Julia TCW, PhD

Assistant Professor, Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine

Biography

Dr. Julia TCW received Ph.D. and A.M. in Molecular and Cellular Biology from Harvard University with research studies in induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) reprogramming in the Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology. She then perused her postdoctoral research in the Department of Neuroscience, Ronald M. Loeb Center for Alzheimer’s Disease, Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York with a research focus of the development of iPSC models and study Alzheimer’s disease (AD) genetics. She achieved Druckenmiller Fellowship award from New York Stem Cell Foundation and K, U and R awards from NIH-NIA.

Our research laboratory is aiming at human induced pluripotent stem cell therapeutics. There are two main goals; 1) Deciphering functional mechanisms of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) genetics using in vitro iPSCs and in vivo iPSC/mouse Chimera models and 2) Developing in vitro model systems of human brain for drug screen.

1. Much of our research focuses on the effects of AD genetic risks, especially Apolipoprotein E4 (APOE4), the most significant risk factor for late-onset AD on human brain cell types. Our lab uses the forward genetic, unbiased multi-Omics computational (bioinformatics) approach to uncover pathways and network defects of AD genetic risks and demonstrate molecular mechanisms of the risk factors in CNS cell types derived from CRISPR/Cas9 genome-edited isogenic and population iPSCs. We develop novel computational pipelines to identify molecular and network drivers and integrate genetics and transcriptomics/proteomics for a functional genomic study. In vitro and in vivo work have been focused on efferocytosis, lipid metabolism, matrisome and inflammation in pure human microglia, astrocytes and organoids (multiple brain cell types as a whole) associated with AD genetic risks. Further, our lab is also collaborating with the industry to find a drug target for AD therapeutics.

2. We have developed multiple novel CNS cell type protocols including astrocytes, microglia, pericytes, neural progenitors and glutamatergic neurons and continuously put our effort to advance the 2D models to 3D human brain model to establish efficient platforms for drug screen.

Publications

  • Published 6/20/2026

    Cifello J, Feng R, Grenn FP, Carter L, Liu A, Sun H, Li R, Empawi JA, Greenfest-Allen E, Katanic Z, Valladares O, Kuzma AB, White H, Farrer LA, Goate AM, Raj T, Wang M, Cruchaga C, Wang LS, Klein H, Chen H, De Jager PL, Marcora E, Tcw J, Zhang X, Kuksa PP, Wang G, Leung YY. A TAD-informed aging-brain xQTL atlas of multi-modal and cell-type-resolved regulatory variation. medRxiv. 2026 Jun 20. PMID: 42369486.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 5/1/2026

    Puri S, van der Spek SJF, Lin M, Wang Z, Porter J, Hu J, Hu L, Rondón-Ortiz AN, Knyshov A, Libera JL, Counts SE, Lahiri DK, Tcw J, Emili A, Zhang X, Wolozin B. circPDE4B downregulation triggers GEMIN5-dependent translational stress response and autophagy to reduce MAPT pathology. Alzheimers Dement. 2026 May; 22(5):e71436. PMID: 42080242.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 3/27/2026

    Coulon A, Rabiller F, Takalo M, Roy A, Pelletier A, Martiskainen H, Siedlecki-Wullich D, Lannette-Weimann N, Majerníková N, Grenon A, Gao V, Erhardt A, Pernodet A, Lemaire M, Limoge F, Walle P, Mendes T, Guyot K, Lemeu C, Carvalho LI, de Farias ARM, Hulsman M, Najdek C, Freire-Regatillo A, Saha O, Amouyel P, Charbonnier C, Deleuze JF, Dols-Icardo O, Jeskanen H, Willman RM, Kuulasmaa T, Kurki M, Hardy J, Heikkinen S, Holstege H, Mäkinen P, Nicolas G, Mead S, Wagner M, Ramirez A, Rauramaa T, Palotie A, Sims R, Soininen H, van Swieten J, Williams J, Bellenguez C, Gelle C, Lambert E, Costa MR, Tcw J, Glaab E, Ayral AM, Demiautte F, Grenier-Boley B, Muntaner M, Eberlé D, Deforges S, Haas J, Kilinc D, Mulle C, Chapuis J, Hiltunen M, Dumont J, Lambert JC. Non-microglial downregulation of PLCG2 impairs synaptic function and elicits Alzheimer disease-related hallmarks. bioRxiv. 2026 Mar 27. PMID: 41928929.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 2/11/2026

    Goulding DS, Williams HC, Gorman AA, Devanney NA, Harrison DA, Walsh AE, Tuck T, Zajac DJ, Macauley SL, Estus S, Tcw J, A Johnson L, Morganti JM. APOE4 drives maladaptive heterogeneity and immunometabolic responses of astrocytes. J Neuroinflammation. 2026 Feb 11; 23(1). PMID: 41673700.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 1/8/2026

    Pelletier A, Tuck T, Tcw J. Factorization of Alzheimer's disease genetic risk influences allow patient stratification, predicting disease onset, cognitive decline, and cell-type specific responses. bioRxiv. 2026 Jan 08. PMID: 41542451.

    Read at: PubMed

View All 55 Publications:   View Full Profile in BUMC

Other Positions

  • Director of the Laboratory of Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell Therapeutics
    Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine

Websites

Education

  • Harvard University, PhD
  • Harvard University, AM
  • Catholic University of Korea, BS

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