Marissa Russo is a former STAT intern supported by the AAAS Mass Media Science & Engineering Fellowship. She is a fourth-year Ph.D. candidate at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Fla., and she completed her undergraduate degree from the University of Rochester with a major in brain and cognitive sciences and a minor in computational biology, Spanish, and psychology. For her doctoral thesis, Marissa is studying glioblastoma — understanding the communication between tumor cells and surrounding non-tumor cells so she can find ways to stop cancerous signals from being transmitted. After grad school, Marissa is interested in pursuing a career in science communication. When she is not in the lab, Marissa enjoys pickleball, running, and reality TV shows.
