Paola Laurino

Associate Professor

Visiting Professor at the Institute of Protein Research @Osaka University

Assistant professor (Sept 2017-Oct 2022)

Ph.D. Organic Chemistry (ETH Zurich, 2011)
M.Ph. Medicinal Chemistry (Leiden University, 2007)
Master Degree (Laurea) Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Technology (Milan University)

paola.laurino

I am an organic chemist with broad interests in biochemistry and protein evolution. I was born and grew up in Italy. After pursuing a master in medicinal chemistry in the Netherlands, I started my doctoral studies in organic chemistry in ETHZ (Switzerland). During my PhD I moved to Max Plank Institute (Germany) along with my mentor and there finished my doctoral studies. As postdoctoral fellow I spent the last four years studying enzyme evolution and engineering in Weizmann Institute of Science (Israel).

Awards, Fellowships and Grants

2022 Takeda grant
2022 Rita Colwell award
2022 Faculty excellence in mentoring award
2021 Iwatani award
OIST Kick-start Fund (2019-21)
JSPS grant, Kakenhi Early Career Scientist (2018)
FGS-Weizmann Institute of Science, Senior Post Doctoral Fellowship (2015)
Federation of European Biochemical Societies, FEBS Long Term Fellowship (2012-13)
European Molecular Biology Organization, EMBO Long Term Post Doctoral Fellowship (2012) (Declined)

Selected Oral Presentations

IUPAB 2024 (Kyoto, Japan), June 2024
Keynote speaker at the annual meeting of the Australian Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology 2023, Canberra, Australia, 15 November 2023
Protein Evolution Meeting, Munster, Germany 2023
Advances in Protein Design: From therapeutic Proteins to Synthetic Biology Workshop, Kfar Blum, Israel, 23 Oct 2022
Enzyme Engineering XXVI conference, Dallas, USA, 26 May 2022
Enzymes, Coenzymes & Metabolic Pathways, Gordon Research Conference (Waterville, USA), July 2022

Selected Publications

Clifton, B. E.*; Alcolombri, U.; Uechi, G-I; Jackson, C.; Laurino, P.* The ultra-high affinity transport proteins of ubiquitous marine bacteria. Nature 2024, 634, 721- 728
Weronika Jasinska†, Mirco Dindo†, Sandra M. Correa, Adrian W.R. Serohijos, Paola Laurino*, Yariv Brotman*, Shimon Bershtein* Non-consecutive enzyme interactions within TCA cycle supramolecular assembly regulate carbon-nitrogen metabolism. Nature Communications 2024 15, 5285
Dindo, M.†; Bevilacqua, A.†; Soligo, G.; Calabrese, V.; Monti, A.; Shen, Q. A.; Rosti, M. Laurino, P.* Chemotatic interactions drive migration of membraneless active droplets. Journal of American Chemical Society 2024 146, 23, 15965-15976
Kozome, D.; Sljoka, A.; Laurino, P.* Remote loop evolution reveals a complex biological function for chitinase enzymes beyond the active site. Nature Communications 2024, 15, 3227
Toledo-Patino, S.; Pascarelli, S.; Uechi, G.; Laurino, P.* Insertions and deletions mediated functional divergence of Rossmann fold enzymes, PNAS, 2022, 119, 48, e2207965119.
Gade, M. H.; Lynn Tan, L.; Damry, A. M.; Sandhu, M.; Brock, J. S.; Delanay, A.; Villar-Briones, A.; Jackson, C. J.*; Laurino, P.* Substrate dynamics contributes to enzymatic specificity in Human and bacterial methionine adenosyltransferases. JACS Au, 2021, 1, 12, 2349-2360.
Clifton, B. E.; Fariz, M. A.; Uechi, G.; Laurino, P.* Evolutionary repair reveals an unexpected role of the tRNA modification m1G37 in aminoacylation. Nucleic Acid Res. 2021, 49, 21, 12467-12485.
Testa A.†; Dindo, M.†; Rebane, A.; Nasouri, B.; Style, R.; Golestanian, R.; Dufresne, E.;* Laurino, P.* Sustained Enzymatic activity and Flow in Crowded Protein Droplets Nat. Commun., 2021, 12, 6293.