Our Group

Researchers

 

Ana Cristancho, M.D., PhD

I obtained my B.S. in Biology and Philosophy at the University of Miami in 2004. I came to the University of Pennsylvania afterwards for the combined degree MSTP program. I completed my Ph.D in Dr. Mitchell Lazar's lab in 2011 and finished medical school in 2013. I completed a General Pediatrics Residency at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. I will complete my training in Child Neurology at CHOP in 6/2018. I received a NIH-R25 grant to return to research after clinical training. I am being co-mentored by Dr. Anderson and Dr. Eric Marsh. I will be studying the interaction between genetics and environment stressors in the setting of prenatal hypoxic injury. I aim to develop a preclinical model of hypoxic injury that will help elucidate the mechanisms of pre/perinatal hypoxic injury as well as a serve as a screen for novel translational interventions.

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Bill Manley, PhD

Bill graduated from King’s College with a B.S. in Biology and Neuroscience in 2007. He earned his Masters in Neuroscience from Drexel University College of Medicine in 2009. Bill completed his Ph.D. at Rutgers University in 2016 in the laboratory of Linda Brzustowicz where he studied miRNAs in neural stem cells derived from individuals with 22q11.2 deletion syndrome. Bill joined the Anderson laboratory in 2018.  His main focus is on developing new ways to increase the efficiency of making human stem cell derived parvalbumin interneurons.  Bill is also working on a major collaboration with the De Raedt laboratory using cortical interneurons to label and potentially treat glioblastomas.  Outside of the laboratory Bill has very strong opinions about hockey.

 

Jianping Li Ph.D

Jianping obtained his PhD in Pharmacology in China in 2011, and joined Dr. Anderson's lab in 2016 as a postdoctoral fellow. His project investigates mitochondrial deficits in iPSC derived neurons from patients with 22q.11 deletion syndrome.

Nathaniel Sotuyo

Nate earned his B.S./M.S. in chemical and biomolecular engineering from Johns Hopkins. He is a current VMD-PhD candidate in the neuroscience graduate group co-mentored by Ethan Goldberg. He is studying stem cell-based therapies for epilepsy and autism.

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Madeleine Salvatore

Madeleine got her B.A. in Psychology from Temple University in 2016. After graduation, she managed Temple's Neuroendocrinology and Behavior Lab under Debra Bangasser. She joined the Anderson Lab as lab manager in 2018, and specializes in histological techniques, animal husbandry, and cell culture. Madeleine is currently working on a M.S. in Computer Science at University of Pennsylvania.

Kieona Cook

Kieona earned her BA in the Biological Basis of Behavior from University of Pennsylvania in 2020. She is currently a Research Technician and has been working with the Anderson Lab since 2016. In the Anderson lab, Kieona has worked on developing stem cell models for his project on HIV Associated Neurocognitive Disorders. She has performed neuronal and astrocytic differentiations as well as confocal microscopy to quanitfy neuronal size, shape, and synapse formation.

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Elyse Gadra

Elyse obtained her BA in the Biological Basis of Behavior from the University of Pennsylvania in 2020. She worked in the Anderson lab for two years on Dr. Cristancho’s prenatal hypoxia project before graduating and continuing as a research technician under the co-mentorship of Dr. Cristancho and Dr. Eric Marsh. Elyse also loves to rock climb and bake treats for lab meeting.

Undergraduates

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Brian Johnson

Brian is a senior in Penn's College of Arts and Sciences, and will be graduating with a BA in Neuroscience in 2021. He joined the Anderson lab in Fall of 2019 and began studying cell culture using iPSC and ESC lines under the guidance of Dr. Megan Fitzgerald and Dr. Bill Manley. His interests include increasing cellular enrichment in vitro using both genetic and small molecule-based manipulations of signaling pathways during cortical inhibitory interneuron differentiation protocols. Outside of the lab he fancies himself an amateur music critic, which explains why he never takes his headphones out when he's in the lab.

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Rachel Perlstein

Rachel is a rising senior at the University of Pennsylvania majoring in Neuroscience, with an anticipated graduation date of May 2021. She has been with the Anderson Lab since Summer of 2019, focusing on confocal microscopy and techniques in cell counting and analysis.
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Donya Zarrinnegar

Donya is a student at the University of Pennsylvania double majoring in Biology and Modern Middle Eastern Studies, with an anticipated graduation date of May 2022. She has been with the Anderson lab since Summer of 2019, working under the mentorship of Dr. Ana Cristancho to understand short-term and long-term neuroanatomical and behavioral deficits caused by prenatal hypoxic injury.
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Angela Yang

Angela is a student at the University of Pennsylvania double majoring in Philosophy and Biology, with an anticipated graduation date of May 2022. She has been with the Anderson lab since Summer of 2020, focusing on culturing lymphoblastic cell lines and learning to code in Python.
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Lauren Nguyen

Lauren is a junior at the University of Pennsylvania majoring in Neuroscience and Biology, with an anticipated graduation date of May 2022. She has been with the Anderson Lab since Fall of 2019, working with Nate on developing stem cell-based therapies for epilepsy and autism. 

Alumni

Jamie Galanaugh

Jamie obtained her BA in the Biological Basis of Behavior from the University of Pennsylvania in 2020. She worked in the Anderson lab for two years researching, in collaboration with the De Raedt lab, the utility of migratory interneuron transplants for the imaging and treatment of Glioblastoma. Jamie loves cats, coffee, and craft beers and will be relying on the joy all these things give her as she continues with her training in the Neuroscience PhD program at Penn.

Sean Ryan

Sean obtained his B.A. in Genetics from Rutgers University in 2014. During his time at Rutgers, he worked as a stem cell lab technician for two years at Rutgers University Cell and DNA Repository, and as a lab technician at the life sciences company Chromocell for one year. He joined Dr. Anderson’s lab in 2015 and was co-mentored by Dr. Kelly Jordan-Sciutto. His project focused on developing a HiPSC-derived tri-culture of neurons, astrocytes, and microglia to study the cell-to-cell interactions in the brain during HIV infection.

Shane Fitzgerald

Shane obtained his B.S. in Biological Sciences at Rider University in 2013. He joined the Anderson lab in 2015 as a lab technician, and shortly after transitioned to lab manager. During his tenure, he specialized in histological techniques aimed at quantifying cell counts and expression, animal husbandry, and the generation of interneurons from human embryonic stem cells (hESC). He earned his Master's in Education in 2018 and now works as a High School biology teacher.