Olivia Iwanowytsch

Olivia obtained her 3-year Bachelor’s degree in Biomedicine at Lancaster University in 2020. She spent the second year of her degree studying at the University of Wollongong, Australia before returning to complete her final year. Her final year dissertation project investigated the use of proteolysis-targeting chimeras (PROTACs) for targeted protein degradation as a novel therapeutic strategy in prostate cancer. Olivia stayed on at Lancaster University to complete a MSc by Research degree in Biomedical Science. Her research was focused on the evaluation of the cell cycle protein, Ciz1, as a biomarker and drug target in glioblastoma multiforme. In 2022, she began working for an industrial drug discovery company specialising in the application of high content screening in in vitro 3D liver models for early predictions of drug toxicity.

Olivia is currently a PhD student in the NanoOmics lab, Centre for Nanotechnology in Medicine at the University of Manchester. Her project aims to tackle the urgent clinical need for the development of novel diagnostic and disease monitoring strategies in glioblastoma multiforme (GBM). She aims to utilise lipid-based nanoparticles as scavenging agents to perform in-depth profiling of the plasma proteome, enabling the discovery novel biomarker panels. Together with analysis of the brain tissue proteome, her research aims to unveil highly specific and reproducible blood-based biomarkers for early detection and disease monitoring in GBM.