Rate My Professor Maxim Prigozhin

Maxim Prigozhin is an Assistant Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology and of Applied Physics at Harvard University. Originally from Samara, Russia, he earned his HBSc in Chemistry and Physics from the University of Toronto. He completed his PhD at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the laboratory of Martin Gruebele, studying the biophysics of protein folding with ultrafast lasers, molecular dynamics simulations, and high-pressure instruments to observe protein refolding. Prigozhin then pursued postdoctoral research with Steven Chu at Stanford University, where he developed cathodoluminescent nanoprobes for multicolor electron microscopy using rare-earth ions attached to proteins.

The Prigozhin lab at Harvard develops biophysical methods for multicolor and dynamic biological imaging at the molecular scale. These include cryo-vitrifying samples at ultrafast time delays after stimulation using custom high-pressure freezing and cryo-plunging instruments, and cathodoluminescence—optical emission induced by electron beams—for multicolor electron imaging with nanoprobes termed cathodophores as luminescent protein tags. The lab applies these techniques to G-protein-coupled receptor signaling, biomolecular condensates, transmembrane signaling in single cells and molecules, and neural processes relevant to Alzheimer’s disease. Prigozhin received the 2026 Maximizing Innovation in Neuroscience Discovery (MIND) Prize from the Pershing Square Foundation, providing $750,000 over three years to advance imaging technologies for neurodegenerative diseases. He also obtained Star-Friedman Challenge funding in 2022. A notable publication is “Bright sub-20-nm cathodoluminescent nanoprobes for electron microscopy” in Nature Nanotechnology (2019). He teaches Introduction to Single-Molecule Biophysics (MCB 161 / Applied Physics 242).