About

Antonia Statt is the Principal Investigator of the Designing Functional Polymer Materials lab at the University of Illinois. She completed both her undergraduate and graduate studies in Physics under Prof. Binder at the University of Mainz in Germany. Following her graduate work, she conducted postdoctoral research as a PCCM researcher with Prof. Panagiotopoulos in the Chemical and Biological Engineering Department at Princeton University. Her research focuses on the simulation and modeling of polymer materials, utilizing molecular dynamics simulations to investigate phenomena such as nucleation in polymer melts, mechanophore behavior in polymers, and the structure and properties of novel lipid nanoparticle delivery vehicles. Her work aims to understand and engineer polymer responses at the microscopic scale to enhance material properties and functionalities.

Research topics

• Artificial Intelligence
• Machine Learning
• Computer Science
• Mathematics
• Nanotechnology
• Algorithm
• Biology
• Materials science
• Biological system
• Chemistry

Selected publications

• Modeling Targeted Mechanochemistry in Polymeric Solids

  Chemical Reviews · 2026-05-12

  articleSenior author

  Embedding mechanophores into polymeric solids enables the design of materials that respond to mechanical stimuli, with applications in sensing, self-healing, and adaptive systems. This review summarizes modeling approaches for mechanophores in polymer solids across multiple length scales, from nanoscale quantum chemical models and mesoscale reactive molecular dynamics to macroscale continuum frameworks. We also discuss theoretical foundations such as force-modified potential energy surfaces. We then compare computational strategies to experimental insights, highlighting key findings, ranging from the roles of mechanophore geometry, chemical substituents, network architecture, and physical cross-linking in force transduction and activation. Persistent challenges in the field include capturing multiscale dynamics, local environmental effects, and heterogeneity. Advancing predictive models will accelerate mechanophore discovery and enable rational design of mechanoresponsive polymeric solids.

  PublisherDOI

• Roadmap for Condensates in Cell Biology

  arXiv (Cornell University) · 2026-01-07

  preprintOpen access

  Biomolecular condensates govern essential cellular processes yet elude description by traditional equilibrium models. This roadmap, distilled from structured discussions at a workshop and reflecting the consensus of its participants, clarifies key concepts for researchers, funding bodies, and journals. After unifying terminology that often separates disciplines, we outline the core physics of condensate formation, review their biological roles, and identify outstanding challenges in nonequilibrium theory, multiscale simulation, and quantitative in-cell measurements. We close with a forward-looking outlook to guide coordinated efforts toward predictive, experimentally anchored understanding and control of biomolecular condensates.

  PublisherDOI

• Effect of Pre-Shear and Dispersity on Crystallization of a Model Polymer with Soft Pair Interactions using Molecular Dynamics Simulations

  ArXiv.org · 2026-04-13

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Polymer crystallization is a process of great interest in both fundamental theory and industrial settings, particularly in polymer processing and applications involving semi-crystalline materials. The effect of processing on the initial stages of crystallization is not fully understood. Our study investigates the influence of pre-shear on monodisperse melts and bidisperse blends of a generic, segmentally coarse-grained polymer model. Through molecular dynamics simulations, we explore how polydispersity affects crystallization, where we found that the addition of short chains to a melt of longer chains increased the final crystallinity by about 10%, and increased the initial growth rate by roughly a factor of two. In contrast, however, pre-shearing the hot melt before quenching only showed a minor increase in both growth rates and final crystallinty, except in monodisperse melts of short chains. Crystal grain shapes were most influenced by pre-shearing monodisperse melts, where both asphericity and prolateness decreased. Additionally, we determined topological connectivity of crystal grains through tie- and loop-chain analysis. Again, only monodisperse melts showed a significant increase of tie chain fractions with pre-shear, while all other systems showed only modest increases. Our findings provide insight into the changes of crystallinity and cluster morphologies that emerge when pre-sheared, offering a deeper understanding of the initial crystallization processes in polymer melts when subjected to pre-shear.

