LaBean earned his BS in biochemistry from the Honors College at Michigan State University, and his PhD in biochemistry from the University of Pennsylvania. He studied protein design as a postdoctoral fellow at Duke University. He then ran his own group as research professor with appointments in the departments of Computer Science, Chemistry, and Biomedical Engineering at Duke. LaBean joined MSE@NCSU in 2011.  Throughout his career, LaBean has studied the structure, evolution, and engineering of biopolymers (biomacromolecules and materials assembled from them). Current research projects involve the design, construction, and testing of self-assembling DNA nanostructures for applications in nanomedicine, molecular materials, and biomimetic fabrication of nanoelectronics.