People: Giovanni Traverso

Bio

Dr. Giovanni Traverso is a physician-scientist and the Director of the Laboratory for Translational Engineering (L4TE), a Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a gastroenterologist in the Division of Gastroenterology at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH), Harvard Medical School, an Associate Member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and an Associate Faculty Member of the Institute for Medical Engineering and Science.

Dr. Traverso grew up in Peru, Canada, and the United Kingdom. He received his B.A. from Trinity College, University of Cambridge, and his Ph.D. from the laboratory of Prof. Bert Vogelstein at Johns Hopkins University, where he developed non-invasive molecular tests for the early detection of colon cancer. He subsequently completed medical school at the University of Cambridge, his internal medicine residency at Brigham and Women's Hospital, and his gastroenterology fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital, both through Harvard Medical School. For his post-doctoral research, he joined the laboratory of Professor Robert Langer at MIT, where he developed a series of novel technologies for drug delivery and physiological sensing via the gastrointestinal tract.

Today, Dr. Traverso leads an interdisciplinary research group spanning MIT, Brigham and Women's Hospital, and the Broad Institute, where lab members work at the interface of engineering and medicine tackling major challenges across a range of disease areas. His team has developed technologies for long acting drug delivery, ingestible systems that enable the delivery of biologics, ingestible and implantable electronics for diagnostic and therapeutic application, biomaterial development for a orphan conditions as well as the treatment of common conditions like obesity.   He has co-founded and advised several biotechnology companies translating his lab's discoveries.

Research Interests

Dr. Traverso's research program integrates engineering and medicine to create the next generation of biomedical technologies. Efforts span advanced drug delivery systems, ingestible and implantable devices, and biocompatible materials designed to improve adherence and enable new therapeutic modalities. His group is also pioneering robotic and electroceutical approaches for closed-loop sensing and treatment, as well as platforms for nucleic acid and cell therapy delivery. Beyond therapeutics, the lab advances diagnostic and biosensing tools for early disease detection and real-time monitoring of human physiology, with the broader goal of transforming how diseases are prevented, detected, and treated.

The L4TE research program spans several areas:

• Biomaterials for the delivery of small molecules, macromolecular therapeutics (including nucleic acids), and cell therapies
• Ingestible devices for electroceutical applications, spanning therapeutic and diagnostic indications
• Synthesis and characterization of new biodegradable and bioresorbable materials
• Ultra-long-acting drug delivery systems to support maximal patient adherence across a broad range of indications
• Stem cell research, with a focus on delivery and control challenges
• Translational studies, including pre-clinical and first-in-human characterization of new drug delivery and sensing modalities
• Machine learning tools to inform next-generation drug formulation and delivery
• Implantable and ingestible robotic systems capable of identifying unique physiological signals and delivering closed-loop therapeutic interventions
• Ex vivo and in vitro tissue models to study drug transport and tissue behavior

Selected Awards/Societies

• Membre étranger, Académie royale de Médecine de Belgique, 2025
• Fellow, American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, 2024
• Fellow, National Academy of Inventors, 2023
• Fellow, Controlled Release Society College of Fellows, 2022
• Inventions Award, Popular Science, 2016
• MIT TR100 (Top Innovators Under 35), 2003
• Research Fellowship, Trinity College, University of Cambridge, 2002-2006
• Grand Prize, Collegiate Inventors Competition, 2002