About us

I'm Barbara (Maria) Mitta (since married, Guarino) and I was born on the 24th May 1977 in Sondrio (Italy). I lived there for two years, but then I've grown up in Lugano. However, I never lost track of my mountains, since I used to go back there every single weekend. I finished my education few years ago: I had my primary and middle school (where I first met Andrea) in Lugano, where I also attended the classic high school. Then I moved to Zurich to study Biochemistry at the ETH. I really liked it, thus I decided to make as well a PhD on the use of lentiviral vectors for the gene therapy. From December 2005 until may 2010 I worked in the cellular biology group of Roche Glycart (producing antitumoral antibodies).
Since June 2010 I've been working at Humabs, which is a small spin off of IRB, making research aimed at the production of antiviral antibodies. It is a very exciting field.
Beside biotechnology I like reading literature, and I do a lot of sport. I keep on running (since many years), do some gym, ride my racebike and, if we have time, we also go hiking with Andrea and now Maria as well: they are my favourite sport companions, indeed! Finally, in some rare quiet moments, I enjoy the "housewife" life: cooking, sewing and building lego with Maria. I guess you've got it: I'm always busy!