Matthew Tirrell, Ph.D.

Vascular diseases can lead to heart attack or stroke. But many treatments for these diseases target systemic risk factors, such as reducing blood pressure and cholesterol, rather than directly repairing existing damaged blood vessels.

A new targeted nanomedicine treatment developed at the University of Chicago has shown promise in reducing vascular damage caused by atherosclerosis in mice.

The research, a collaboration between Matthew Tirrell, dean of the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering and Assoc. Prof. Yun Fang in the Biological Sciences Division, could ultimately lead to better treatments for humans who suffer from complications of vascular disease… Continue reading.

Matthew Tirrell, the dean and Founding Pritzker Director of the Institute for Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago, has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences.

Tirrell, an influential scholar in the field of polymer science, is one of 100 scientists and 25 foreign associates recognized by their peers for “their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.” This year’s newly elected members were announced April 30… Continue reading.

The University of Chicago’s Matthew Tirrell has accepted an invitation to serve as the Robert A. Pritzker Visiting Scientist-Inventor-Engineer in Residence at the Francis W. Parker School for the 2013-14 school year.

Tirrell, the Pritzker Director of the Institute for Molecular Engineering, will present a public lecture on Monday, Oct. 28 and will interact with students through the school’s science departments throughout the academic year.

The University of Chicago will offer an engineering PhD for the first time, emphasizing the development of solutions to technological problems of society based on molecular-level science.

“Traditional engineering schools divide engineering into disciplines; IME combines disciplines into a new approach to engineering research and education,” said Matthew Tirrell, the Pritzker Director of the Institute for Molecular Engineering.

The University of Chicago and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev have signed an agreement to begin exploring a research partnership that would create new water production and purification technologies for deployment in regions of the globe where fresh water resources are scarce…

…Leading the Chicago side of the collaboration will be Matthew Tirrell, the Pritzker Director of UChicago’s Institute for Molecular Engineering. Tirrell’s team will include scientists from Argonne National Laboratory, which UChicago manages for the U.S. Department of Energy. Leading the Israeli side will be Moshe Gottlieb, BGU’s Frankel Professor of Chemical Engineering.

The University of Chicago’s Institute for Molecular Engineering is making its first set of new faculty appointments, bringing in world-leading research programs at the interfaces between molecular-level science and powerful new technologies.

The new faculty members, who will have joint appointments at Argonne National Laboratory, are physicist-engineer David Awschalom of the University of California, Santa Barbara; and chemical engineers Juan de Pablo and Paul Nealey, both of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. de Pablo and Nealey’s appointments will begin Sept. 1, while Awschalom will join the institute in early 2013.

They will join Matt Tirrell, the founding Pritzker Director of the institute, a preeminent researcher in materials science and chemical engineering who joined the University in 2011. Each of the new faculty members has led major research centers, gained patents for new technology and has experience in corporate partnerships. The group that Tirrell is building will provide senior faculty leadership for the institute’s research mission of exploring innovative technologies in nanoscale manipulation and design at a molecular scale, with the potential for societal impact in areas such as health care, computing, energy and the environment.

Matthew Tirrell, a pioneering researcher in the fields of biomolecular engineering and nanotechnology, has been appointed founding Pritzker Director of the University of Chicago’s new Institute for Molecular Engineering, effective July 1. The institute, created in partnership with Argonne National Laboratory, will explore innovative technologies that address fundamental societal problems through modern advances in nanoscale manipulation and the ability to design at a molecular scale.

Tirrell comes to UChicago from the University of California at Berkeley, where he has served since 2009 as the Arnold and Barbara Silverman Professor and chair of the Department of Bioengineering, as professor of materials science and engineering and chemical engineering, and as a faculty scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He has received many honors, including election to both the National Academy of Engineering and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

The appointment of Tirrell represents a critical step in the creation of the new Institute for Molecular Engineering, said University of Chicago President Robert J. Zimmer.