Elizabeth Nance

2025 National Award Finalist — Faculty

Elizabeth Nance

Current Position:
Department Chair and Steven & Connie Rogel Endowed Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering

Institution:
University of Washington

Discipline:
Biomedical Engineering & Biotechnology

Recognized for: Engineering nanoparticles for brain delivery, pioneering living brain tissue models, and defining design principles to develop targeted, safe therapies for newborn and pediatric brain injury.

Areas of Research Interest and Expertise:
Nanomedicine, Neuroscience, Drug Delivery, Brain Delivery 

Previous Positions:

Postdoctoral Fellow, Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions (Advisor: Sujatha Kannan)
PhD, Johns Hopkins University (Advisor: Justin Hanes)
BSc, North Carolina State University

Research Summary:

Each year, millions of newborns and children suffer brain injuries, yet most treatments are designed for adults and fail in pediatric populations. Elizabeth Nance, PhD, is bridging this gap by developing models of pediatric brain disease, engineering nanoparticles to deliver therapies precisely, and building predictive tools for how drugs behave in infant brains. The Nance Lab pioneered the use of living brain tissue slices for screening therapeutics and identified critical nanoparticle traits for getting into the brain. With four patents and multiple translational collaborations, this work is advancing safer, more effective treatments—and laying the foundation for pediatric clinical trials.

“Developing therapeutics to be safe and effective in children to improve their brain health after brain injury can have transformative lifelong impact. I am thankful to my trainees who are committed to this work and deeply honored for the recognition by the Blavatnik Award.”

Key Publications:

  1. Xu. N, Wixey J., Chand K., Wong M., Nance E.* Nano-formulated curcumin uptake and biodistribution in the fetal growth restricted newborn piglet brain. Drug Delivery & Translational Res. (2025) Mar 7; doi: 10.1007/s13346-025-01830-y
  2. Nance E.*, Pun S.*, Saigal R.*, Sellers D.* Drug delivery to the central nervous system. Nature Reviews Materials (2021) doi: 10.1038/s41578-021-00394-w
  3. Joseph A., Liao R., Zhang M., Helmbrecht H., McKenna M., Filteau J., Nance E.* Nanoparticle-microglial interaction in the ischemic brain is modulated by injury duration and treatment. Bioengineering & Translational Medicine (2020) August; doi: 10.1002/btm2.10175
  4. Curtis C., Toghani D., Wong B., Nance E.* Colloidal stability as a determinant of nanoparticle behavior in the brain. Colloids and Surfaces B: Biointerfaces (2018) 170, 673-682. doi: 10.1016/j.colsurfb.2018.06.050.

Other Honors:

2024 Fellow, Controlled Release Society
2023 Robert W. Vaughan Lectureship, California Institute of Technology Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering
2021 Distinguished Young Alumni Award, NC State Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering
2021 Mellichamp Lectureship, Purdue University Davison School of Chemical Engineering
2020 ASEE Curtis W. McGraw Research Award Finalist (top 5 in U.S.)
2019 Presidential Early Career Achievement in Science & Engineering (PECASE) award, Office of Science and Technology Policy, White House
2019 Undergraduate Research Mentor Award, University of Washington
2018 Early Career Achievement Award in STEM, Association of Women in Science (AWIS)
2018 NANOMED Young Inspiring Scientist, European Union’s Horizon 20/20 Program
2015 30 Under 30 for Science & Medicine, Forbes Magazine

In the Media:

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