Staff Profile

Emanuela Torelli received her PhD in Biotechnology from the University of Udine, Italy. From 2009 to 2015 she was research assistant, scientist, student tutor and exam committee member at the University of Udine, Italy, where she received the onorary fellow in 'Mycology' and 'Food protection against microorganisms'. She has taught laboratory-project courses and seminars in different topics, and she received the national academic qualification as associate professor from the Italian Ministry of Education, Universities and Research.

Having collaborated extensively with academics of different Departments, she believe in the importance of thinking beyond narrow academic disciplines and she is drawn to the multidisciplinary approach to research. She is an experienced researcher in the field of biotechnology and synthetic biology, and her recent research is mainly focused on DNA/RNA assembly and nanobiology.

In October 2014 she was visiting scientist at SMILEs Lab, Kaust, Saudi Arabia. In 2015 she obtained a research fellowship at the School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

Then, she was Senior Research Associate and Transitional Fellow (NanoBio Technology) at the Interdisciplinary Computing and Complex Biosystems group (ICOS2) wet lab, Newcastle University. Currently, she is Module Leader and Lecturer.

She worked on Synthetic Portabolomics project (EPSRC, 2016-2022) and on EnDROIDS project (Royal Academy of Engineering, 2020-2030). She is co-investigation in an Innovative UK Grant and in the Destination project (H2020 FET-Open).

She is Module Leader and Lecturer. She is supervisor of Research associates and Master students, and co-supervisor of PhD students.

Module leader

CSC8013, Professional Skills and Development, Computer Science MSc

Lecturer

CSC8313 Bioinformatics Theory and Practise, Bioinformatics MSc, 2024-2025

CSC8334 Contemporary Topics in Bioinformatics, Bioinformatics MSc, 2024-2025

CSC8320, Fundamentals in Cell and Molecular Biology, Bioinformatics MSc, 2023-2024

• Articles

  • Shirt-Ediss B, Connolly J, Elezgaray J, Torelli E, Navarro SA, Bacardit J, Krasnogor N. Reverse engineering DNA origami nanostructure designs from raw scaffold and staple sequence list. Computational and Structural Biotechnology Journal 2023, 21, 3615-3626.
  • Torelli E, Shirt-Ediss B, Navarro SA, Manzano M, Vizzini P, Krasnogor N. Light-up split Broccoli aptamer as a versatile tool for RNA assembly monitoring in cell-free TX-TL system, hybrid RNA/DNA origami tagging and DNA biosensing. International Journal of Molecular Sciences 2023, 24(10), 8483.
  • Vizzini P, Beltrame E, Coppede N, Vurro F, Andreatta F, Torelli E, Manzano M. Detection of Listeria monocytogenes in foods with a textile organic electrochemical transistor biosensor. Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology 2023, 107(11), 3789-3800.
  • Lopiccolo A, Shirt-Ediss B, Torelli E, Olulana AFA, Castronovo M, Fellermann H, Krasnogor N. A last-in first-out stack data structure implemented in DNA. Nature Communications 2021, 12(1), 4861.
  • Torelli E, Kozyra JW, Shirt-Ediss B, Piantanida L, Voïtchovsky K, Krasnogor N. Co-transcriptional folding of a bio-orthogonal fluorescent scaffolded RNA origami. ACS Synthetic Biology 2020, 9(7), 1682-1692.
