Olubukola Abiona

Olubukola “Olu” Abiona graduated in 2017 from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County with a B.S. degree in Biochemistry & Molecular Biology. Drawn to infectious disease research, Olu became a post-baccalaureate research fellow/associate scientist at the NIH Vaccine Research from 2017-2021. There, she worked in the lab of Dr. Barney Graham under the leadership of Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett to evaluate novel vaccine candidates and therapeutics for human coronaviruses. When the COVID-19 pandemic first began in 2019, her and her team’s research became instrumental to the rapid development of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine and other therapeutics used during the pandemic. These experiences motivated Olu to pursue a dual-degree MD-PhD in 2021 at Case Western Reserve University. Currently, Olu is pursuing her PhD through a partnership program between the NIH and University of Oxford where she will be working on the development of new cancer treatments. She hopes to later bridge this with her background in infectious diseases with the goal of creating new therapeutics and vaccines for both fields.