Giulia Palermo

Giulia Palermo is an Associate Professor at the University of California Riverside with joint appointments in the Department of Bioengineering and Chemistry. A computational biophysicist specializing in genome editing technologies, she earned her PhD from the Italian Institute of Technology (2013) and conducted postdoctoral research at EPFL (Switzerland) and UC San Diego. Her lab is relocating to UCLA per recent announcements.

Her research employs advanced computational methods to characterize CRISPR-Cas systems:

• Molecular dynamics simulations of CRISPR mechanisms
• Engineering of genome editing precision
• Allosteric regulation in nucleic acid enzymes
• Deep learning approaches for biophysical prediction

Publication analysis reveals consistent focus on CRISPR systems (Cas9, Cas12a, Cas13a) with methodological emphasis on:

• Ab-initio and accelerated molecular dynamics
• Enzyme kinetics characterization
• Off-target effect mitigation
• Structure-function relationships in DNA/RNA editing

Major scientific recognitions include:

• 2024: Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar, Rosetta Briegel Barton Lecturer
• 2023: Sloan Research Fellowship, ACS Rising Star Award
• 2022: NSF CAREER Award, ERC Starting Grant (declined)
• 2020: Corwin Hansch Award
• Multiple early-career features in J. Am. Chem. Soc.

She leads the Palermo Lab (palermolab.com) which is currently transitioning to UCLA. The group has received significant funding including NSF and DOE awards for high-performance computing applications in life sciences.