Gianna Colombo

Program: Biological and Biomedical Sciences
Lab: Kimberly Stegmaier

A native Californian, Gianna grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and attended college at the University of California, Los Angeles, where she majored in Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology and minored in Biomedical Research. While at UCLA, she studied hematopoietic stem cell self-renewal in the lab of Dr. Hanna Mikkola. After graduating, she spent two years as a technician in the lab of Dr. Steven Corsello at Stanford University, where she characterized mechanisms-of-action of repurposed drugs in various solid tumors. She is currently a G2 in the BBS program in the lab of Dr. Kimberly Stegmaier. During her PhD, she plans to investigate fusion protein biology in pediatric cancers, particularly in a rare subtype of acute myeloid leukemia. Outside of the lab, Gianna enjoys playing the oboe, hiking, and watching murder mysteries.

Gianna joined the LCBC student steering committee to help design and support fun, engaging events which foster new and strengthen existing connections between faculty and graduate students across HMS-affiliated institutions.

What is on your bucket list? Visiting all 63 US National Parks, swimming with manta rays in the Great Barrier Reef, seeing the Northern Lights, and going paragliding.

What skill would you most like to learn? I would love to learn ballet - it is so athletic and elegant! I am unfortunately cursed with a shocking amount of inflexibility, but I can still dream.

If you weren’t a scientist, what would you be? I would love to play in a professional orchestra or compose/record movie scores!

If you could only eat one thing for the next year, what would you choose? Pasta - it’s nutritious, delicious, and versatile.

What is something you collect? I take the prettiest rock I can find from every new country I visit.

Would you go to space if you could never come back to earth? Absolutely not. As much as I love exploring places I’ve never been before, I would prefer my home to have lush greenery, beautiful beaches, and delicious food, none of which exist in space.