Natalya Ortolano, PhD
Natalya received her PhD in from Vanderbilt University in 2021; she joined the DDN team the same week she defended her thesis. Her work has been featured at STAT News, Vanderbilt Magazine, and Scientific American. As an assistant editor, she writes and edits online and print stories on topics ranging from cows to psychedelics. Outside of work you can probably find her at a concert in her hometown Nashville, TN.
Articles by Natalya Ortolano, PhD
| 2 min read
The words “diet” and “exercise” are synonymous with weight loss. Researchers now think that “pharmacotherapy” should be too.
| 4 min read
Implanting brown fat into mice fed a high fat diet helps them lose weight and become glucose tolerant. Will it do the same for humans?
| 4 min read
There are currently no FDA-approved drugs to treat vitiligo, an autoimmune disease that kills skin pigment cells. But a phase III study of a drug used to treat atopic dermatitis may be the first to get the FDA seal of approval.
Monkeypox virus is a close relative of the smallpox virus and the latest zoonotic pathogen to infect human beings.
| 1 min read
Cases of monkeypox are popping up across the globe. But where did it come from? How does it work? And how can we treat it? It took looking all the way back to the beginning — 1500 BCE to be exact — to answer these pressing questions.
| 3 min read
COVID-19 researchers focus their studies on antibodies targeting exposed parts of SARS-CoV-2, but in a new study, a group of researchers showed that antibodies targeting proteins inside the virus are just as important for a robust immune response.
| 4 min read
Some scientists use cancer patients as libraries for discovering novel immunotherapies.
| 10+ min read
Researchers around the world are on a mission to bank biological samples from millions of people. So far, these efforts have disclosed the effects of arsenic exposure on the genome, supported development of early cancer diagnostics, and even revealed the ideal timing for COVID-19 boosters.
| 3 min read
Wolfram Syndrome is a rare disease that causes a myriad of challenges, including deafness, diabetes, and depression. New research suggests that an agonist used to treat neurodegenerative disorders may help alleviate some of the symptoms.
| 2 min read
What do 23andMe and Snapchat have in common? They both collect very personal information about their users. Do the benefits outweigh the risks?
| 4 min read
A biotech start-up teamed up with technology giants like Apple to continuously monitor people with Parkinson’s disease so that they could personalize their treatments in the clinic and the lab.
| 4 min read
Many potential treatments for Alzheimer’s disease have been found using mouse models, but they often don’t translate well to humans. Will organoids provide the answers that neuroscientists need to develop new treatments?
