Dr. Blenda joined Department of Biomedical Sciences at University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville in December 2016. She earned a BS/MS degree (Specialist Diploma) with honors (summa cum laude) in biology and English (minor in German) from the Melitopol State Pedagogical University (Melitopol, Ukraine), a PhD in biotechnology from the Institute of Agroecology and Biotechnology (Kiev, Ukraine), and a PhD in genetics from Clemson University (Clemson, USA). Immediately following completion of her second PhD in 2003, she was a postdoctoral researcher at the Clemson University Genomics Institute for four years and then a research assistant professor in the Department of Genetics and Biochemistry at Clemson University. During that period she worked on multidisciplinary team research projects developing genomic resources for several model organisms. Dr. Blenda’s next appointments was as a tenured faculty member at Erskine College, where she taught genetics, molecular biology, cell biology, and medical biotechnology, as well as conducted genetic and genomic research. In 2012, together with the founding faculty she participated in the development and teaching of the first Molecular and Cellular Foundations of Medicine module at the UofSC School of Medicine Greenville. In 2015-2016 Dr. Blenda spent her research sabbatical as a visiting associate professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Emory University School of Medicine. This sabbatical served as a launching pad for several of her current projects, including glycobiology aspects of cancer.