After completing her PhD at Newcastle University, Olivia returned to the Institute of Psychiatry where she had originally gained her MSc in Neuroscience, to conduct pharmacogenetic research for a medical diagnostics spin-out company. This involved identifying genetic factors associated with response to drug treatments, such as antipsychotics and cholinesterase inhibitors.

Olivia joined the Dementia Research Group in 2010 to coordinate an Alzheimer’s Society funded project; the Vascular Impairment of Cognition Classification Consensus Study (VICCCS). The study involves surveying international researchers and clinicians using a series of online questionnaires, with the aim of developing a new international consensus for Vascular Cognitive Impairment (VCI) classification.

She is also faciliating the formation of a new collaborative VCI DNA consortium that will serve a key role for testing candidate genes of VCI in the future.