Giulia Palermo

Short Biography

Dr. Palermo received her Ph.D. in computational chemistry from the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT), Italy. During her doctoral training, she was awarded a fellowship to conduct research at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) with Prof. Ursula Röthlisberger. She later joined the University of California San Diego as a Swiss National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow in the laboratory of Prof. J. Andrew McCammon. She joined the faculty of the University of California, Riverside in 2019 and became Professor of Chemistry at UCLA in 2026. Her research focuses on developing and applying multiscale simulations, theoretical methods, and artificial intelligence to uncover the molecular mechanisms of biological systems and to engineer next-generation genome editing technologies.

Research Interests

The Palermo laboratory is best known for pioneering computational studies of genome editing systems. The group’s research pushes the boundaries of computational biophysics through the development of integrative approaches that combine molecular dynamics simulations, quantum mechanical methods, cryo-EM modeling, and artificial intelligence technologies, including graph neural networks and causal inference frameworks. Current research focuses on the mechanisms of genome editing systems and the development of next-generation technologies for programmable DNA and RNA modification. Looking ahead, the laboratory seeks to enable in silico molecular engineering, where computation and artificial intelligence can predict, guide, and accelerate the design of complex biomolecular machines.