Luisa Di Paola
Biography
1997: Degree in Chemical Engineering - University of Rome "La Sapienza": "Aggregation kinetics of denatured proteins", final mark 110/110;
2001: PhD in Industrial Chemical Processes - University of Rome "La Sapienza". Thesis title: “k-casein separation and purification”.
Curriculum
1999, 2001-2004: University of Rome "La Sapienza": tutor of the course "Chemical Reactors;
2000: University of California - Berkeley, College of Chemistry, visiting scholar (molecular thermodynamics of protein solutions), under the supervision of prof. JM Prausnitz and HW Blanch;
2002-2004: University of Rome "La Sapienza": research grant on the project "Chemistry-physics of biomolecules";
2004-2006: University "Campus Biomedico of Rome": contract professor of the course "Laboratory of Chromatographic Analysis of Biomolecules";
2004-2007: University "Campus Biomedico di Roma": tutor of the course "Engineering of Artificial Organs";
2004-2009: University "Campus Biomedico di Roma": tutor and co-teacher of the course "Molecular thermodynamics of biological systems";
2008-2010: University "Campus Biomedico di Roma": co-teacher of the course "Phenomena of Transport";
2005-2006: University of Rome "La Sapienza": tutor of the course "Chemical Reactors";
2005-2007: University of Rome "La Sapienza": research grant on the project "Simulation of an integrated module of catalytic reaction and membrane separation for the production of hydrogen by steam-reforming of methane";
2008-2011: Lecturer at the Campus Biomedico in Rome of the following courses: Transport Phenomena, Molecular Thermodynamics of Biological Systems, Chemical Engineering of Artificial Organs, Principles of Environmental Chemical Engineering, Principles of Biochemical Engineering: Biotechnological Processes.
Reviewer of the following international scientific journals: Journal of Membrane Science (Elsevier), Artificial Organs (Blackwell Publishing), Biomedical Materials (IOP Publishing).
RESEARCH ACTIVITY
Molecular thermodynamics of complex systems: determination of phase equilibria of solutions containing proteins, separation of protein compounds from complex solutions, physico-chemical characterization of biomacromolecules in aqueous solutions;
Rheology of polymeric systems: microviscosimetric and rotoviscosimetric measurements of solutions containing one or more biopolymeric species;
Engineering of Artificial Organs: study of an adsorption system for the separation of liver toxins, development of an artificial synovial fluid for the mechanical characterization of wear of joint prostheses, modeling and optimization of blood oxygenators, rheology of polymeric systems for the tissue engineering;
Industrial production of hydrogen: simulation of an integrated membrane reaction-separation module for the production of hydrogen by steam-reforming.
Analysis of complex systems, with particular reference to systems of biological and biomedical interest (biochemical structural engineering, artificial organs, bioreactors).
Production of energy from biomass, through biotechnological processes.
Protein Systems Biology: Analysis of protein structures by Protein Contact Network.
Compartmental models for dynamic analysis of biomedical images.
Tumor growth kinetic models: estimation of the growth of avascular tumors and of the effect of chemotherapy.
PUBLICATIONS
1. Tasdighian, S., Paola, L. Di, Ruvo, M. De, et al. (2013) Modules Identification in Protein Structures: The Topological and Geometrical Solutions. J. Chem. Inf. Model., 54 (1), 159–168.
2. Russo, V., and Di Paola, L. (2014) Chemical reaction engineering methodologies for post‐contrastographic biomedical imaging analysis. Asia‐Pacific J. Chem. Eng., 9 (3), 354–363.
3. Piemonte, V., Paola, LD, and Russo, V. (2014) An LCA study on feedstocks and process for biofuels production. Chem. Eng. Trans, 37, 517–522.
4. Piemonte, V., Di Paola, L., Chakraborty, S., and Basile, A. (2014) Sequencing batch reactors (SBRs) for BioH< sub> 2 production: Reactor operation criteria. Int. J. Hydrogen Energy, 39 (10), 4863–4869.
5. Paci, P., Di Paola, L., Santoni, D., et al. (2012) Structural and functional analysis of hemoglobin and serum albumin through protein long-range interaction networks. Curr. Proteomics, 9(3), 160–166.
6. Oliva, G., Di Paola, L., Giuliani, A., et al. (2013) Assessing protein resilience via a complex network approach. Netw. Ski. Work. (NSW), 2013 IEEE 2nd, 131–137.
7. Giuliani, A., Di Paola, L., and Russo, V. (2012) Sym-Bio GUI: A graphical user interface to analyze protein aminoacid residue contact networks. computer Med. Syst. (CBMS), 2012 25th Int. Symp., 1–6.
8. Giuliani, A., Di Paola, L., Paci, P., et al. (2013) Proteins as Networks: Usefulness of Graph Theory in Protein Science.
9. Dunn, BM, Naeem, A., Miele, AE, et al. (2013) Advances in Protein and Peptide Sciences.
10. DiPaola, L., Piemonte, V., and Basile, A. (2014) Biomedical and biotechnological applications of chemical engineering methodologies. Asia-Pacific J. Chem. Eng., 9 (3), 317.
11. Di Paola, L., Paci, P., Santoni, D., et al. (2012) Proteins as sponges: a statistical journey along protein structural organization principles. J. Chem. Inf. Model., 52 (2), 474–82.
12. Di Paola, L. (2014) Comment-Protein Contact Networks: A New Framework for Structural Biology. J. Phys. Chem. Biophys., 4 (4), e120.
13. Di Paola, L., Terrinoni, AR, and Vitale, F. (2012) Extracorporeal membrane blood oxygenators: effect of membrane wetting on gas transfer and device performance. Asia-Pacific J. Chem. Eng., 7 (S3), S348--S355.
14. Di Paola, L., De Ruvo, M., Paci, P., et al. (2012) Protein contact networks: an emerging paradigm in chemistry. Chem. Rev., 113(3), 1598–1613.
15. De Ruvo, M., Giuliani, A., Paci, P., et al. (2012) Shedding light on protein-ligand binding by graph theory: The topological nature of allostery. Biophys. Chem., 165–166, 21–29.
16. Defalco, M., Piemonte, V., Di Paola, L., and Basile, A. (2014) Methane membrane steam reforming: Heat duty assessment. Int. J. Hydrogen Energy, 39 (9), 4761–4770.
17. Cumbo, F., Paci, P., Santoni, D., et al. (2014) GIANT: a cytoscape plugin for modular networks. PLoS One, 9 (10), e105001.
18. Arrigo, N., Paci, P., Di Paola, L., et al. (2012) Characterizing Protein Shape by a Volume Distribution Asymmetry Index. Open Bioinform. J., 6, 20–27.
