in 1970, villa-komaroff enrolled at the massachusetts institute of technology (mit) for graduate work in molecular biology. her phd dissertation, under the supervision of harvey lodish and nobel laureate david baltimore, focused on how proteins are produced from rna in poliovirus. she dedicated her thesis to her colleagues david rekosh and david housman, who she says "taught me to walk," and her advisors who "taught me what it might be like to fly."