Gia studied Biochemistry as an undergraduate at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She then moved to Yale University and obtained a Ph.D. in the lab of Joan Steitz. Following her graduate studies she joined the lab of Tom Rapoport at Harvard, where she studied the mechanisms that define the elaborate shape of the endoplasmic reticulum. In 2006, Gia started her own lab at the University of Colorado, Boulder. In 2018, Gia was named Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator.
We have demonstrated that multiple cytoplasmic organelles are tightly tethered to the tubular ER network. We have probed the functions of these membrane contact sites (MCSs) and discovered that ER MCSs with mitochondria and endosomes, define the position where these organelles undergo constriction and division. Our current research goal is to unravel the mechanism by which ER tubule dynamics and ER MCSs regulate the biogenesis of contacting organelles. In addition, we are probing the connections between ER shape and dynamics, MCS formation, and human disease