orsolya barabas

Orsolya Barabas was raised in Hungary and studied chemistry at the Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest. Fascinated by the power of molecular structure analysis for understanding the inner workings of living systems, she switched her focus to biology and went on to pursue her PhD at the Institute of Enzymology, Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Budapest. After her defense in 2005, she joined the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, USA, as a postdoctoral fellow with Dr. Fred Dyda for four years. She started her own research group in 2009 in the Structural and Computational Biology Unit at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg, Germany. In 2021, she joined the Department of Molecular Biology at the University of Geneva as Full Professor. She was nominated Director of the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology in 2022. Prof Barabas’ research aims to understand the mechanisms of genomic DNA rearrangements, with a core focus on mobile genetic elements and transposons. Using biochemistry, structural biology, cell biology, and microbiology approaches, her group visualises functional transposition complexes to learn how these cut and paste DNA and understand their interplay with the host cell. Based on mechanistic data, the group further strives to develop strategies to prohibit harmful impacts of transposition in disease and construct new genetic “devices” for biotechnology and medicine. Current areas of interest include transposons that offer genetic engineering tools in mammals and on DNA elements that spread antibiotic resistance in bacterial communities. Orsolya published over 45 articles in leading journals and is inventor on three international patents. She acts on diverse review boards and her work was recognized by the Hungary’s Prima Primissima Award, NIH’s Nossal Fellowship, the L’Oreal – UNESCO “Women in Science” Award and the ERC Consolidator Award.