Aarushi Bafna | 2026 SURF Participant

Aarushi Bafna is senior majoring in neuroscience and marketing with a minor in psychology. Her research interests include changes in brain pathology and vasculature related to various neurological diseases and cancers. At Illinois, Aarushi works in the Llano lab studying inflammatory biomarkers associated with pathological brain changes in late-onset Alzheimer’s disease. She is the founder and president of upliftED, a student organization focused on reducing educational inequity in central Illinois, a middle school robotics coach, and president of the service fraternity, Alpha Phi Omega. At Mayo Clinic, Aarushi will study age-related immunological changes in glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer, as she prepares for a future PhD in neuroscience.