Biology alumnus returns to campus Monday to speak on his breakthrough research
One of our graduates is on the brink of changing how doctors treat chronic cardiac disease. Joel Rurik, a 2016 graduate of George Fox’s biology program, will explain the details of his research in a lecture all are welcome to attend this Monday, Sept. 26, at 3 p.m. in Hoover 105.
Rurik is now a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania, where he does cutting-edge gene therapy research. Most recently, his team’s work was featured on the front cover of Science, the top research journal in the United States.
Cardiac fibrosis, a scarring of the heart, underlies most cardiovascular diseases and remains challenging to target therapeutically. Chronic cardiac disease often results in fibrosis, which negatively affects heart health and function. Therapies targeting this cardiac fibrosis remain limited, but Rurik’s research offers a promising and tractable immunotherapy approach for tackling fibrosis.
Contact Carly Reumann at creumann@georgefox.edu for more information.