From the Soccer Field to the Research Lab: Emma Furze

During a soccer practice, Emma Furze was in the net, making routine saves she had done countless times before. On her last save, Furze says she was diving for a low ball on the ground to her right when her glove must have gotten stuck in the turf. As she went down, her arm twisted behind her. She was rushed to the emergency room where she was devastated to learn that she had a fractured arm, more specifically a fractured humerus in three different places. Three days later, Furze had surgery to reset her bones. She left the hospital with two titanium plates, four pins, and 13 screws under an eight-inch-long scar. In only her second year at Concordia, Furze’s season was over before it had even started. 

Furze had spent the majority of her life playing soccer. She started playing at the age of five, and went on to play as goalie for a high level competitive team in Vancouver and for an American team.

When it came time to apply for university in her senior year of high school, she says finding a school with a good soccer team was one of her top priorities. For more than the team’s ranking, Furze chose Concordia based on how well she had clicked with the girls on the team when she first visited. Two years after her injury, she is finishing up her last year in a biology specialization

In the early days after she fractured her arm, Furze remembers feeling a melancholic acceptance of her situation. There was nothing else to do but wait until her arm was healed before she would, naturally, rejoin the team. 

“At the time I just thought, you know, injuries are a part of sports, I’ve had them before,” she says. “Especially during soccer, orthopedic injuries are really common, I’ve seen girls tear their ACLs, I’ve seen broken ankles, I’ve seen it all.” 

 It was during her recovery period that Furze began taking her classes and assignments more seriously because, after all, she now had the time. As the weeks went on, Furze started realizing that she actually had a striking interest for biology. It was something she had not paid much attention to before because, according to her “being a varsity soccer player is a tremendous commitment. You really only get one day off a week to have a full school work day.” 

During that summer, Furze realized that she had a decision to make. Either return to soccer like she had originally planned or stick with her academics, ultimately giving up her varsity athlete days. After many long talks with her dad, Furze decided that she would focus on her school work. She decided the best thing for her future was no longer her passion for soccer, but it was her new found interest in her academic career.

 Furze chuckles as she remembers her decision, “I was so determined to make a comeback. It’s just funny, you know, how your thought process and your mindset changes when you go through something dramatic like that.”

With the decision made and Furze’s sights set on academics, her grades skyrocketed and she had more time for herself. In light of this, she earned herself a spot in one of Concordia’s biology labs, working on cancer research.  Furze is now doing her undergraduate thesis in Dr. Alisa Piekny’s cytokinesis lab. The two met while Furze was a student in Piekny’s cell physiology class. After the semester had ended, Furze decided to contact Dr. Piekny to discuss potentially joining the team. 

“The project I’m working on now is characterizing and testing out a novel anti-cancer compound,” Furze explains. 

She clarifies that although the biochemistry lab at Concordia had synthesized several different anti-cancer compounds, the one she was working with was showing more promising signs. 

Furze essentially takes microscopic images of cancerous cells after they are exposed to different concentrations of the anti-cancer drugs, looking for any phenotypic changes. Furze is a part of a larger team and she, along with a PhD student and a visiting scientist from Cuba, are attempting to test an anti-cancer drug for effectiveness on cancer cells. Furze explained that her team would love to find a concentration that allows for cancer cells to stop dividing.  This is crucial because cancerous cells do not stop dividing in the way healthy cells should, which harms the body’s inner ecosystem. 

Furze is working with a combination of anti-cancer drugs that are currently on the market, such as Taxol, Vinblastine and Colchicine. Furze clarified that the problem with these drugs is, while they work to kill cancerous cells, they also kill healthy cells. This, and many other side effects, can ultimately lead to death. 

“I was super interested in [the work] because cancer, like most of us, has personally affected me in a lot of ways,” she says. 

Furze’s father has two different types of cancer, malignant melanoma and retinal cancer. In light of this, her passion to work with the disease was solidified. 

“The very fact that I am working [on it], even if it’s a small difference… I’m still learning about it and I feel like I’m in the direction towards hopefully one day finding a cure.”  Furze says.

She says she misses her soccer days tremendously, but is quite content in her decision to focus more on school. In doing so, she said her interest in science has spiked and led to opportunities she never thought she would have. 

While Furze has no definite plan for post graduate studies, she said she is looking into continuing her education with a masters’ program. However, she said she may also throw caution to the wind and move to the U.K. in pursuit of a career in the pharmaceutical industry. If there is one thing Furze has learnt from the past few years, it’s to never take planning too seriously; there may always be another unscheduled opportunity waiting to happen. 

• biology
• cancer
• graduation
• passion
• profile
• research
• soccer