Grace Hopper Distinguished Lecture: Melody Swartz

Melody A. Swartz is the William B. Ogden Professor of Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago. Her research is focused on the lymphatic system and aims to understand its roles in immunity and pathophysiology, especially in cancer. Her lab draws on bioengineering approaches in cell biology and physiology, to investigate the role of lymphatic vessels in maintaining immunological tolerance and the role of lymphangiogenesis in controlling inflammation and immunity. Her lab applies this knowledge to develop novel immunotherapeutic approaches in cancer, including lymph node-targeting vaccine approaches, as well as in vitro model systems that recapitulate relevant features of the 3D, perfused tumor microenvironment.

Swartz obtained her BS from Johns Hopkins and PhD from MIT, both in Chemical Engineering, and carried out postdoctoral work at Harvard Medical School and the Brigham & Women’s Hospital. She started her independent career at Northwestern University in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and then spent 13 years at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) Institute of Bioengineering, where she eventually served as Institute Director.  She then joined the newly formed University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering to help grow the field of immunoengineering there, and currently serves as co-director of the Chicago Immunoengineering Innovation Center. Among her honors and awards, she is a MacArthur Fellow and member of the National Academy of Engineering, National Academy of Medicine, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.