Title: Nanotechnology to Sense and Program Biomolecular Function
Abstract: Biomolecular function, rather than molecular abundance alone, often determines the behaviors that underlie biology, health, and disease. Enzymes are a central example: changes in catalytic activity can reveal disease states before changes in biomarker abundance are detectable, while precise control over enzyme function can enable new approaches in therapeutics, synthetic biology, and biocatalysis. However, current technologies remain limited in their ability to measure biomolecules in their active states or to program their function without altering primary sequence, especially in complex biological environments.
To address this challenge, our laboratory develops sequence-encoded nanomaterial interfaces: programmable nanoscale platforms that display sequence-defined ligands, including peptides and DNA strands, in multivalent architectures. By tuning ligand sequence, density, and length, these interfaces can either report on biomolecular activity or modulate enzyme function by reshaping the local environment around a protein.
Through high-throughput synthesis, screening, and machine-learning-guided analysis, we are defining how nanoscale interfacial properties control enzyme function. These studies reveal that enzyme regulation can arise from the collective architecture of an interface, rather than from individual ligand-enzyme interactions alone. Engineered interfaces can inhibit activity, enhance catalytic rates by nearly 20-fold, alter product selectivity, or redirect competing catalytic pathways, all without modifying the enzyme’s primary sequence. We are extending these principles to functional protein nanostructures, in which proteins are directly functionalized with sequence-defined biomolecular ligands to improve stability, activity, and transport across biological barriers.
Together, these studies establish sequence-encoded nanoscale interfaces as a general strategy for sensing and programming biomolecular function. We have applied this approach to activity-based sensing of protease dysregulation, enhanced biocatalysis on solid supports, protein delivery into intact plant roots, and innate immune-inspired nanotherapeutics for antibiotic-resistant wound infections.
Bio:
Devleena Samanta is an Assistant Professor of Chemistry, an Associate Member of the Cancer Research Center, and a member of the Texas Materials Institute at The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin). Her research centers on developing nanoscale tools to sense and program biomolecular function. She is the first UT Austin faculty member to receive the prestigious Packard Fellowship in the chemistry category, and her contributions have been recognized with numerous honors, including a Cottrell Scholarship, Scialog Fellowship, the Outstanding Researcher Award from the International Institute for Nanotechnology (IIN), and selection as a Hanna Gray Fellow Finalist by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. In addition to her research, Devleena is a dedicated teacher and mentor. She has received two teaching awards at UT Austin, as well as the Outstanding Mentor Award from the IIN. For her contributions to UT Austin, she was appointed the William H. Tonn Endowed Professorial Fellow for the 2024-2025 academic year. She also serves on the Early Career Advisory Board of the Beilstein Journal of Nanotechnology, a diamond open access journal.
Devleena earned her Ph.D. in Chemistry from Stanford University in 2017 under the mentorship of Professor Richard N. Zare. She was supported by a Winston Chen Stanford Graduate Fellowship and a Center for Molecular Analysis and Design Fellowship. She then trained with Professor Chad A. Mirkin at Northwestern University as an IIN Postdoctoral Fellow.
Outside of science, Devleena enjoys dancing, playing badminton, and traveling the world with her husband Kinjal Basu. She is also trained in the Indian classical dance form Odissi and vocal Hindustani classical music and holds advanced diplomas in both.
Host: Prof. Tina Wang