Summary
Dr. Nicholas Fitzkee studies how proteins attach to surfaces, work that informs strategies to prevent bacterial infections and improve nanoparticle-based therapeutics. By combining advanced NMR methods with engineered materials, his research supports the development of safer medical devices and more effective drug delivery systems.
Biography
Dr. Nicholas Fitzkee is a professor in the Department of Chemistry and director of MSU’s Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) Facility. He earned his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University and completed a postdoc at the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Fitzkee is interested in protein attachment to surfaces. These interactions drive bacterial infection and determine the effectiveness of nanoparticle-based therapeutics. Dr. Fitzkee has been funded by the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, receiving $6.3M in funding as principal investigator. He has published nearly 50 scientific papers in journals such as Nature Communications, The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and The Journal of the American Chemical Society. He is the Mississippi ACS local section “Chemist of the Year” for 2024 and was recently awarded the Ralph E. Powe award for research excellence. In addition, Dr. Fitzkee is the president of the Gibbs Society of Biological Thermodynamics and the treasurer of MSU’s chapter of Phi Beta Kappa. Recently, he led the NSF-funded acquisition of a new $3M 800 MHz NMR system for MSU.
Educational Background
- B.S. Carnegie Mellon University, 2001
- Ph.D. Johns Hopkins University, 2005
