Devleena Samanta

Devleena Samanta is the William H. Tonn Endowed Assistant Professor of Chemistry, an Associate Member of the Livestrong Cancer Institutes, and a member of the Texas Materials Institute at The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin). Her research focuses on developing protein and DNA-based nanostructures for chemical sensing and therapeutic applications. She is the first faculty member from UT Austin to win the prestigious Packard Fellowship in the chemistry category. Her achievements in the field have also been recognized with numerous other honors, including a 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. Devleena is also a passionate teacher and mentor, dedicated to creating opportunities for students from underprivileged backgrounds. She is a recipient of the College of Natural Sciences Teaching Excellence Award and the Natural Sciences Foundation Teaching Excellence Award at UT Austin, as well as the Outstanding Mentor Award from the IIN.

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.

The Samanta laboratory combines the fields of analytical chemistry, chemical biology and material science to solve important problems in biology and medicine. The following research areas receive attention:

• Protein-DNA Nanostructures for Biosensing
• Chemical Activity as a Fingerpint of Cellular Identity
• Surface-Engineered Nanoparticles for Enhancing Enzyme Activity
• Intracellular Protein Delivery