Olivia is a PhD student in the Molecular Cell Biology & Genetics Program who is doing her graduate work in the Pharmacology & Physiology department. Olivia earned her B.S. in biology at The College of New Jersey in 2019, where she did research on the role of environmental pressure in three spine stickleback morphology. She then spent two years working as a research assistant at the Lankenau Institute for Medical Research, studying the role of polyamines in the tumor microenvironment.
In the Romano lab, Olivia's project is centered around understanding targeted therapies and mechanisms of resistance in cancers with mutations in the MAPK pathway, specifically, loss of the tumor suppressor NF1. Olivia's work involves in vitro and in vivo models of melanoma and ovarian carcinoma. She is interested in the molecular changes that occur as cancer cells acquire resistance, as well as the role that senescence has in cancer.