Emiliana de Santis received her master’s degree in Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Technologies from the University of Rome Sapienza in 2008. After being awarded a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Kent for her work on peptidomimetic foldamers, she joined Diamond Light Source as postdoctoral research associate sponsored by MedImmune. Her postdoctoral work focused on the biophysical characterisation of biosimilars using synchrotron radiation circular dichroism.
Emiliana joined NPL in 2013 to follow her interest in bioengineering, molecular biophysics and synthetic biology. Her work focuses on the development and structural characterisation, using molecular biophysics and cryo-electron microscopy, of virus-like particles and fibrillar matrices with application as intra- and extracellular standards for gene delivery and tissue engineering. She is leading an international VAMAS intercomparison study for the characterisation of synthetic virus-like particles by electron microscopy.
Emiliana leads the area of cryo-electron microscopy at NPL and is establishing a high-resolution cryo-electron microscopy centre to support the advancement of biometrology and synthetic biology.
She has published numerous publications, which include research articles in high impact journals (e.g. Nature Communications, JACS), review articles (e.g. Chem. Soc. Rev.) and book chapters (e.g. RSC series Amino Acids, Peptides and Proteins). Emiliana is a member of the Royal Microscopy Society, the Royal Society of Chemistry and Chartered Chemist.
Areas of interest
- Biomolecular metrology and bioengineering
- Molecular biophysics and cryo-electron microscopy
- Synthetic biology, gene delivery and regenerative medicine
Email Emiliana de Santis