ACS AMA Hi Reddit! My name is Nathan Gianneschi and I research nanomaterials at the University of California, San Diego, but I am moving my laboratory to Northwestern University; coming soon, at the beginning of July this year. Recently work in my lab was published in ACS Central Science, an open access journal, entitled “Mimicking Melanosomes: Polydopamine Nanoparticles as Artificial Microparasols” http://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acscentsci.6b00230. This work describes a nanomaterial that could be used to protect cells from UV damage. I look forward to answering your questions about this research today! More broadly, our research group takes an interdisciplinary approach to nanomaterials research with a focus on multifunctional materials with interests that include biomedical applications, programmed interactions with biomolecules and cells, and basic research into nanoscale materials design, synthesis and characterization. For this work I have been awarded the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award, the NIH Director’s Transformative Research Award and with a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. My academic background started with my B.Sc. (Hons) at the University of Adelaide, Australia in 1999. In 2005 I completed my Ph.D at Northwestern University. Following a Dow Chemical postdoctoral fellowship at The Scripps Research Institute, in 2008 I began my independent career at the University of California, San Diego where I am currently Teddy Traylor Scholar and Professor of Chemistry & Biochemistry, NanoEngineering and Materials Science & Engineering. In addition to my NIH citation, I was awarded a Dreyfus Foundation Fellowship, I am a Kavli Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, and am an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellow. Ask me anything about using nanomaterials for biomedical applications, including this work on melanosome mimics. I will be back at 11am EDT (10am CDT, 8am PDT, 3pm UTC) to answer your questions. I’m back to answer questions (10am CDT). Hello! Thank you to all of you for your interest and fantastic questions. I have enjoyed trying to answer as many of you as possible, and I apologize if I was too brief, or could not get to your question today. Thank you to the ACS, and the journal, ACS Central Science for setting up this AMA session. All the best with your work, studies, life and health. Signing off - 12:57pm (CDT)