After completing her bachelor in Biotechnology at the University of Trieste, in Italy, Gaia pursued a Master’s degree in Neuroscience at the University of Regensburg, Germany. Here, she first worked in Björn Brembs’ lab, to study the role of dopaminergic neurons in Drosophila operant conditioning using optogenetics, and then in Inga Neumann’s lab to study female aggression behaviour in rats. She then joined Veronica Egger’s lab where she looked at vasopressin modulation of the rat olfactory bulb with calcium imaging. For her Master’s thesis, Gaia set up a collaboration between Elisa Galliano, University of Cambridge, and Veronica Egger to study granule cells and dopaminergic inputs onto bulbar mitral cells using electrophysiology.

In October 2019, Gaia started her PhD in Flor Iacaruso’s lab where she will be focusing on audio-visual integration in the superior colliculus, investigating the role of local interactions in shaping multisensory responses.