PD Dr. Diana Santelia
PD Dr. Diana Santelia
Privatdozent/in at the Department of Environmental Systems Science
Institute of Integrative Biology
ETH Zürich
Universitätstrasse 16
8092 ZürichSwitzerland
Additional information
Research area
I am a molecular plant physiologist interested in carbohydrate metabolism in plants.
Here at ETH, I am a senior scientist and I lead the research group of Plant Molecular Physiology. My lab investigates the pathway and regulation of starch and sugar metabolism in the photosynthetic cells of green leaves (i.e. mesophyll and guard cells). We aim at understanding the influence of carbohydrates and their derivatives on plant productivity and survival. We use Arabidopsis thaliana as a working model, but we are progressively extending our research to the economically relevant crops barley and tomato as a proof-of-concept for future improvement programs of crop water use efficiency, yield and stress tolerance.
I graduated from the University of Milan, Agricultural Sciences, in 2001. I did a PhD in molecular plant physiology at the University of Zürich (2002-2006). I then moved to ETH Zürich (D-BIOL) as a post-doctoral scientist, working on starch degradation in Arabidopsis leaf chloroplasts (2006-2011). In 2012, I returned to the University of Zürich as an independently-funded group leader and started to work on starch and sugar metabolism in guard cells and in response to abiotic stress. In 2019, I was appointed as a senior scientist at ETH Zurich, Institute of Integrative Biology (D-USYS). I habilitated in summer 2019 in the area “Molecular Biology”. As a lecturer, I teach molecular biology to the 4th semester Food Science and Environmental Sciences students.
Course Catalogue
Spring Semester 2025
| Number | Unit |
|---|---|
| 551-1420-00L | Molecular Biology |