Benedetto Marelli

Benedetto Marelli is the Paul M. Cook Career Development Assistant Professor in MIT’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. His research group focuses on structural biopolymers, nanomanufacturing, and self-assembly. By using biofabrication strategies, his group designs bio-inspired materials that work at the biotic-abiotic interface to mitigate and prevent environmental impact with applications in precision agriculture, food safety and food security. His interests include materials-based solutions to reduce food waste, mitigate environmental stress and enable the delivery of bioactive cargo molecules in plants. Marelli’s honors include an NSF Career Award, an Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Program Award, and a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. Marelli earned a BE and an MS in biomedical engineering from Polytechnic University of Milan, and a PhD in materials science and engineering from McGill University. 

Selected Publications

• Sun, H. and Marelli, B. (2020). Polypeptide Templating for Designer Hierarchical Materials. Nature Communications, 11: 351.​
• Qin, Z., iWu, L., Sun, H., Huo, S., Ma, T., Lim, E., Chen, P.-Y., Marelli, B., Buehler, M. J. (2020). Artificial Intelligence Method to Design and Fold Alpha-Helix Structural Proteins from the Primary Amino Acid Sequence. Extreme Mechanics Letters,Volume 36, April, 100652.
• Zvinavashe, A. T., Lim, E., Sun, H., Marelli, B. (2019). A Bioinspired Approach to Engineer Seed Microenvironment to Boost Germination and Mitigate Soil Salinity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116 (51) 25555-25561.

Media

• May 1, 2021: The Academic Times, Machine learning could yield protein-based coatings that curb food waste.
• November 25, 2019: MIT News, Coated seeds may enable agriculture on marginal lands.
• July 10, 2019: MIT News, Seven MIT faculty win 2019 Presidential Early Career Awards.
• May 3, 2017: MIT News, Funding solutions for pressing food and agriculture issues.