Ilva Cabrera graduated from California State University, Long Beach in 2009 with a Bachelor of Science in Molecular Cell Biology and a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology. During her undergraduate work she was an active member of the NIH-funded Research Initiative for Science Enhancement (RISE). Her research focused on inositol metabolism in the human pathogenic fungus, Cryptococcus neoformans. She used various bioinformatics programs to identify and examine three proteins that regulate myo-inositol synthesis. This research was then extended to Drosophila melanogaster to gain further insight into myo-inositol metabolism in a higher eukaryote. Confocal microscopy and proteomics were extensively utilized to analyze protein localization and expression. This data was presented at the National Conference of The American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Cell Biology; in a poster entitled "Myo-inositol catabolism in Drosophila melanogaster: implications for diabetes and development" 

In 2010 Ilva enrolled as a graduate student in the Ph.D. program in Genetics, Genomics, and Bioinformatics, and worked in the laboratory of Professor Katherine Borkovich. Her Ph.D. research was focused on investigating the role regulators of G protein signaling (RGS) proteins in heterotrimeric G protein signaling in the model filamentous fungus Neurospora crassa. Characterization of the RGS proteins were to be accomplished via biochemical assays, genetic analysis, and video bioinformatics. 

Ilva received her Ph.D. in Genetics, Genomics, and Bioinformatics from the University of California Riverside in 2015. 
Link to Ilva's Ph.D. Dissertation