Saori Furuta

Bio: Dr. Furuta, a native of Japan, received her academic training in California. She obtained her B.S. in Biochemistry at University of California, Riverside; MS. In Chemistry & Biochemistry at California State University, Los Angeles, with honor, and Ph.D. in Biological Sciences at University of California, Irvine. During her graduate training, she was mentored by the pioneers of cancer biology, Jamil Momand (p53 and MDM2) and Wen-Hwa Lee (BRCA1/2 and RB1). She then launched her postdoctoral training under a world-renowned breast cancer biologist Mina Bissell in Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Bissell’s vision of ‘dynamic reciprocity’ of the three-dimensional tissue microenvironment completely changed Saori’s view of cell biology.  She joined the faculty of the Department of Cancer Biology at University of Toledo as an Assistant Professor in November 2015 and was promoted to a tenured Associate Professor in 2021. Her lab relocated to MetroHealth/Case Western Reserve University in October 2022.