Giulia Palermo
Giulia Palermo is a computational biophysicist, Assistant Professor at the University of California Riverside in the Department of Bioengineering and Chemistry.
She is a native of Italy where she earned her PhD in 2013 from the Italian Institute of Technology working with Dr. Marco De Vivo. Her graduate studies led to more than 10 first-author papers, drawing on quantum chemistry and mixed quantum-classical methods to explore the mechanistic function of a number of enzymes. During her two-year post-doc at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) in the group of Prof. Ursula Rothlisberger, she initiated studies of allostery in proteins and nucleic acids, focusing on chromatin drug development and on the mechanism of RNA splicing by the spliceosome.
In 2016, she was awarded a Swiss National Science Foundation (NSF) post-doctoral fellowship to join the group of Prof. J. Andrew McCammon at the University of California San Diego. At UCSD, she worked on novel multiscale approaches and enhanced simulations to enable studying increasingly realistic biological systems obtained through cryo-EM and tomography. Her interests focus on understanding dynamics and mechanisms of novel CRISPR-Cas gene-editing systems that are transformative for life sciences.
Post-docs
Ph.D. Cellular and Molecular Biology, University of Porto Alegre, Brazil 2018
Ph.D. Computational Biochemistry, University of Calcutta, India 2021
Ph.D. Computational Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology 2021
Ph.D. Computational Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology 2021
Graduate Students
B.S. Biochemistry, University of California, Irvine
M.S. Bioengineering, University of California, Riverside
M.S. Chemical Engineering, Cornell University
BS. Physics, Rutgers University
Visiting students
Visiting graduate student Gdansk Institute of Technology, Poland
Undergraduate & High-School Students
Undergraduate, UC CAMP Program Fellow
Undergraduate, Bioengineering
High-School Student, Riverside STEM Academy
Undergraduate, UC MARC-U STAR Program Fellow
Our Commitment to Diversity
The America of tomorrow will be highly diverse. However, the lack of know-how in computations and coding is dramatically affecting minority students, resulting in African Americans and Hispanics only making up 9% of the science and engineering workforce. Our goal is to mentor and inspire the next generation of bright minds in Computational Science, Chemistry and Biology. Toward this goal, we strive to create new programs that will encourage young students, including underrepresented minorities and women, to engage in higher education.
We strongly believe that Science and Creativity profit of diversity and we are excited about the prospect to create new knowledge in a scientific environment that welcomes diversity. Visit our outreaching website to know more about our programs.
Alumni
Former Post-docs
| Alumni | Position in the lab | Position after the lab |
| Lukasz Nierzwicki | Post-doc | Group Leader, Gdansk University of Technology |
| Yogesh B. Narkhede | Post-doc | Post-doc, University of Georgia |
Former Graduate Students
| Alumni | Position in the lab | Position after the lab |
| Nehemiah Zewde | Graduate student | Scientist, Genetech |
| Reed Harrison | Graduate student | Post-doc, University of California San Diego |
| Jacopo Manigrasso | Visiting graduate student | Ph.D. Italian Institute of Technology |
Former Undergraduate and High-School Students
| Alumni | Time in the lab | Position in the lab | Position after the lab |
| Emelda Fonki | 2020 | Undergraduate student | Medical School, UCR |
| Matthew Sample | 2020 | Undergraduate student | Ph.D. Arizona State University |
| Marco Medrano | 2019-2020 | Undergraduate student | M.S. UCR |
| Yisi He | 2018-2019 | High-School Student | B.S. UCR |
| Nolan Winicki | 2018 | Undergraduate student | Medical School, UCR |
Palermo Lab 