Milan Mrksich

Professor, Biomedical Engineering
Henry Wade Rogers Professor, Biomedical Engineering
Professor, Cell & Developmental Biology
Professor, Chemical and Biological Engineering
Professor, Chemistry
Vice President of Research, Office for Research
Biomedical Engineering PhD Program
Chemistry PhD Program
Driskill Graduate Training Program in Life Sciences
Medical Scientist Training Program

Phone847/467-0710
Emailmilan.mrksich@northwestern.edu

25429 Citations

Research output per year

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Personal profile

Research Interests

My group’s interests overlap chemistry, biology and engineering, with an emphasis on the design and synthesis of materials that are biologically active and in applications of the materials to relevant problems in the biological and medical sciences. Much of our work uses self-assembled monolayers of alkanethiolates on gold to prepare model surfaces that are structurally defined, yet that can have complex compositions and present the ligands in spatially-organized patterns. We pioneered the design of ‘dynamic substrates’ that present ligands whose activities can be switched on and off in response to electrical or optical signals, particularly for studies that address the responses of adherent cells to changes in the extracellular matrix. These mimics of the extracellular matrix have led the way to the discovery of novel ligands that mediate cell adhesion. We have also developed robust surface chemistries for preparing biochip arrays and that are compatible with new analytical methods for analyzing the arrays. For example, we have developed the SAMDI method, which uses mass spectrometry to analyze the arrays, and we have extended this method to the first label-free approach for high throughput screening, to the functional annotation of recently sequenced genes and towards an understanding of the networks that regulate protein acetylation. Finally, a recent program is creating defined systems for exploring biochemical reactions to understand the role that localization of enzymes and substrates play in controlling reaction networks.

Education/Academic qualification

Chemical Biology, PhD, California Institute of Technology

… → 1994

Chemistry, BS, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

… → 1989

Research interests

Bio-inspired nanostructured materials and biochips
Biomaterials and interfaces
Cell adhesion and migration
Electroactive interfaces
Physical organic chemistry of interfacial reactions

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Grants

12 Active
19 Finished

Acquisition of a K2 Camera for Soft Matter Transmission Electron Microscopy

Dichtel, W., Dravid, V. P., Farha, O. K., Gianneschi, N., Joester, D., Meade, T. J., Mirkin, C. A., Mrksich, M., Scott, E. A., Stupp, S., Weiss, E. A. & Wu, J.

Office of the Director, National Institutes of Health

8/12/19 → 8/11/24

Project: Research project

The Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center

Agulnik, M., Awatramani, R., Backman, V., Benson III, A. B., Carthew, R. W., Cella, D., Chakravarti, D., Chandel, N., Crispino, J. D., Cristofanilli, M., Eklund, E. A., Frankfurt, O., Gordon, L. I., Green, K. J., Hahn, E. A., Horbinski, C. M., Horvath, C. M., Hussain, M., James, C. D., Kelleher, N. L., Khan, S. A., LaBonne, C., Larson, A. C., Matei, D. E., Meade, T. J., Mondragon, A., Mrksich, M., Munshi, H. G., Murphy, A. B., Penedo, F. J., Perlman, H. R., Peter, M. E., Platanias, L. C., Rademaker, A. W., Rappoport, J. Z., Rosenzweig, A. C., Scheidt, K. A., Simon, M. A., Sosman, J. A., Spring, B., Wei, J., Weiss, E. L. & Woloschak, G. E.

National Cancer Institute

8/10/18 → 7/31/23

Project: Research project

Stimuli-Responsive Control of Protein-Based Molecular Structure

Mrksich, M.

Army Research Office

7/30/18 → 7/29/23

Project: Research project

Information Storage and Processing Using Time-Ordered Strings of Molbytes, and Molecular Processes

Mrksich, M.

Harvard University, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)

7/1/18 → 12/14/20

Project: Research project

SERS Nanosensors for in vivo Glucose Sensing

Mrksich, M.

U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command

9/1/16 → 8/31/20

Project: Research project

Research Output

25429 Citations
201 Article
16 Review article
6 Chapter
4 Comment/debate
9 More

Bump-and-Hole Engineering Identifies Specific Substrates of Glycosyltransferases in Living Cells

Schumann, B., Malaker, S. A., Wisnovsky, S. P., Debets, M. F., Agbay, A. J., Fernandez, D., Wagner, L. J. S., Lin, L., Li, Z., Choi, J., Fox, D. M., Peh, J., Gray, M. A., Pedram, K., Kohler, J. J., Mrksich, M. & Bertozzi, C. R., Jun 4 2020, In : Molecular cell. 78, 5, p. 824-834.e15