Olivia Roberson, PhD

Olivia joined the Office of Strategic Alliances in November 2018 as an Alliances and Business Development Manager. Previously, Olivia worked as a scientific advisor where she focused on protection of biotechnology intellectual property. Olivia received her PhD in Immunology from Mayo Clinic School of Biomedical Sciences where she studied the endogenous antiviral mechanisms in the domestic cat. Subsequently, Olivia was awarded an NIH institutional research and academic career development award to pursue her postdoctoral studies at UCSF in the laboratory of Dr. Melanie Ott. A focus of her postdoctoral research was to identify the molecular mechanisms contributing to transcriptional repression at the HIV-2 promoter. During her tenure as a UCSF postdoctoral fellow, she also worked as an immunology consultant, where she provided technical expertise to support a biotechnology litigation case. Additionally, Olivia was an intern in the Office of Technology Management where she conducted prior art searches for patentability and determined commercial assessment of UCSF technologies.