Brian Belardi is an assistant professor in the McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin and holds the Lyondell Chemical Company Endowed Faculty Fellowship in Engineering. His lab focuses on building new chemical biology and synthetic biology tools to probe and manipulate tissue properties. Projects in his lab span a wide range of topics from the basic science of cell-cell contacts in epithelium to improving the oral bioavailability of biologics with smart nanomaterials. Recently, group members in his lab have developed molecular switches that respond to external, user-defined stimuli, providing precise control over tissue-scale actions. Prior to joining the faculty at UT Austin, Brian was an NIH postdoctoral fellow with Daniel Fletcher and completed his Ph.D. with Carolyn Bertozzi at University of California, Berkeley.