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.

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.

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.

Adam Rossano MD, PhD

I completed my B.S. in Neuroscience and B.A. in Philosophy at the University of Texas at Austin in 2007, at which point I moved to San Antonio and joined the University of Texas Health Science Center as an MD/PhD student. My PhD focused on quantifiable cellular measurements of activity-dependent calcium and pH dynamics in Drosophila (fruit fly) motor nerve terminals. Under the mentorship of Dr. Gregory Macleod I described integration of calcium, pH, and glutamate handling in glutamatergic presynaptic terminals and contributed to modelling mitochondrial support of neurotransmission. Upon graduation in 2015 I entered the lab of Dr. Michael Romero in the Department of Physiology and Biomedical engineering at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. I applied cellular imaging techniques to explore functional consequences of pathogenic human mutations in the electrogenic sodium bicarbonate transporter (NBCe1) while simultaneously acquiring additional expertise in cellular acid/base physiology and ion transporter biophysics. I then returned to clinical training and completed a general medicine internship and psychiatry residency at Johns Hopkins between 2017 and 2021. My present clinical interest is in adults with neurodevelopmental and psychotic disorders and in 2021 I joined CHOP and Penn Medicine in the labs of Drs. Stewart Anderson and Douglas Coulter. I aim to apply my previous experience in subcellular live imaging and physiology to exploration of how known deficits in mitochondrial biogenesis contribute to dysfunctional synaptic plasticity and glutamatergic neurotransmission in a model of programmed induced pluripotent stem cell (IPSC)-derived excitatory forebrain neurons generated from individuals with neurodevelopmental atypicality and psychosis.

Danny Frederick

Research Assistant. - Lab Manager

Undergraduates

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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.

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.

Natasha Gupta

Natasha is a senior at the University of Pennsylvania majoring in Neuroscience and minoring in Chemistry and Healthcare Management, with an anticipated graduation date of May 2022. She has been with Anderson lab since Summer of 2021, focusing on neuronal dissociations and immunostains to study the maturation of neurons in the forebrain.

Mohammad Rashad

Mohammad is a sophomore at the University of Pennsylvania majoring in Neuroscience and minoring in Healthcare Management, with an anticipated graduation date of May 2024. He has been with the Anderson lab since Fall of 2021, working on testing the efficacy of migratory interneurons transplants in improving imaging and treatment for glioblastoma.

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