Julia Curd, a native of Niwot, Colo., is a graduate of Duke University, focusing on utilizing machine learning and precision medicine in cancer research, specifically for pediatrics.
Curd’s senior thesis in Dr. Raluca Gordan’s lab at Duke focused on characterizing the DNA binding specificity of MutS, the primary enzyme in mismatch repair (MMR), a process critical for correcting replication errors and maintaining genomic stability.
As a computational biologist in the Way Lab at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Curd had the opportunity to lead the implementation and extension of BioBombe, an approach that applies six diverse machine learning models across hundreds of different latent dimensionalities to uncover biological pathways and complexes from large-scale gene dependency data. By integrating their latent representations, Curd was able to highlight consistent gene process dependencies across cancers and identify opportunities for drug repurposing. Additionally, she has presented on these gene-process dependencies at the Systems Approaches to Cancer Biology conference, as well as to the public through Project BRIDGE.
In parallel, Curd has been leading the Way Lab’s data analysis contributions to the Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation Pediatric Cancer Data Lab, an initiative that has deepened and solidified her passion for pediatric cancer research. In this project, she analyzed high-dimensional cell painting image profiles, helping construct one of the first pediatric cancer cell morphology atlases.
Seeing models uncover both known biology and novel hypotheses within her previous research experiences reinforced her belief that machine learning can reveal structure and meaning in existing cancer data that traditional biology alone cannot see yet. Curd hopes to continue developing methods that not only advance machine learning but also enable new biological discovery and ultimately help guide therapeutic development for pediatric tumor types. She has a specific interest in how artificial intelligence models may be used for precision oncology, virtual screening, and histopathology, especially with image data.
Though she has always had a strong interest in biology, Curd’s true passion for pediatric cancer research arose after beginning an adaptive dance program in collaboration with Children’s Hospital Colorado, giving children with a variety of disabilities and illnesses the chance to take ballet classes. She chose St. Jude because the focus on pediatrics and clinical applications and incredible resources allows her to pursue research that remains closely connected to the patients it serves, with the goal of developing better, more targeted treatments for children battling catastrophic diseases.
Hometown: Niwot, CO
Education:
2024 BS, Biology and Computer Science, Duke University
Publications:
Curd, Julia B., and Gregory P. Way. “Characterizing the Landscape of Gene Process Dependencies in Cancer.” bioRxiv,16 Nov. 2025, https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.11.14.688518.