As a Cell Culture Specialist 2 at WiCell, Julia helps in the Stem Cell Bank and CORE labs performing cell banking, QC testing, preparing CORE reagents, and shipping cell lines.  Julia previously worked in Dr. Zhang's lab for four years as an undergraduate research assistant and as a research intern after graduating.  During her time in Dr.Zhang’s lab, Julia aided post-doctoral researchers with stem cell-based research focused on neurological disorders. She primarily worked on two projects:  a Parkinson’s disease project that found that injected hESC derived midbrain dopamine neurons functionally restored the nigrostriatal circuit and improved motor function in Parkinson’s disease mice, and an Alexander’s disease project that used iPSC derived astrocytes to study GFAP function and model Alexander’s disease.  Julia was a double major in Molecular Biology and Philosophy at UW Madison and has her Certificate from UW Madison in Stem Cell Sciences. 

Julia loves the team-oriented environment at WiCell and supporting the stem cell research community.   

In her free time, she enjoys being outdoors, spending time with her cats, and playing card games with friends.