in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at the University of Minnesota as an Assistant Professor and Macosko Professor in 2022.
Research Interests:
My long-term research interests are centered around improving the fundamental understanding of nanoparticle properties and their interactions with the biological environment to rationally address unmet needs in cancer treatment.