Home Sweet Home...in the lab

Home Sweet Home...in the lab

Francisco “Frank” Oliva may be a long way from his hometown of Miami, Fla., but he’s found a second “home” in a research lab at YSU.

After completing a master’s degree in Biology at YSU in December, Oliva stayed on campus to pursue a PhD in Health Sciences.

Oliva, by his own admission, wasn’t always the best student. “You could say that I wasn’t a good student at all. I didn't get good grades, but I really always loved school. Then, I discovered research and working in the lab and found my passion.”

Instrumental in Oliva discovering his love of research was Wim Steelant, dean of the YSU College of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. During his undergraduate years at St. Thomas University in Miami Gardens, Fla., Oliva reached out to Steelant, who at the time was dean of Science at St. Thomas.

“Dean Steelant had an open-door policy,” explained Oliva. “He welcomed students to come to talk with him about anything, so I took advantage of that opportunity. When I expressed an interest in research, he put me in touch with Dr. Severine Van slambrouck.”

Van slambrouck, a noted cancer researcher, was assistant professor of Chemistry at St. Thomas.

“She was doing a lot of cancer biology research, with developing new drugs using natural products,” Oliva said. “I come from a Hispanic household where everyone in my family was either trained to be a nurse, a physician or something in the medical field, and I was always really interested in the importance of natural products in finding new drugs, so this was a perfect fit.”

After finishing his undergraduate degree, Oliva again reached out to both Steelant and Van slambrouck. By that time, Steelant had moved to YSU and told Oliva about the master’s degree in Biology at YSU. Oliva was hooked.

“Dean Steelant had never steered me wrong before, so I applied to YSU and got accepted,” he said. “The professors and the people here are so kind, they made the move so much easier.”

After Oliva’s first year at YSU, Van slambrouck also came to YSU, as director of Research, bringing her cancer research with her.

“When Dr. Sev got to YSU, we started what we call our cancer lab,” he said. “We’re working with a lot of natural products, designing drugs and we have been able to get some great pieces of equipment. Now, with the PhD program in Health Sciences, I can continue working in the lab, work on my PhD and hopefully share my love of research with the next group of undergraduate students.”