Faculty DirectoryJosh Leonard
Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering and (by courtesy) Biomedical Engineering
Contact
2233 Tech Dr.Mudd Hall, Room 5112
Evanston, IL 60208-3109
847-491-7455Email Josh Leonard
Website
Centers
Departments
Chemical and Biological Engineering
Affiliations
PhD Program in Interdisciplinary Biological Sciences
Education
Ph.D. Chemical Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA
Management of Technology Certificate, Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley, CA
B.S. Chemical Engineering, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA
Research Interests
Leonard’s group engineers novel biological systems that perform customized, sophisticated functions for applications in biotechnology and medicine, helping to build the now vibrant field of mammalian synthetic biology. Employing methods ranging from biomolecular engineering to computation-driven design, his team develops technologies including (1) programmable cell-based devices for treating chronic disease, including synthetic receptors and genetic programs, and (2) novel gene therapy platforms based upon bioengineered nanoscale vesicles. Leonard is actively engaged in the development of national science policy, testifying as an expert witness before the U.S. House of Representatives on “21st Century Biology” and through his roles as a council and board member of the Engineering Biology Research Consortium. He fosters training, entrepreneurship, and industrial impact as director of Northwestern’s NIH-funded Biotechnology Training Program (T32) and entrepreneurial activity as a founder and chief scientific officer of Syenex—a startup focused on making transformative gene delivery technologies universally accessible. Dr. Leonard is a founding member of Northwestern’s Center for Synthetic Biology, which has grown to a leading team within the SynBio community.
Selected Publications
Edelstein H.I.#, Cosio A. #, Ezekiel M.L. #, Corcoran W.K. #, Morris A.H. #, and Leonard J.N.* (2025) Conversion of natural cytokine receptors into orthogonal synthetic biosensors. Nature Chemical Biology 21(11):1719-1730.
Corcoran W.K. #, Cosio A. #, Edelstein H.I. #, and Leonard J.N.* (2025) Exploring Structure—Function Relationships in Engineered Receptor Performance Using Computational Structure Prediction. GEN Biotechnology 4(1):37-55. doi:10.1089/genbio.2024.0057
Peruzzi J.A., Gunnels T.F. #, Edelstein H.I. #, Lu P., Baker D., Leonard J.N., and Kamat N.P. (2024) Enhancing extracellular vesicle cargo loading and functional delivery by engineering protein-lipid interactions. Nature communications 15(1):5618.
Dreyer K.S. #, Donahue P.S. #, Boucher J.D. #, Chambers K.M. #%, Ornelas M.Y. #%, Edelstein H.I.#, Leibowitz B.D. #%, Zhu K.J. #%, Dray K.E. #, Muldoon J.J. #, and Leonard J.N.* (2025) Engineered Feedback Employing Natural Hypoxia-Responsive Factors Enhances Synthetic Hypoxia Biosensors. ACS Synthetic Biology 14(5):1464-1481.
Dolberg T.B.#, Gunnels T.F. #, Ling T., Sarnese K.A. #, Crispino J.D., and Leonard J.N.* (2024) Building Synthetic Biosensors Using Red Blood Cell Proteins. ACS Synthetic Biology 13(4):1273-1289.
Stranford, D. M.#, Simons, L. M., Berman, K. E., Cheng, L., Lucks, J. B., Hultquist, J. F., and Leonard, J. N.* (2024). Genetically encoding multiple functionalities into extracellular vesicles for the targeted delivery of biologics to T cells. Nature Biomedical Engineering 8(4):397-414.
Dray, K.E. #, Dreyer, K.S. #, Lucks, J.B., and Leonard, J.N.* (2023). Teaching systematic, reproducible model development using synthetic biology. Chemical Engineering Education. 57 (3).
*corresponding author, #Leonard lab member, %undergraduate