Barbara van Loon obtained BSc and MSc in Biology at the University of Zagreb (Croatia). In 2006 she joined Life Science Zurich Graduate School (Switzerland) carrying out her PhD work at Institute of Veterinary Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Zurich and graduating in 2009. Her undergraduate and graduate experience includes biochemical characterization of different DNA repair steps and studies of their regulation.
Upon graduation Barbara moved to the Center for Environmental Health Sciences at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, USA) where as a Post-doctoral Fellow investigated novel roles and functions of DNA repair proteins.
In July 2011 she accepted Group Leader position at Institute of Veterinary Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Zurich.