Olivia Hage
Connect
okha229@uky.eduPositions
- PhD Candidate, Gordon Laboratory
College Unit(s)
Other Affiliation(s)
- Saha Cardiovascular Research Center
Pronouns
she/her/hersBiography and Education
Biography
I am a MD-PhD candidate focused on leveraging gastroenterological physiology to treat metabolic disease, with the eventual goal of establishing a translational research program focused on novel therapeutic target identification. My thesis research directly contributes to this goal and focuses on elucidating the molecular pathway used by the DENND5B protein to control hepatic and intestinal secretion of atherogenic lipoproteins. This project will expand current understanding of late-stage vesicular trafficking and hopefully identify new pathways of atherosclerosis prevention. I am passionate about bringing science from the bench to the bedside both in terms of research and public outreach, having served as head of the MD/PhD Program’s Communications committee for the last two years.
Education
My pursuit of a career as a physician-scientist started early. During high school I completed coursework in medicinal chemistry and infectious disease at Brown and Boston Universities before transitioning to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) for my first research project. There, I explored the impact of altered myelopoiesis on cytokine signaling cascades during pediatric Cytokine Storm Syndromes with the MD/PhD that has since become my most long-term mentor. I continued this research at CHOP while studying Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the Pennsylvania State University. I pursued additional undergraduate research projects including creating fluorescent flavivirus clones to visualize their neural migration patterns in microcephaly and characterizing apoptotic signaling in Autoimmune Regulator Protein-deficient keratinocytes. Time as a teaching assistant and debate team member taught me the importance of effective scientific communication while my experience as a student-athlete in cold-weather sports (figure skating and ice curling) kick-started my fascination with metabolism. Prior to matriculating into the UK MD/PhD Program I worked in product acquisition for Eagle Pharmaceuticals.