Barbara gained a degree in Computer Science from the University of Rome “La Sapienza” after which she obtained a joint Ph.D. in molecular biology from the EMBL and Heidelberg University. In 2011 she became the leader of the “Molecular and Cellular Engineering group” at the BioQuant center, at the University of Heidelberg, where she stayed until summer 2017. From September 2017, the group moved to the University of Freiburg, where Barbara is now full professor. Her team is interested in understanding the mechanisms used by cells to control processes in space and time using an interdisciplinary approach that combines molecular and cellular biology with synthetic biology and mathematical modeling. A special focus of the lab is optogenetics, that is, the use of light to externally control protein function and localization in individual living cells.