Laura Segatori

Laura Segatori is a Professor of Bioengineering and Biosciences at Rice University, leading the Cell and Protein Engineering Laboratory. Her work integrates synthetic biology, protein engineering, and bionanotechnology to reprogram cellular quality control systems for applications in cell-based therapies and biologics production. She holds a PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin and a Laurea in Industrial Biotechnology from the University of Bologna. Her research focuses on protein misfolding pathways, autophagy-lysosome system modulation, and nanoparticle engineering for disease treatment.

Key honors include the NSF CAREER Award (2013) and multiple Hamill Innovation Awards. Current funding comes from the Welch Foundation, Kleberg Foundation, and NSF divisions CBET/MCB. She has authored 36+ journal articles and holds two patents with three applications pending.

Her lab explores synthetic biology tools to control protein degradation and stress responses, with applications in drug delivery and genetic circuit design. Ongoing projects include engineering nanoparticles for autophagy activation and developing feedback-responsive cell factories. She advises interdisciplinary teams and collaborates across biomedical engineering, nanotechnology, and molecular biology domains.