Laura-Oana Albulescu is a Senior Research Associate in the Centre for Snakebite Research and Interventions at Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM). She has more than 20 years of experience in biochemistry and molecular biology. Laura-Oana received a BSc in Biochemistry from the University of Bucharest, followed by a doctoral degree in Molecular Biology and Genetics from Cornell University. During her PhD she focused on molecular tools to investigate gene expression regulation and identify links between pre-mRNA splicing, transcription and chromatin remodelling. She then moved to her first postdoctoral position at the University of Oxford where she studied neurodegenerative diseases involving trinucleotide expansions. In 2017 Laura-Oana joined the venom research unit (now the Centre for Snakebite Research and Interventions) at LSTM, where her focus shifted to developing novel therapies for snakebite envenoming. She is mainly interested in the development of novel oral drugs which can be administered immediately after a bite and neutralise a variety of snake venoms – from repurposed drugs to novel molecules developed specifically for snakebite. For the past four years she has been involved in co-managing a programme in drug discovery with collaborators from the University of Liverpool aimed at developing novel inhibitors for enzymatic snake venom toxins. She is also a member of the Biological Safety Committee.

Laura-Oana supervises and train master’s students at LSTM, guiding their laboratory research and experimental planning.