Christopher A. Alabi

Christopher A. Alabi is an Associate Professor in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Cornell University. His research spans synthetic chemistry, drug delivery, and antimicrobial design, with a focus on sequence-defined macromolecules for therapeutic and material applications. He leads the Alabi Lab, a multidisciplinary team of over 12 researchers.

• B.S. in Chemistry (New York University) and Chemical Engineering (Stevens Institute of Technology)
• Ph.D. in Chemistry (California Institute of Technology)
• NIH Postdoctoral Fellow (MIT)

His research interests include:

• Sequence-defined polymers for stimuli-responsive materials
• Bioconjugate chemistry in antibody-drug systems
• Antiviral lipopeptides against SARS-CoV-2, measles, and Nipah virus
• Protein delivery via ionizable lipid nanoparticles

Recent scientific awards include:

• 2025 Nat Commun publication on bacterial glycosylation platforms
• 2024 ACS Cent Sci breakthrough in anionic cloaking
• 2023 Viruses review on antiviral assays
• 2022 Anal Chem biophysical characterization of antimicrobials
• 2018 PMSE Young Investigator Award
• 2016 NSF CAREER Award

The Alabi Lab's collaborative network extends to Columbia University, MIT, Erasmus Medical Center, and the Center for Genetically Encoded Materials, with funding from NIH, NSF, and Sharon Golub Fund.