Lara completed her PhD in 2019 at EMBL-EBI and the University of Cambridge, where she worked on statistical and quantitative approaches in cancer and single cell genetics.

As an Independent Research Fellow in New Zealand funded by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Lara then combined this expertise with her background in ecology, applying genomics and machine learning in the context of conservation. As a Principal Investigator at the Helmholtz Center for Artificial Intelligence, Helmholtz Pioneer Campus, and the Technical University of Munich, Lara now integrates genomic, statistical, and computational approaches to advance the development of accurate and efficient data-driven approaches to biodiversity conservation and a better understanding of One Health. She is actively involved outside of academia, for example in the eLife Early-Career Advisory Group, the European Reference Genome Atlas Council, the IUCN Conservation Genetics Specialist Group, and the Accessible Genomics Initiative.