Bioinformatics career story: Giulia Barbiera
In March 2024, we welcomed Dr. Giulia Barbiera to our growing team of Scientific Project Managers. With a strong background in transcriptomics and epigenomics in the field of immuno-oncology, this multi-skilled bioinformatics expert finds joy in solving our clients’ data analysis challenges, regardless of the data type or biological context. Here, Giulia shares how her path led to the Genevia team and reflects on her first six months as a part of it.
Early career
From the very beginning, Giulia Barbiera’s career has been driven by curiosity about diverse scientific subjects, particularly mathematics and life sciences. When deciding what to study at university, Giulia initially chose biotechnology; however, while working on her Bachelor’s thesis and completing a long internship in a laboratory, she began to reconsider whether working at the bench in a wet lab was what she wanted to do after all. After completing her Bachelor’s degree, she reapplied to another programme, ultimately earning a second Bachelor’s degree, and a Master’s degree in mathematics from the University of Pavia.
Giulia says that with this background, bioinformatics felt like a natural next step after university studies. She got the opportunity to start working at the San Raffaele Hospital Center for Omics Sciences, where she also pursued her PhD, focusing on a methylation-related project and building pipelines for MeDIP-Seq data analysis.
Dr. Giulia Barbiera
– I was lucky; it was a growing group, and there were some very experienced bioinformaticians there. I got to work with strong experts in the field and learned a lot from them. It was really helpful to have someone guide me at the beginning, Giulia reflects.
After finishing her PhD, Giulia moved to Telethon Institute for Gene Therapy in Milan, excited about the opportunity to work with single-cell RNA-Seq data, which, at the time, was a new technology. There, she also got to broaden her skill set by analyzing single-cell ATAC-Seq, ChIP-Seq and spatial transcriptomics data. This required a lot of studying – which she greatly enjoyed.
The lab at the Telethon Institute was focused on the role of macrophages in promoting pancreatic cancer. Giulia recalls one of her favorite projects from her entire career:
– We did a very large project, generating huge amounts of data, and discovered a particular subset of macrophages that promote cancer development. I really enjoyed working on this project, and it was also my first experience analyzing spatial data. (See the resulting paper.)
Giulia thinks that academia is a good starting point for pursuing a career in bioinformatics: while there are comprehensive learning materials available online today, and anyone can learn the basics on their own, she finds guidance and teaching from experienced professionals invaluable. According to Giulia, adaptability is one of the most important qualities in the field:
– You just have to keep studying, testing, and never stop trying and searching for something new.
In search of new adventures at Genevia Technologies
In March 2024, Giulia joined Genevia Technologies as a Scientific Project Manager. She explains that she was seeking new adventures, and was drawn to the opportunity to work on multiple projects with various clients, rather than being focused on a single subject. Her first six months at Genevia have been a great experience:
– What I like most about Genevia is that I get to work on so many different projects, clients and data types. The projects are very stimulating; the requests from clients are not always easy. I have to find new solutions and I get to study and learn a lot. For example, I just finished a project involving spatial transcriptomics, which I really enjoyed, and I’m currently working on a very interesting neurodevelopmental project. I like working on single-cell RNA-Seq data, for example, but also ATAC-Seq, because there are many tools available that you can play with depending on the biological question.
Giulia appreciates how well everything is organized at Genevia, ensuring that the project managers can fully focus on their projects. The team provides excellent support, and help is always available when needed. Additionally, there is room for self-development:
– Each week, we have time to invest in studying and reading papers, which is very important. I am currently interested in learning more about deep learning, for example, and here, I have the opportunity to do so.
– In addition, at Genevia, there’s a great respect for the employees’ free time. Although it took me a while to get used to working from home, I now find it suits me well: I used to spend a lot of time commuting to work, but now I can spend the time with my family and friends instead. I also enjoy traveling, reading books, and hiking in the mountains, for example, Giulia says.
