Olivia Thomas

Olivia completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Leeds where she studied medical microbiology with a focus on immunology. Following this she studied for a PhD at the School of Cancer Sciences at University of Birmingham, working in the T cell research group under Prof Alan Rickinson. Her PhD project investigated T cell and antibody responses to Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) in multiple sclerosis patients, and also explored cross-reactivity of virus-specific T cell responses with central nervous system proteins. During her studies at Birmingham, Olivia also completed a brief placement funded by Universitas21 and the British Society for Immunology in Prof Scott Burrow’s lab at the Queensland Institute for Medical Research, Brisbane. Following her PhD, Olivia continued working at the University of Birmingham with Dr Graham Taylor as a research assistant on several projects, including an epidemiological study of Herpesviruses in collaboration with researchers at University College London and on a clinical trial of EBV vaccination in cancer patients from Hong Kong. Olivia recently joined the Fugger lab as a postdoc and the focus of her research is investigating T cell responses and their role in multiple sclerosis.