Dr. Santiago Correa
Welcome to our Team website! My name is Santi, and I lead the Nanoscale Immunoengineering Lab. We develop biomaterials composed of nano-scale building blocks, which are used to reprogram the body’s immune system to fight cancer, autoimmune disease, and infection.
Experience
I started my training as a Bioengineer at Yale, where I received a BS in Biomedical Engineering and worked on coatings to improve the biocompatibility of brain implants in the Kyriakides Lab.
I later went on to complete my PhD in Biological Engineering at MIT, where I worked in the Hammond Lab to develop multifunctional nanomedicines. There, I explored how nanoparticle surface chemistry could be engineered to better target ovarian cancer and to fabricate nanotheranostics and nanoparticle-based immunotherapy.
Afterwards, I completed my postdoctoral training as an NCI F32 Fellow in the Appel Lab at Stanford, where I developed immunomodulatory biomaterials to treat cancer. I am now an Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering here at Columbia University, in New York City.
Honors & Awards
2021 Northwestern University: Rising Stars in Biomedical Engineering
2021 Princeton University & University of Delaware: Soft Matter for All Early Career Speaker
2021 Biomedical Engineering Society: UNITE Featured Speaker
2021 American Chemical Society: POLY/PMSE Future Faculty Scholar
2020 Columbia University: Rising Stars in Engineering in Health
2019 National Cancer Institute: Ruth L. Kirschstein F32 NRSA Postdoctoral Fellowship
2018 Siebel Foundation: Siebel Scholar
2016 Alfred P. Sloan Foundation: Sloan University Centers for Exemplary Mentoring Scholar
2012 National Science Foundation: Graduate Research Fellowship 2012
2012 MIT: Lemelson Engineering Presidential Fellowship
2012 MIT: Dean's Diversity Fellowship
2012 Tau Beta Pi
2010 Yale: Science Technology and Research Scholar
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Life outside of lab
In our field we are always striving to create technologies to help people live longer and healthier lives. Nevertheless, it's important to remember that we need to take time to live and enjoy our own lives as well!
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When not in the lab, I look to art to unwind and relax with my partner Shawn. That includes culinary arts - we love to cook and to eat - as well as visual arts like drawing and ceramics. Alongside the arts, we are enthusiastic students of Yoga and very proud Plant Dads.
