Staff Profile

Emanuela Torelli received her PhD in Biotechnology from the University of Udine, Italy. From 2009 to 2015 she was research assistant, scientist and exam committee member at the University of Udine, Italy, where she received the honorary 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 biosensing, 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 at the Interdisciplinary Computing and Complex Biosystems group (ICOS2) wet lab, Newcastle University. From 2023 to 2025, she was Module Leader and Lecturer in Biology and Nanobiotecnology. Currently, she is Visiting Researcher at the same university and Adjunct Professor at the University of Udine (Italy), where she is transitioning to Associate Professor.

SELECTED ARTICLES

• Shirt-Ediss B*, Torelli E*, Navarro SA, Trewby W, Khamis H, Kaplan A, Elezgaray J, Moradzadeh-Esmaeili N, Haydell M, Famulok M, Bacardit J, Krasnogor N. Optimizing DNA origami assembly by reducing off-target interactions. Nature Communications 2026, Accepted. *Co-first author. Preprint available at: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.01.29.635450v1
• 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. *Co-corresponding.
• 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. *Co-corresponding.
• 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. *Co-corresponding.
• Torelli E*, Manzano M, Srivastava SK, Marks RS*. DNA origami nanorobot fiber optic genosensor to TMV. Biosensors and Bioelectronics 2018, 99, 209-215. *Co-corresponding.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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, 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.

SELECTED CONFERENCES

• Torelli, E., Krasnogor, N., Engineering nucleic acids: from DNA computing to encoded light-up RNA nanostructures for potential in vivo applications. Biosensors 2025, 35^th Anniversary World Congress on Biosensors, Lisbon, Portugal. 19-22 May 2025.
• 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. 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. 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. 28th International Conference on DNA Computing and Molecular Programming. 2022, Albuquerque, NM, USA: University of New Mexico.
• 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. BioOrigami Workshop. 2017, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
• Torelli E, Krasnogor N. DNA origami as device at the nanoscale. Bio-X Conference. 2017, Netanya, Israel.
• Torelli E, Polano C, Piantanida L, Lazzarino M, Firrao G. DNA origami Nanorobot for Biosensing and Delivery. 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. 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. 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. 13th International Conference on Plant Pathogenic Bacteria. 2014, Shangai, China.

PATENT

Krasnogor, N., Torelli, E., Armstrong, K., Navarro, S.A., Shirt-Ediss, B., Disorigami as target-shape free DNA/RNA nanostructures and Materials Minimisation for DNA/RNA (dis)origami and other nanotechnologies. UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO) patent filed under number 2418875.7, December 2024.