Trudy Oliver, PhD
The Lung Cancer Research Foundation (LCRF) recently announced that Trudy Oliver, PhD, has joined its Scientific Advisory Board. Dr. Oliver is Associate Professor of Oncological Sciences at the University of Utah’s Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI), where she has served since 2011, and is an HCI Endowed Chair in Cancer Research.
Dr. Oliver obtained her doctorate in pharmacology and cancer biology from Duke University, working in the laboratory of Robert Wechsler-Reya, PhD. After graduate school, she joined the laboratory of Terry Van Dyke, PhD, at the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill, and then completed her postdoctoral fellowship in the laboratory of Tyler Jack, PhD, at the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at Massachusetts Institute of Technology before joining HCI.
Her research is devoted to understanding mechanisms of cancer biology with a focus on lung cancer. Dr. Oliver has developed novel mouse models of squamous cell cancer and small cell lung cancer (SCLC) using experimental approaches that include an integration of mouse genetics, molecular and cellular biology, biochemistry, genomics, preclinical therapeutics, and in vivo imaging.
Focus of Labwork
Dr. Oliver is a 2018 recipient of LCRF’s Wiliam C. Rippe Award for Distinguished Research in Lung Cancer, which supported her laboratory’s study of the MYC genetic alteration that drives how SCLC tumors develop. Her research revealed that SCLC tumors caused by the MYC protein are more aggressive, spread faster, and respond differently to therapy. Her team discovered that the enzyme ADI-PEG20 is highly effective in MYC-positive genetically engineered mouse models and human patient-derived tumors.