  • Torelli E, Kozyra JW, Gu J-Y, Stimming U, Piantanida L, Voitchovsky K, Krasnogor N. Isothermal folding of a light-up bio-orthogonal RNA origami nanoribbon. Scientific Reports 2018, 8, 6989.
  • Firrao G, Torelli E, Polano C, Ferrante P, Ferrini F, Martini M, Marcelletti S, Scortichini M, Ermacora P. Genomic structural variations affecting virulence during clonal expansion of Pseudomonas syringae pv. actinidiae Biovar 3 in Europe. Frontiers in Microbiology 2018, 9.
  • Torelli E, Manzano M, Srivastava SK, Marks RS. DNA origami nanorobot fiber optic genosensor to TMV. Biosensors and Bioelectronics 2018, 99, 209-215.
  • Kozyra J, Ceccarelli A, Torelli E, Lopiccolo A, Gu JY, Fellermann H, Stimming U, Krasnogor N. Designing uniquely addressable Bio-orthogonal Synthetic Scaffolds for DNA and RNA Origami. ACS Synthetic Biology 2017, 6(7), 1140-1149.
  • Torelli E, Manzano M, Marks RS. Chemiluminescent optical fibre genosensor for porcine meat detection. Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical 2017, 247, 868-874.
  • Piantanida L, Naumenko D, Torelli E, Marini M, Bauer DM, Fruk L, Firrao G, Lazzarino M. Plasmon resonance tuning using DNA origami actuation. Chemical Communications 2015, 51(23), 4789-4792.
  • Torelli E, Aiello D, Polizzi G, Firrao G, Cirvilleri G. Draft genome of a Xanthomonas perforansstrain associated with pith necrosis. FEMS Microbiology Letters 2015, 362(4), 1-3.
  • Moretti C, Cortese C, da Silva DP, Venturi V, Torelli E, Firrao G, Buonaurio R. Draft genome sequence of a HR-inducing Pantoea agglomeransstrain isolated from olive knots caused by Pseudomonas savastanoipv. savastanoi. Genome Announcements 2014, 2(4), e00774-14.
  • Torelli E, Marini M, Palmano S, Piantanida L, Polano C, Scarpellini A, Lazzarino M, Firrao G. A DNA origami nanorobot controlled by nucleic acid hybridization. Small 2014, 10(14), 2918-2926.
  • Firrao G, Martini M, Ermacora P, Loi N, Torelli E, Foissac X, Carle P, Kirkpatrick B, Liefting L, Schneider B, Marzachì C, Palmano S. Genome wide sequence analysis grants unbiased definition of species boundaries in Candidatus Phytoplasma. Systematic and Applied Microbiology 2013, 36, 539-548.
  • Firrao G, Bianchi G, Saccardo F, Locci R, Torelli E. The influence of local factors on the prediction of fumonisin contamination in maize. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture 2012, 92, 1808-1814.
  • Gaspardo B, Del Zotto S, Torelli E, Cividino S, Firrao G, Della Riccia G, Stefanon B. A rapid method for detection of fumonisins B1 and B2 in corn meal using Fourier transform near infrared spectroscopy (FT-NIR) implemented with integrating sphere. Food Chemistry 2012, 135, 1608-1612.
  • Gobbi E, Falasconi M, Torelli E, Sberveglieri G. Electronic nose predicts high and low fumonisin contamination in maize cultures. Food Research International 2011, 44, 992-999.
  • Firrao G, Torelli E, Gobbi E, Raranciuc S, Bianchi G. Prediction of milled maize fumonisin contamination by multispectral image analysis. Journal of Cereal Science 2010, 52, 327-330.
  • Torelli E, Gubiani R, Firrao G, Cividino S, Locci R, Gobbi E. Air analysis in the assessment of fumonisin contamination risk in maize. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture 2010, 90, 641-649.

