Gaia Tussardi earned her Bachelor's degree in Medical Biotechnologies from the University of Padova in 2021. In 2023, she completed her Master's degree in Bioinformatics - Molecular Biology, with a final mark of 110/110. Her thesis involved the development of an interactive dashboard for the biological interpretation of cell-cell communication data inferred from single-cell RNA sequencing.
Driven by a passion for applying the power of computational methods to unravel molecular processes, Gaia began her PhD in Information Engineering, focused on the development of computational methods for the identification of regulatory modules and biomarkers from transcriptomic data (Supervisors: Prof. Barbara Di Camillo, Dr. Giacomo Baruzzo).

Bachelor's degree in Biotechnologies, Medical curriculum, at the University of Padova, Italy

2018-2021
Thesis title: Analisi dei miRNA coinvolti nell'invecchiamento muscolare
Supervisor: Prof. Lisa Maccatrozzo

Master's Degree in Molecular Biology, Bioinformatics curriculum, at the University of Padova, Italy

2021-2023
Thesis title: Bioinformatics tools for cellular communication analysis from single cell RNA sequencing data
Supervisors: Dr. Baruzzo Giacomo, Dr. Giulia Cesaro, Prof. Barbara Di Camillo

Fellow for the project Immunological microenviroment in Rectal Adenocarcinoma Treatment (IMMUNOREACT) at Azienda Ospedale-Univerista' di Padova, Italy

Sept 2023 - Aug 2025

PhD Student in Information Engineering at the Department of Information Engineering, University of Padua, Italy

Oct 2023 - ongoing

Single-cell RNA sequencing
- Development and application of methods for cell-cell communication inference and interpretation
- Computational approaches to infer transcription factor activity from single-cell data
Multi-omics data integration
- Combining transcriptomic, epigenomic, and proteomic data to uncover regulatory networks and biomarkers
Non-coding RNA research
- Prediction and functional analysis of non-coding RNA structures using sequencing data
- Investigating the regulatory roles of miRNAs
Computational tool development
- Building user-friendly dashboards for biological data analysis and visualization

Oral presentation: G. Tussardi, G. Cesaro, B. Di Camillo, G. Baruzzo "Interactive exploration of cell-cell communication results from single-cell RNA sequencing data through a webapp" at 20th Annual Meeting of the Bioinformatics Italian Society (BITS)

June 12-14, 2024, Trento, Italy

Oral presentation: G. Tussardi, G. Cesaro, B. Di Camillo, G. Baruzzo "Addressing the Biological Interpretation of High-Dimensional Cell-Cell Communication Data from Single Cell Transcriptomics Through an Interactive Web Application" at 2nd Edition of Young Minds at Work: Blending Biomedical Sciences and Bioinformatics

December 10-12, 2024, Virtual conference

Co-Chair
At "YOUNG BITS, RSG-Italy & CINI Young InfoLife Symposium" for the 20th Annual Meeting of the Bioinformatics Italian Society (BITS 2024)

June 12-14, 2024, Trento, Italy

Young-InfoLife group, InfoLife National Laboratory of CINI (role: member)