We work at the crossroads of biosensing, synthetic biology, and supramolecular chemistry, turning synthetic DNA and other molecular components into programmable bio-molecular systems that sense, compute, and respond.
These are the three research pillars of our lab:
Biosensors and Molecular Diagnostics
We develop molecular sensing strategies and responsive assay platforms for quantitative detectionin complex biological samples.
DNA Nanotechnology and Supramolecular chemistry
We design and build functional DNA-based nanodevices and nanoswitches that exploit molecular recognition, self-assembly, and adaptive supramolecular design.
Synthetic Biology and Cell-Free Systems
We engineer nucleic-acid circuits and cell-free systems that enable programmable control, regulation, and information processing.
Latest publications
Programmable DNA-Based Dimerization Networks for Dynamic and Competitive Control of Transcription
Quattrociocchi M, Brannetti S, Del Grosso E, Ricci F
J Am Chem Soc 2026, in press. pdf (open access)
Tune, extend and narrow the useful dynamic range of cell-free transcription biosensors through programmable DNA-based stem-loop hairpin reporters
Aguiar J, Ranallo S, Ricci F
Angew Chem Int Ed, 2026, 65, e8143908. pdf (open access)
Temporal Programming of Cell-Free Transcription Using Orthogonal
Lerma-Escalera JA, Bucci J, Urošević A, Amador R, Ercolani G, Ricci F
Enzyme-Responsive DNA Blockers
ACS Synthetic Biology, 2026, 15, 6, 2524–2532.
See the rest of the publications here