Dr Sabina Leonelli

Research Interests

  • Data-Intensive Science and Practices of Data Sharing
  • The Regulatory Role of Bioinformatics in Biology and Biomedicine
  • Bio-Ontologies
  • History and Epistemic Status of Model Organism Research
  • History of plant biology and the case of Arabidopsis thaliana
  • Scientific Understanding and Modelling
  • Unity, Disunity and Integration in Science
  • Science and Democracy

 I also teach bioethics to second-year undergraduate students in the College of Biosciences.

Research Supervision

Philosophy, history and social studies of bioinformatics, model organism research, translational research in biology and in medicine

Global governance, science and democracy

Role of digital technologies in shaping scientific research and communication

Projects concerning plant biology and its relations to agriculture and biofuel research

General philosophy of science

Science and Technology Studies

Research Students

As first supervisor:

Pietro Berti (project on 'Governance of biofuel research in the UK')

Josephine Donaghy (project on 'Philosophy of evolutionary system biology')

As second supervisor: 

James Lowe

Tarquin Holmes

Aleksandra Sojic (based at SEMM, Milan -- project on 'bio-ontologies and breast cancer research')

Luca Iori (based at the University of Bologna -- project on 'Nazareno Strampelli and the development of green biotechnologies in Italy, 1910-1950')