Matthew Tirrell

In 2011 he became the founding Pritzker Director and dean of the Institute for Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago in addition to serving as senior scientist at Argonne National Laboratory.

In 2019, IME became the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago and Tirrell was named Robert A. Millikan Distinguished Service Professor and Dean.

In October 2023, Tirrell stepped out of the PME Dean position and became D. Gale Johnson Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus, while continuing to lead a research group of fifteen members.

Tirrell conceived and implemented the first experimental system to test these predictions by adsorbing block copolymers, and demonstrated the theoretically anticipated stretching and long-range repulsion.

His interest in this field, amassing more than 3500 citations, continues today, especially in the area of charged polymer brushes, which are bio-medically relevant in situations such as mucosal and cartilage surfaces.

This has led to current work in peptide amphiphile micelles, which are versatile, modular, biofunctional nanoparticles that can be injected into the circulation to target, image and, in some cases, treat pathological conditions.

The Tirrell group has active work now in using such particles to diagnose and treat atherosclerosis, and also to stimulate the adaptive immune system to generate desired B-cell and T-cell responses.