Affiliation: Brown University

Theresa Raimondo is an assistant professor of engineering at Brown University and a member of the Legorreta Cancer Center and the Brown RNA Center. Dr. Raimondo’s research focuses on the design of targeted drug-delivery vectors and novel RNA therapeutics for immunoengineering, cancer, and tissue regeneration. Her research primarily concentrates on developing novel lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) for RNA-based therapies and ex vivo systems to model healthy, metastatic, or injured tissues. 

By using engineering approaches to optimize both LNP formulation and RNA design (sequence and chemical modifications), Dr. Raimondo seeks to better understand how RNA-LNPs modulate immunity and to use this understanding to develop new regenerative therapies. She has four patents surrounding targeted RNA-LNPs, adjuvanted vaccines, and siRNA immunotherapy. Her work on immune-modulating gold nanoparticle-protein conjugates was among the first to demonstrate that sustained, biomaterial-driven macrophage polarization results in the regeneration of functional muscle fibers. Dr. Raimondo received postdoctoral training with Dr. Anderson and Dr. Langer at MIT and PhD with Dr. Mooney at Harvard University. Dr. Raimondo has received several awards, including the NEBEC Faculty Innovator Award, MIT Faculty Founder competition finalist, and the American Cancer Society-Institutional Research Grant.