Prof Merino is the head of the Tumour Progression and Heterogeneity laboratory at the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute. She is also the president of the Australasian Metastasis Research Society and board member of the Metastasis Research Society.

After receiving her PhD at the INSERM, France, she came to WEHI for her post-doctoral studies, to study the function of the intrinsic survival pathway in immune homeostasis and cancer progression. Her work was extended to the impact of BH3 mimetics (including venetoclax), on normal and malignant lymphoid and breast cancer cells.

In 2017, she joined the ONJCRI as a laboratory Head. The overall objective of her research is to identify the biological features of the cells which are most likely to resist standard therapy and form clinically relevant macro-metastasis. Her laboratory is building models, using several technologies including cellular barcoding, sequencing and imaging, to understand how these cells survive in different organs and interact with their microenvironment. These models will be useful not only to understand how the tumour spreads, but also to identify new therapeutic strategies to prevent and treat advanced disease.