Student Profiles

Olu’s journey into research began during a high school internship. At UMBC, her time as a MARC/Meyerhoff Scholar and in the lab of Dr. Weihong Lin allowed her to refine her interests and directed her towards the fields of infectious diseases and applied immunology. This exploration led her to become an NIH Post-baccalaureate IRTA fellow/associate scientist at the Vaccine Research Center in the lab of Dr. Barney Graham. There, she worked under Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett, evaluating vaccine candidates for respiratory viruses, including coronaviruses.

During her pivotal time at the VRC, Olu solidified her commitment to developing innovative therapeutics and vaccine candidates to combat infectious diseases, inspiring her to pursue an MD/PhD. Her pre-clinical years in medical school expanded her mission to include combating malignancies. Now, under her current OxCam mentors—Drs. Naomi Taylor and Robert Yarchoan at the NCI, and Dr. Hasheem Koohy at the University of Oxford—Olu hopes to build upon her previous foundation and eagerly dive into the intricacies of cellular immunotherapies.