  PublisherOA PDF

• Effect of Pre-Shear and Dispersity on Crystallization of a Model Polymer with Soft Pair Interactions using Molecular Dynamics Simulations

  arXiv (Cornell University) · 2026-04-13

  preprintOpen accessSenior author

  Polymer crystallization is a process of great interest in both fundamental theory and industrial settings, particularly in polymer processing and applications involving semi-crystalline materials. The effect of processing on the initial stages of crystallization is not fully understood. Our study investigates the influence of pre-shear on monodisperse melts and bidisperse blends of a generic, segmentally coarse-grained polymer model. Through molecular dynamics simulations, we explore how polydispersity affects crystallization, where we found that the addition of short chains to a melt of longer chains increased the final crystallinity by about 10%, and increased the initial growth rate by roughly a factor of two. In contrast, however, pre-shearing the hot melt before quenching only showed a minor increase in both growth rates and final crystallinty, except in monodisperse melts of short chains. Crystal grain shapes were most influenced by pre-shearing monodisperse melts, where both asphericity and prolateness decreased. Additionally, we determined topological connectivity of crystal grains through tie- and loop-chain analysis. Again, only monodisperse melts showed a significant increase of tie chain fractions with pre-shear, while all other systems showed only modest increases. Our findings provide insight into the changes of crystallinity and cluster morphologies that emerge when pre-sheared, offering a deeper understanding of the initial crystallization processes in polymer melts when subjected to pre-shear.

  PublisherDOI

• BPS2026 – Investigating surfaces of internally structured colloidal lipid nanoparticles with molecular dynamics

  Biophysical Journal · 2026-02-01

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• The Influence of the Thiol-ene Mechanism on Polymer Network Topology

  Macromolecules · 2026-02-10 · 1 citations

  articleSenior authorCorresponding

  Over the past few decades, thiol-ene photopolymerization has gained popularity for synthesizing polymer networks with near-ideal architectures and predictable mechanical properties. However, growing experimental evidence of heterogeneity varying with chemical design parameters in such networks has raised questions about the chemistry’s ideality and the broader relationship between network architecture and macroscopic properties. In this work, we use a computational framework based on generalizable Kremer-Grest bead-spring representations and Monte Carlo-based reactive molecular dynamics to simulate thiol-ene-like network formation. We compare ideal step-growth thiol-ene and step-growth/chain-growth mixed-mechanism photopolymerization pathways of common thiol-based chemistries across tetra-functional cross-linker concentrations. Our results reveal the influence of synthetic variables (i.e., monomer reactivity and composition) on conversion, gelation, network architecture, and bulk mechanical properties. Additionally, we confirm these computational findings with experimental analogues, which reveal reactive accuracy through qualitative agreement between functional-group conversion and gel points. Notably, we find that network defects form more prominently at low cross-linker concentrations and with high monomer rigidity in step-growth systems, the majority of which are dangling ends. In contrast, mixed-mechanism systems produce networks less sensitive to synthetic conditions but with more heterogeneous structures, as evidenced by strand-length distributions and Voronoi volume variance. These findings underscore the role of synthetic conditions and reaction pathways in tuning network topology and provide new insights for the rational design of photopolymerization chemistries.

  PublisherDOI

• Roadmap for Condensates in Cell Biology

  ArXiv.org · 2026-01-07

  articleOpen access

  Biomolecular condensates govern essential cellular processes yet elude description by traditional equilibrium models. This roadmap, distilled from structured discussions at a workshop and reflecting the consensus of its participants, clarifies key concepts for researchers, funding bodies, and journals. After unifying terminology that often separates disciplines, we outline the core physics of condensate formation, review their biological roles, and identify outstanding challenges in nonequilibrium theory, multiscale simulation, and quantitative in-cell measurements. We close with a forward-looking outlook to guide coordinated efforts toward predictive, experimentally anchored understanding and control of biomolecular condensates.

  PublisherOA PDF

• BPS2025 - Modeling lipid-polymer hybrid membrane morphology

  Biophysical Journal · 2025-02-01

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Tribute to Athanassios Z. Panagiotopoulos

  The Journal of Physical Chemistry B · 2025-10-30

  articleSenior authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• BPS2025 - Impact of PBD and PCL copolymer inclusion on the elasticity of DPPC and DOPC membranes

  Biophysical Journal · 2025-02-01

  article
  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• Collaborative Research: CDS&E: Inverse Design of Sequence-Defined Macromolecules using Generative Deep Learning

  NSF · $330k · 2024–2027

Frequent coauthors

• Peter Virnau

  19 shared

• Kurt Binder

  18 shared

• Athanassios Z. Panagiotopoulos

  13 shared

• Wesley F. Reinhart

  12 shared

• Michael P. Howard

  12 shared

• Cecília Leal

  Friedrich Schiller University Jena

  11 shared

• Peter Koß

  Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz

  9 shared

• Marie Charpagne

  Friedrich Schiller University Jena

  9 shared

Labs

• Designing Functional Polymer MaterialsPI

  Designing Functional Polymer Materials

Awards & honors

• Materials Research Society Fellowships and Awards