• Book Chapter

  • Scortichini M, Marcelletti S, Ferrante P, Petriccione M, Torelli E, Firrao G. Genome Plasticity and Dynamic Evolution of phytopathogenic Pseudomonads and Related Bacteria. In: Katsy,EI, ed. Plasticity in Plant-Growth-Promoting and Phytopathogenic Bacteria. Springer, 2014, pp.99-129.

• Conference Proceedings (inc. Abstracts)

  • Torelli E, Shirt-Ediss B, Navarro SA, Krasnogor N. Co-transcriptionally folded RNA origami and DNA stack memory as potential interfaces able to operate in vivo. In: 2023 RNA Nanotechnologies, Gordon Research Seminar and Conference. 2023, Ventura, CA, USA: Gordon Research Conferences.
  • Torelli E, Shirt-Ediss B, Navarro SA, Krasnogor N. Towards in vivo RNA origami self-assembly. In: Synthetic Biology UK 2022. 2022, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.
  • Shirt-Ediss B, Connolly J, Torelli E, Navarro S, Elezgaray J, Bacardit J, Krasnogor N. Multi-Objective Sequence Selection for Scaffolded Origami Nanostructures. In: 28th International Conference on DNA Computing and Molecular Programming. 2022, Albuquerque, NM, USA: University of New Mexico.
  • Navarro SA, Torelli E, Krasnogor N. INTEGRONS: natural DNA-based data structures. In: Synthetic Biology UK 2022 (SBUK 2022). 2022, Newcastle Upon Tyne.
  • Connolly J, Shirt-Ediss B, Torelli E, Hobbs L, Bacardit J, Krasnogor N. NAOMEE: Nucleic Acid Origami Minimal Exchange Format. In: Unconventional Computation and Natural Computation Conference 21, UCNC21. 2021, Aalto University, Espoo, Finland.
  • Torelli E, Kozyra JW, Shirt-Ediss B, Piantanida L, Voïtchovsky K, Krasnogor N. Towards in vivo origami: co-transcriptional folding of a bio-orthogonal scaffolded RNA nanoribbon. In: Functional DNA Nanotechnology, FDN 2020. 2020, Rome, Italy.
  • Torelli E, Kozyra JW, Shirt-Ediss B, Piantanida L, Voïtchovsky K, Krasnogor N. Towards in vivo origami: bio-orthogonal scaffolded RNA nanoribbons self-assembled via co-transcriptional folding. In: The 1st International Biodesign Research Conference. 2020.
  • Shirt-Ediss B, Elezgaray J, Connolly J, Torelli E, Krasnogor N. REVNANO: An Algorithm to Reverse Engineer Scaffolded DNA/RNA Origami Designs from Sequence Information Only. In: 26th International Conference on DNA Computing and Molecular Programming. 2020, Online: IOP.
  • Torelli E, Kozyra JW, Gu JY, Stimming U, Piantanida L, Voïtchovsky K, Krasnogor N. Walk on the Origami Side: From Switchable DNA Nanodevices to Light-up Bio-orthogonal RNA Nanoribbon. In: 2019 RNA Nanotechnologies, New Frontiers in RNA Nanotechnology-Based Therapeutics and Diagnostics, Gordon Research Seminar and Conference. 2019, Ventura, CA, US: Gordon Research Conferences.
  • Torelli E, Kozyra JW, Gu JY, Stimming U, Piantanida L, Voïtchovsky K, Krasnogor N. Switchable 2D/3D DNA origami nanodevices and light-up bio-orthogonal RNA nanoribbon. In: Nantech 2019. 2019, Helsinki, Finland.
  • Torelli E, Kozyra JW, Gu JY, Stimming U, Piantanida L, Voïtchovsky K, Krasnogor N. Isothermal folding of a light-up bio-orthogonal RNA origami nanoribbon. In: 3rd Functional DNA Nanotechnology Workshop. 2018, Rome, Italy.
  • Kozyra J, Ceccarelli A, Torelli E, Lopiccolo A, Fellermann H, Shirt-Ediss B, Krasnogor N. Toward in vivo nanostructures: hybrid origami scaffolds on De Bruijn sequence. In: BioOrigami Workshop. 2017, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
  • Torelli E, Krasnogor N. DNA origami as device at the nanoscale. In: Bio-X Conference. 2017, Netanya, Israel.
  • Torelli E, Polano C, Piantanida L, Lazzarino M, Firrao G. DNA origami Nanorobot for Biosensing and Delivery. In: Negev Global Issues 2015: Impact on Energy, Environment, Health and Water. 2015, Ben Gurion University, Beer Sheva, Israel.
  • Torelli E, Marini M, Palmano S, Piantanida L, Polano C, Scarpellini A, Lazzarino M, Firrao G. Switchable 3D DNA Origami Nanorobot . In: Functional DNA Nanotechnology. 2014, Rome, Italy.
  • Piantanida L, Naumenko D, Torelli E, Marini M, Firrao G, Lazzarino M. Plasmonic ruler via DNA functionalization of gold nanoparticles for the application to DNA origami. In: NFO13, 13thInternational Conference on Near-Field Optics, Nanophotonics, and Related Techniques. 2014, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.
  • Moretti C, Cortese C, da Silva DP, Devescovi G, Torelli E, Venturi V, Firrao G, Buonaurio R. Draft genome sequence of a hypersensitive reaction-inducing Pantoea agglomerans strain isolated from olive knots caused by Pseudomonas savastanoi pv.Savastanoi. In: 13th International Conference on Plant Pathogenic Bacteria. 2014, Shangai, China.
  • Torelli E, Yassin M. Capacity building to mitigate mycotoxins impact on children health in East Africa (CapAfrica). In: Science Forum 2013 (ISCP-FAO). 2013, Bonn, Germany.
  • Torelli E, Firrao G, Gobbi E. Development of methods for the prediction of mycotoxins contamination. In: 13th Congress of the Mediterrean Phytopathological Union (MPU). 2010, Rome, Italy: Petria.
  • Torelli E, Firrao G, Gobbi E, Locci R. New method for rapid detection of fumonisins in maize using image analysis. In: ISTISAN Congress 09/C6. 2009, Rome, Italy.
  • Firrao G, Torelli E, Gobbi E, Locci R. Image analysis for the rapid estimation of fumonisin content of maize. In: XV Congress SIPaV. 2009, Bari, Italy: J Plant Pathol.
  • Torelli E, Bianchi G, Saccardo F, Locci R, Firrao G. Mycotoxin contamination in maize: occurrence, risk factors and proximal imaging analysis. In: X International Fusarium Workshop and Fusarium Genomics Workshop. 2008, Alghero, Italy: J Plant Pathol.
  • Torelli E, Gobbi E, Bianchi G, Gubiani R, Saccardo F, Cividino S, Locci R, Firrao G. Early evaluation of mycotoxin contamination risk in maize. In: ICPP 2008 9th International Congress of Plant Pathology. Healthy and Safe Food for Everybody. 2008, Turin, Italy: J Plant Pathol.