She received her MD from the Russian State Medical University in Moscow, Russia and her PhD is from the Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology in Moscow, Russia,. She conducte her thesis work at Vanderbilt. The main focus of her research program is on design and preclinical evaluation of novel therapeutic strategies for treatment of metastatic cancers, including breast cancer and melanoma. The approach is to use clinically relevant tumor models to design rational combinations of novel and emerging cancer therapies, including tumor-targeting and immune-stimulating therapies, to ultimately improve treatment outcomes for cancer patients.