Arlotta Lab

Dr. Arlotta is interested in understanding the molecular laws that govern the birth, differentiation and assembly of the cerebral cortex, the part of the brain that controls how we sense, move and think. She integrates developmental and evolutionary knowledge to investigate therapies for brain repair and for modeling neuropsychiatric disease.

Noelia Antón-Bolaños completed her graduate studies at the Universidad Miguel Hernández de Elche.

Leela Chakravarti Dilley completed her MD/PhD at University of Pennsylvania studying cellular and circuit mechanisms underlying sleep during early development. She is a psychiatry resident at BWH and is interested in studying cortical organoids as a model for psychiatric disease.

Nuria Dominguez-Iturza obtained her PhD in Neurosciences at the University of Leuven, investigating molecular mechanisms underlaying neurodevelopmental disorders.

Irene Faravelli completed her Medical Degree and Neurology residency at the University of Milan.  She is interested in studying cortical organoids as a model for neurodevelopment and neurological diseases.

Dr. Gulisano is full professor of Experimental Biology at the University of Catania and is taking his sabbatical leave as a Visiting Scholar at the Arlotta Laboratory. Trained in Developmental Biology and Experimental Neurobiology, he is interested in deciphering the mechanisms of brain development using a multimodel and evolutionary approach from organoids to embryos and beyond.

Marta Montero Crespo completed her PhD at the Cajal Institute, studying the synaptic organization of the human hippocampus and its alterations in Alzheimer’s disease. She is interested in understanding the ultrastructural features of human neurodevelopment.

Abhishek completed his PhD at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics (Berlin), studying the role of developmental regulators during mouse embryogenesis at single-cell resolution. He is interested in using brain organoids to decode the mechanisms underlying cell fate acquisition and maintenance during human cortical development.

Sebastiano Trattaro completed his PhD in system medicine at the European School of Molecular Medicine in Milan, where he specialized in disease modelling through induced pluripotent stem cells. He is interested in using brain organoids to understand the molecular features of neurodevelopmental disorders.

Anqi is a Computational Scientist at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. She obtained her Ph.D. degree from Clemson University with specialization in Bioinformatics and genomic data science.

Juliana Brown is a staff scientist and grant writer who brings her critical insights to every project in the lab.

Zeke is interested in developing alternatives to animal research. He studied at Harvard College before entering the Ph.D. program in Biological and Biomedical Sciences.

Sebastián Morales Vélez is a PhD student in the molecules, cells, and organisms (MCO) program. He completed his B.Sc. (biochemistry) and M.Sc. (chemistry) at McGill University.

Uyanga is an undergraduate at Harvard College studying Human Developmental and Regenerative Biology.

Aiman completed her Bachelor of Science in Molecular & Cellular Biology at the Johns Hopkins University, where she worked on an iPSC model to study Huntington’s Disease in Dr. Xia Feng’s lab.

Sarah completed her Bachelor of Science (Honors) in molecular biology at the University of Toronto.

Divya Gala joined the Arlotta Lab from Stanford University, where she was an administrative associate in the Biology Department. Prior to Stanford,  she supported research leadership in the Department of Pathology at The University of Chicago. She studied English Literature and Classical Antiquity at DePaul University.

Zachary Trayes-Gibson joined the Arlotta Lab from Massachusetts General Hospital, where he was a laboratory manager. Before MGH, he was a research assistant in Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He studied biological sciences at the University of Chicago.