Julia Furnari ’20

Class of 2020, Major in Biology

Julia Furnari ’20 is now a research technician in Department of Neurological Surgery at Columbia University Irving Medical Center.

About

Julia Furnari is an alumna of the B.S. Biology Program in the Department of Natural Sciences. She graduated in the class of 2020. While at MMC, she was the President of the Science Society, for which she organized many outreach events for the school community. She also held leadership positions on the college’s Sustainability Team and as a Class of 2020 Senior Marshal. For all of the outreach activities she was involved in, she was awarded the Raymunde McKay Award at graduation. Julia conducted research under faculty advisor Dr. Ann Aguanno, where she studied the role of CDK5, a protein kinase, in connecting Alzheimer’s Disease and Type II Diabetes Mellitus. She wrote and defended a thesis on this work, allowing her to graduate with Honors in the Biology major. Julia is also a member of the Chi Omega Lambda honor society.

Julia is now a research technician in Department of Neurological Surgery at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. She works under Drs. Jeffrey Bruce and Peter Canoll and runs the Gabriele Bartoli Brain Tumor Tissue Bank, where she collects, processes, and stores intraoperative research specimens. This laboratory studies glioma brain tumors and immune-based therapies to treat patients with these types of cancers. Julia plans to use the experience she is obtaining while working, along with the skills she learned at MMC, to guide her into a career in medicine.