Natalie Artzi is a Hansjӧrg Wyss Associate Professor of Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard Medical School, Head of Structural Nanomedicine at Mass General Brigham's Gene and Cell Therapy Institute, Associate Institute Director of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, and Visiting Scientist at the Institute for Medical Engineering and Science at MIT. Dr. Artzi is a biomedical scientist-engineer renowned for transformative contributions to structural nanomedicine and pioneering work on tissue- and cell-responsive materials. Dr. Artzi developed materials that activate based on chemical cues, enabling targeted drug delivery, and creating a novel "depot effect" where nanotherapeutics are released to neighboring cells to enhance immune therapy.
Dr. Artzi's program in tissue- and cell-responsive materials understands that personalized medicine can be applied to biomaterial design. Dr. Artzi has developed platforms that sense biological environments, enhance tissue repair, and report on tissue state. Her work has shown that material performance is contextual and that healing via implanted polymeric biomaterials is affected by inflammation or disease. Her lab has developed stable and potent immune modulatory nanostructures that activate target immune cells, enhance specificity and efficacy, shuttle drugs to specific organs, and interact with cancer and immune cells to modulate their phenotype. She also developed methodologies to track material erosion, drug distribution, and cell fate noninvasively.
Dr. Artzi has been recognized with numerous prestigious awards, including the 2024 Acta Biomaterialia Silver Medal, the 2024 Clemson Award for Applied Research, and the mid-career award from the Society for Biomaterials. She was the inaugural recipient of the Kabiller Rising Star Award in Nanomedicine. Artzi is a Fellow of both the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) and the Controlled Release Society, reflecting peer recognition of significant contributions to biomedical engineering and drug delivery technologies.