May 12, 2020

Acing the Test

Montclair State alumna helps develop critical at-home self-collection kit for LabCorp’s COVID-19 diagnostic test

Posted in: Biology, CSAM Research, Our Alumni

Julia Dondero working in the lab at LabCorp — Julia Dondero, who graduated from Montclair State in 2014 with a degree in Molecular Biology, is helping LabCorp develop and deploy LabCorp’s at-home self-collection kit. (Photo by Meghan Fratesi)

Julia has been working behind-the-scenes to bring a new at-home self-collection kit for LabCorp’s COVID-19 diagnostic test into the hands of the health-care workers and first responders who need it the most.

She leads the molecular diagnostics department at LabCorp’s Raritan, New Jersey, lab, where she was able to rapidly scale up and validate an at-home collection kit that was the first authorized for use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Maybe it’s because I’m a nerd who is into biology, but when I first learned about the coronavirus, I immediately thought, ‘I have a feeling a few months from now, I’m going to be testing this by the thousands.’

Molecular Biology Alum, Julia Dondero ’14

Read the full article in the University News Center.