Nicholas Polizzi

Nicholas Polizzi, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology Department at Harvard Medical School and the Cancer Biology Department at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. He holds a PhD from Duke University (2016) and completed postdoctoral studies at UCSF under Bill DeGrado. His research focuses on de novo protein design, particularly proteins that bind small molecules, leveraging computational methods and experimental validation. Key projects include expanding the genetic code using aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases and developing tools like COMBS for protein design.

Research interests span protein-ligand interactions, ligand-binding cooperativity, and applications in metabolite sensing and genetic-code expansion. The lab uses deep learning and high-throughput approaches to address challenges in protein function and specificity. Publications highlight breakthroughs in computational design and experimental validation of binding proteins.

Lab members include graduate students (Jody Mou, Jerry Yao, et al.) and postdoctoral fellows (Franzi Sendker, Roksana Azad). The lab is located at the Longwood Center (LC 4312), with collaborations across Dana-Farber and Harvard Medical School. Research is supported by grants focused on protein design methodologies and their biomedical applications.