The Grainger College of Engineering

Laurie B Leonelli

Laurie B Leonelli
Laurie B Leonelli
  • Assistant Professor
(217) 333-3570
360 L Agricultural Engr Sciences Bld

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Education

  • B.A., Biological Sciences, Mount Holyoke College, 2003
  • Ph.D., Plant Biology, University of California- Berkeley, 2011

Academic Positions

  • Adjunct Faculty, Napa Valley College, 2012
  • Postdoctoral Researcher, University of California- Berkeley, 2012-2014
  • Adjunct Faculty, Sarah Lawrence College, 2015
  • Associate Research Scientist, New York University, 2017-2019
  • Assistant Professor, University of Illinois, Agricultural and Biological Engineering, 2021-present

Other Professional Activities

  • Developing new model systems and community resources
  • Carotenoid biosynthesis
  • Structural biology and enzyme specificity
  • Engineering photosynthesis

Selected Articles in Journals

  • Leonelli L, Pelton J, Schoeffler A, Dahlbeck D, Berger J, Wemmer D, Staskawicz B. (2011). "Structural elucidation and functional characterization of the Hyaloperonospora arabidopsidis effector protein ATR13." PLoS Pathogens 7(12):e1002428.
  • Li Z, Peers G, Dent RM, Bai Y, Apel W, Yang SY, Leonelli L, Niyogi KK. (2016). "Evolution of an atypical de-epoxidase for photoprotection in the green lineage." Nature Plants 2:16140.
  • Kromdijk J, Glowacka K, Leonelli L, Gabilly S, Iwai M, Niyogi KK, Long SP. (2016). "Improving photosynthesis and crop productivity by accelerating recovery from photoprotection." Science 354(6314):857-861.
  • Leonelli L, Erickson E, Lyska D, Niyogi KK. (2016). "Transient expression in Nicotiana benthamiana for rapid functional analysis of genes involved in non-photochemical quenching and carotenoid biosynthesis." Plant J 88:375-386.
  • Leuenberger M, Morris JM, Chan A, Leonelli L, Niyogi KK, Fleming GR. (2017). “Dissecting and modeling zeaxanthin- and lutein-dependent non-photochemical quenching in Arabidopsis thaliana." PNAS 114 (33): E7009-E7017.
  • Leonelli L, Brooks MD, Niyogi KK. (2017). “Engineering the lutein epoxide cycle into Arabidopsis thaliana." PNAS 114 (33): E7002-E7008.
  • Glowacka K, Kromdijk J, Kucera K, Xie J, Cavanagh A, Leonelli L, Leakey A, Ort D, Niyogi KK, Long SP. (2018). “Photosystem II subunit S overexpression increases the efficiency of water use in a field-grown crop." Nature Communications 9:868.
  • Alvarez J, Schinke A, Brooks MD, Pasquino A, Leonelli L, Varala K, Safi A, Krouk G, Krapp A, and Coruzzi G. (2020). "Transient genome-wide interactions of the master transcription factor NLP7 initiate a rapid nitrogen-response cascade." Nature Communications 11:1157.

Recent Courses Taught

  • ABE 128 - Applied Biology for ABEs
  • ABE 141 - ABE Principles: Biological
  • ABE 498 LBL - Photosynthetic Strategies

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