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

A stone tablet it in a field displays an ancient, runic language.

Aug 05, 2022By Natalya Ortolano, PhD

Digital technology reveals the secrets to treating neurological disorders

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.

An abstract illustration showing the brain creating new ideas and solutions

Aug 03, 2022By Natalya Ortolano, PhD

Patient cells and serum create better Alzheimer’s disease models

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?

Scientists and clinicians examine an individual’s heart with various tools including stethoscopes and EKG machines.

Jul 29, 2022By Natalya Ortolano, PhD

A nanoengineered heart chamber

A new heart-on-a-chip gives scientists an up-close look at the beating human heart from the comfort of their lab benches.

Internal Medicine

Jul 24, 2022By Natalya Ortolano, PhD

Trailblazing scientist changes the view of obesity

An obesity medicine clinician researcher propels a growing movement to normalize obesity as a disease that requires long-term treatment.

Jul 19, 2022By Natalya Ortolano, PhD

From Honeybees to Humans: Imaging gene expression in the brain

Entomologists and computer engineers developed a novel imaging method for analyzing gene expression in live brains.

A man wearing a mask inside a doctor’s office smells a lemon.

Jul 10, 2022By Natalya Ortolano, PhD

Sniffing plasma helps COVID-19 patients smell again

People with COVID-19 sometimes lose their sense of smell. But a clinical researcher has a possible solution: the patient’s own blood.

Mitochondria can modify their morphologies to meet the cell's energy needs.

Jun 28, 2022By Natalya Ortolano, PhD

Misbehaving mitochondria may contribute to conditions such as autism

Mitochondria fragment and fuse to meet the energetic needs of the cell. Research shows that poorly regulated mitochondrial dynamics contribute to conditions such as autism.

Jun 21, 2022By Natalya Ortolano, PhD

Competition breeds ingenuity in translational research

It’s human nature to compare one’s success to others, but thinking that the grass is greener on the other side can be detrimental to one’s health. Recognizing strategies as equal but unique ways to tackle a common problem is a healthier perspective.

Jun 16, 2022By Natalya Ortolano, PhD

Altered lung microbiomes correlate with poor cell therapy outcomes

Researchers face more obstacles studying the lung microbiome than the gut microbiome. One big hurdle is collecting lung samples. In a new study, researchers used an invasive technique to collect fluid from children’s lungs and discovered how the lung’s microbial makeup affects stem cell transplant outcomes.

Man with wet macular degeneration with a microscope to his eye

Jun 13, 2022By Natalya Ortolano, PhD

Stem cell therapy for macular degeneration

Age-related macular degeneration is the most common cause of vision loss in adults over age 50, but there are few treatments available. Researchers are now developing promising stem cell therapies to treat the disease.