Faculty
Neil Dani
Assistant Professor, Department of Cell and Developmental Biology
Dr. Dani graduated from the University of Rochester with a bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry followed by a Master’s degree at New York Medical College. He earned his Ph.D. degree from Vanderbilt University and carried out dissertation research on extracellular signal transduction in the laboratory of Dr. Kendal Broadie. To further investigate how extracellular signals impact mammalian brain development and function, he joined the laboratory of Dr. Maria Lehtinen at Boston Children’s Hospital. As a postdoctoral researcher and an instructor at Harvard Medical School, he focused on the choroid plexus, which is a key source of extracellular signals in the developing brain that also functions as a brain barrier throughout life. Dr. Dani and collaborators have generated the first cell atlas of the choroid plexus in the mouse brain and have innovated live imaging tools to visualize its function in real time. As an Assistant Professor in the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology at Vanderbilt University, he will continue research on the choroid plexus to investigate its roles in development, brain function and contributions to neurological disease.
In his free time he enjoys music, percussion drumming, history of science, podcasts on a variety of subjects, and dabbling in computers.
Staff
Alexander Brand
Alex graduated high school in Roebuck, South Carolina. He is currently sophomore at Vanderbilt majoring in molecular and cellular biology. Previously, he worked as an undergraduate researcher studying shared mammalian traits accounting for phylogeny using R and Python packages. He has plans to one day enter the medical field and in his free time outside of the classroom, he enjoys sports and spending time with friends and family.
Megan Keating
Research Assistant, Department of Cell and Developmental Biology
Megan graduated from the University of Florida with a Bachelor’s degree in Microbiology and Cell Science and is pursuing a Master’s in Biomedical Sciences from Vanderbilt University. As an undergraduate, she worked in the Phlips Lab and studied the growth patterns of algae and other microorganisms within bodies of water in the state of Florida. In the Dani lab, she investigates choroid plexus roles in disease. Her future plans are to enroll in medical school. Outside of science, she enjoys writing music and baking.
Chloe Koo
Undergraduate Research Assistant, Department of Cell and Developmental Biology
Chloe graduated high school from Suwanee, Georgia. She is currently a sophomore pursuing a major in Medicine, Health and Society with a minor in Data Science. As an undergraduate research assistant, she is exploring the role of the choroid plexus in health and disease. In her free time, she loves traveling and spending time with family and friends.
David Mankarios
David is a Junior at Vanderbilt University and is double majoring in Molecular and Cellular Biology and German. He is broadly interested in engineering and biology. As a part of Vanderbilt Institute of Nanoscale Science and Technology (VINSE), he constructed a Plasmonic Bull’s Eye for nano-tweezing, and then explored basic biology of gastric bypass surgery and effects on diabetes and colon cancer. In his free time he enjoys reading and playing soccer.
Angela Wang
Research Assistant, Department of Cell and Developmental Biology
Angela graduated from Central Michigan University with a bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry followed by a master’s degree in Biology, cellular molecular biochemistry. Her research focused on Alzheimer’s Disease utilizing a unique mouse model, which displays ectopic neuronal cell cycle re-entry (NCCR) in post-mitotic neurons in mice expressing humanized Aβ. Interestingly, this model recapitulates numerous pathological hallmarks associated with AD, including pathological tau lesions generated from endogenous tau in the absence of tau mutations. Now as a research assistant in the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology at Vanderbilt University, she is continuing her journey in the world of neuroscience studying the choroid plexus.