Dr. Lisa Giacomelli earned her Ph.D. in Plant biology from Cornell University (NY, USA), where she investigated the response of the chloroplast to oxidative stress using reverse genetics and proteomics approaches.
Following her Ph.D., Dr. Giacomelli pursued a post-doctoral position at the ‘Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas' in Barcelona (Spain) working on the circadian clock mechanisms in Arabidopsis. Since 2009, Dr. Giacomelli has been part of Dr. Claudio Moser’s research team at Fondazione Edmund Mach in Northern Italy. Her primary focus has been on the elucidation of gene functions in grapevine.
Pioneering the application of gene editing techniques to improve grapevine, Dr. Giacomelli has been part since 2014 of a collaborative project between Fondazione Mach and the Duch company Enza Zaden, aimed at developing mildew-resistant grapevine varieties. Within this project, she contributed to developing a protocol for generating transgene-free gene-edited grapevine cultivars with enhanced tolerance to mildews, thereby promoting sustainable viticultural practices.