St Cross College, Oxford

Dr. Lorenzo Andrea Santorelli

B.A. Biology, University of Florence, Italy
M.S. and Ph.D. Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Rice University, Texas, USA

Dr. Lorenzo Santorelli is a research fellow in the Zoology department.

For his research, Dr. Santorelli uses an interdisciplinary approach involving evolutionary biology, genetics, and molecular biology. He is interested in investigating the evolution of cooperative behaviors of macro and microorganisms. His current projects involve using genetic and molecular methods to investigate cheating behavior in Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a social bacteria that can infect humans. By selecting and modifying certain genes that are responsible for communication between these bacteria, Dr. Santorelli is trying to understand how these changes can affect their behaviour and, consequently, virulence in human infection.

His previous research findings have been published several times in Nature and other top tier journals and have also received media coverage.