- Graduate Field Affiliations
- Biomedical Engineering
- Chemical Engineering
- Materials Science and Engineering
Biography
Christopher Alabi began his research career as an undergraduate student under the direction of Professor David Schuster at New York University. Upon receiving his B.S. in Chemistry from New York University and B.E. in Chemical Engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology, he went on to pursue a graduate degree in Chemistry at California Institute of Technology with Professor Mark Davis. There, he carried out a two-part dissertation on proton conductive membranes and targeted nanoparticle delivery. He then moved to MIT in 2009 and served as NIH Postdoctoral Fellow with Professor Langer and Anderson. Chris joined the Cornell faculty in the summer of 2013 as an Assistant Professor in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. His research focuses on the assembly of new sequence-defined macromolecules that can be used to create stimuli-responsive materials, develop efficient drug delivery bioconjugates and design potent antimicrobial agents.
Research Interests
Research in the Alabi lab involves the use of synthetic and analytical tools to enhance our understanding and facilitate the engineering of precise functional macromolecular materials and therapeutics. Our research goals involve the discovery and use of sequence-defined macromolecules to create sustainable stimuli-responsive materials, quantitate biological processes, develop efficient drug delivery bioconjugates and discover potent antimicrobial macromolecules. Our work ranges from the molecular scale, where we investigate the precise placement of functional groups along a polymer backbone, to studying their material and biological properties. Our focus is on applications that leverage the advantages of our sequence-controlled macromolecules such as precise sequence and composition control, abiotic backbones and a large scope of chemically diverse monomers.
- Biomedical Engineering
- Bioengineering
- Drug Delivery and Nanomedicine
- Molecular and Cellular Engineering
- Biomolecular Engineering
- Nanoscale Electronics, Photonics and Materials Processing
- Tissue Engineering and Biomaterials
- Polymers and Soft Matter
- Molecular Biotechnology
- Materials Synthesis and Processing
- Advanced Materials
- COVID-19 Related Research
Teaching Interests
Christopher Alabi has taught the following courses:
- ENGRI 1120: Introduction to Chemical Engineering
- CHEME 3900: Chemical Kinetics and Reactor Design
- CHEME 6400: Polymeric Materials
- CHEME 6920: Principles and Practices of Graduate Research
- CHEME 7700: Graduate Research Seminar for Chemical Engineers
Christopher Alabi currently teaches the following courses:
- CHEME 6240: Kinetics and Dynamics in Molecular Systems
Select Publications
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Hoff EA, De Hoe GX, Mulvaney CM, Hillmyer MA, Alabi CA. Thiol-Ene Networks from Sequence-Defined Polyurethane Macromers. J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2020. 142, 14, 6729-6736. PMID: 32202773
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Development of Host-Cleavable Antibody-Bactericide Conjugates against Extracellular Pathogens. ACS Infect. Dis., 2023, 10, 9, 322-329 PMID: 36626184
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Weigel, R. K., & Alabi, C. A. Duplex-Forming Oligocarbamates with Tunable Nonbonding Sites. Chem. Sci., 2024, 15, 9138-9146. PMID: 38903212
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Azmain Alamgir, Souvik Ghosal, Matthew P. DeLisa, and Christopher A. Alabi (2024). Bioreversible anionic cloaking enables intracellular protein delivery with ionizable lipid nanoparticles. ACS Cent. Sci. 10, 1179-1190 (2024). PMID: 38947210
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Ghosal, S., Robertus, C., Wang, J., Chan, H. W., Alamgir, A., Almonte, J., & Alabi, C.A. (2024). Nanoparticle-mediated delivery of peptide-based degraders enables targeted protein degradation. BioRxiv, 2024. DOI: 10.1101/2024.03.17.584721
Select Awards and Honors
- EPICC Award for Purpose 2024
- American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) Fellow 2024
- Richard F. Tucker Excellence in Teaching Award 2022
- PMSE Young Investigator Award 2018
- Tau Beta Pi Professor of the Year Award, Cornell University 2017
- Research Excellence Award, College of Engineering, Cornell University 2016
- NSF CAREER Award, National Science Foundation 2016
- PhRMA Foundation Research Starter 2014
Education
- B.S., Chemical Engineering, Stevens Institute of Technology 2004
- B.S., Chemistry, New York University 2004
- Ph.D., Chemistry, California Institute of Technology 2009
- NIH Postdoctoral Fellow, Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2013
