Gaia Novarino is a professor and group leader at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria. Before moving to Austria, she worked as a research fellow at the University of California, San Diego, as well as the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association and the Center for Molecular Neurobiology Hamburg. Her research focuses on understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying neurodevelopmental disorders.

Novarino has received numerous awards and prizes, including the Boehringer Ingelheim FENS (Federation of the European Neuroscience Societies) Research Award, the Knight Grand Cross and the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic. She has been awarded a European Research Council Starting Grant and SFARI Pilot and Research Awards for her pioneering work. She was selected as a FENS-Kavli Scholar in 2016.