Professor Pokorski began his scientific career by earning his B.S. in Biochemistry from UCLA in 2002. While at UCLA, he worked in private industry designing and testing biomedical devices that are currently in use around the world. In 2007, Dr. Pokorski received his doctoral degree in organic chemistry from Northwestern University, where he designed, synthesized, and tested diverse peptidomimetic systems for use in medical diagnostics and therapeutics. Dr. Pokorski then moved to The Scripps Research Institute, where he used both chemical and genetic engineering of viral nanoparticles to synthesize novel drug delivery systems. During postdoctoral training, Dr. Pokorski first earned an NIH Ruth Kirschstein fellowship and later secured an NIH Pathway to Independence Award.
Dr. Pokorski joined the faculty at Case Western Reserve university in the department of Macromolecular Science and Engineering in 2012 and moved to the Nanoengineering department at UCSD in 2018. Pokorski’s laboratory works to bridge chemical synthesis, molecular biology, and materials science to make new materials for biomedical and environmental applications. Research in the Pokorski lab is funded through grants from the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, Department of Energy and the American Chemical Society.
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Dr. Steinmetz is a Professor and Vice Chair ofNanoEngineering at the Universityof California, San Diego (2018-present). She is the foundingDirector of the Center for Nano-ImmunoEngineering (nanoIE), the Co-Director forthe Center for Engineering in Cancerwithin the Institute for Engineering in Medicine, and she serves on theLeadership Team for a UC San Diego Materials Research Science and EngineeringCenter (MRSEC). She started her independentcareer at Case Western Reserve University Schoolof Medicine in the Department of Biomedical Engineering. Dr. Steinmetz trained at TheScripps Research Institute (La Jolla, CA); she obtained herPhD in Bionanotechnology from the John Innes Centre (University of East Anglia, UK); her early training was at the RWTH-Aachen University inGermany.
Dr. Steinmetz’s research program focuses onthe engineering of plant virus-based nanomaterials targeting human and planthealth applications, such as drug and pesticide delivery, vaccines andimmunotherapies. Dr. Steinmetz has authored more than 250journal articles (H index >65). Dr. Steinmetzis a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, the Biomedical EngineeringSociety, the International Association of Advanced Materials, the Royal Societyof Chemistry, and the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering.Dr. Steinmetz’s researchprogram is supported through grants from NIH, NSF, NIFA, CDMRP as well as ACS,Susan G. Komen, AHA, amongst other agencies.
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