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2026
Welcome to our new PhD student Dahlia Siano!

HUGE congrats to MD/PhD student Shelby Sabourin for her PhD defense! 


2025
Congrats to Dr. Kristen Zuloaga on her BrightFocus grant in collaboration with Damian Zuloaga's lab!

Congrats to Research Associate Charly Abi Ghanem on his new tenure-track Assistant Professor position at Binghamton University! We will miss him, but are SO proud of him!
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Congrats to PhD student Emily Groom on her winning awards at SBN and a BrightFocus Fast Track Fellowship and giving several invited talks. Congrats to PHD student Chrissy Thrasher on her poster award at OSSD!

Welcome to our new postdocs Drs. Jennifer Lafrican and Celine Camon, rotating PhD student Dahlia Siano, new intern Dayton Cubillo-Dreher. 

Dr. Kristen Zuloaga gave talks at Temple University and for the NAVBO (North American Vascular Biology Organization) webinar and finished her last two rounds of review as standing member on the CDIN study section.
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Fall/Winter 2024
Congrats to Dr. Kristen Zuloaga on her NINDS R01 renewal grant, as well as an NIA R21 grant!

The lab's research was highlighted in a televised interview for CBS6 local news. Link to the video:
Albany researchers explore menopause-dementia link with $4M NIH grant

Congrats to PhD student Emily Groom on her AHA predoctoral fellowship!

Congrats to Dr. Abigail Salinero on her successful PhD defense! The lab is so incredibly proud of her - she graduated with 15 publications and an AHA fellowship!

Welcome to our PhD student Christina Thrasher, new MD/PhD student Shelby Sabourin, techs Ann Mutahi and McKenzie Comito, new intern Alex Opiela, and to our new medical students Divya Goyal and Rama Blankson.

Dr. Kristen Zuloaga was invited to be a member of the VCID Committee for the 2025 ADRD Summit for NIH. She also gave a talk at Tulane University and joined the organizing committee for the 2025 Sex Differences and Women’s Health Research Conference.
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Spring/Summer 2024
Welcome to our new technician Molly Batchelder, summer interns Caitlin Valerian, Jeanette Ward, Glennis Cho, and to our new medical student Riley Rane.

Congrats to technicians Chrissy Thrasher and Rachel Smith on their acceptance into neuroscience graduate programs! Rachel will be attending Fordham University in the Fall and Chrissy will be attending Albany Med.

Congrats to research associate Kasey Belanger for her new science writer position at Neural Stem Cell Institute!

Congrats to Dr. Charly Abi Ghanem on his travel award at Charleston Conference on Alzheimer's disease (CADD) and his travel award to the Organization for the Study of Sex Differences (OSSD) annual conference.

Congrats to Dr. Kristen Zuloaga for being awarded the Jiri Turinsky Outstanding Research Mentor Award at Albany Medical College.

Dr. Zuloaga served an the opponent for the thesis defense of Maria Latorre Leal of the Karolinska Institute.

Dr. Zuloaga gave talks at:
- ADSP Functional Genomics Consortium Annual Meeting (New York, NY)
- University of Michigan Metabolism, Endocrinology and Diabetes seminar series (Invited by T32 postdoctoral trainees, virtual)
- Karolinska Institute (virtual)
- WomenMind Conference (Toronto, Canada)

Lab members presented posters, data blitz, and talks:
- Dr. Charly Abi Ghanem gave a talk at the CADD
- Dr. Charly Abi Ghanem gave a data blitz talk at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference (AAIC) professional interest area day (Philadelphia, PA)
- Dr. Charly Abi Ghanem presented a poster at AAIC
- Dr. Charly Abi Ghanem presented a poster the OSSD (Bergen, Norway)
- Emily Groom presented her first poster at AAIC

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Fall/Winter 2023
Welcome to our new medical students Aaron Paul and Ava Herzog.

Congrats to Dr. Charly Abi Ghanem on being selected for the invite-only Charleston Conference on Alzheimer's disease.

Congrats to Dr. Kristen Zuloaga for being appointed to the Scientific Advisory Board at Albany Medical College and the External Advisory Board for the CNS-Met COBRE at University of Kentucky.

Dr. Zuloaga gave talks at:
- University of Kentucky
- Massachusetts General Hospital Innovation Center on Sex Differences in Medicine (virtual)


Spring/Summer 2023
Congrats to Dr. Olivia Gannon on the successful defense of her PhD!!!

Congrats to Dr. Kristen Zuloaga on her MPI Alzheimer's Association Grant with Dr. Damian Zuloaga (SUNY Albany)! 

Dr. Zuloaga gave talks at:
- Society for Behavioral Neuroendocrinology Annual Meeting (Tours, France)
- University at Albany Healthy Aging Workshop
- Karolinska Institute (virtual)
- Medical University of South Carolina
- University of Arizona
- Neurodysfunction and neurodegeneration Seminar Series (virtual)

Dr. Charly Abi Ghanem gave talks at:
- Organization for the Study of Sex Differences Annual conference (Alberta, Canada)
- International Society for Molecular Neurodegeneration 


September- December, 2022
Olivia Gannon gave an invited talks at University of Vermont, University of Rochester, and Tufts University as part of her postdoc interviews. She will be joining Marilyn Cipolla's lab in April 2023!
October, 2022
Kristen Zuloaga gave an invited talk at Washington University St. Louis, Hope Center for Neurological Disorders
September, 2022
Kristen Zuloaga gave an invited talk at for the Albert Institute for White Matter and Cognition Symposium on Animal Models of VCID. 
August- September, 2022
Alejandro Adam and Kristen Zuloaga were awarded grants from both NIH and Alzheimer's Association for their new collaborations related to mechanisms underlying post-shock cognitive impairment.
July, 2022
At AAIC (Alzheimer's Association International Conference) both Kristen Zuloaga and Abby Salinero gave talks, Abby Salinero won a travel fellowship, and Kasey Belanger served as an ISTAART ambassador! 
May, 2022
At the OSSD (Organization for the Study of Sex Differences) both Kristen Zuloaga and Charly Abi Ghanem gave talks, both Charly Abi Ghanem and Abby Salinero won awards - congrats to all!
May, 2022
Kristen Zuloaga and her collaborators won the Sosa Academy of Medicine Educational Development Award!  This award was in recognition of their creation of the NY Capital Region Postdoctoral Development Program 
April 7, 2022
Abby Salinero and Olivia Gannon both won awards at Albany Med Awards day! Olivia won 3 awards and gave an invited talk!
April 6, 2022
Charly Abi Ghanem received a Postdoctoral Fellowship from Bright Focus!
April 2, 2022
Kasey Belanger was selected as an ISTAART Ambassador!
March 27-30, 2022
Kristen Zuloaga co-organized (and gave a talk) at the 2022 Albert Institute for White Matter and Cognition Annual Meeting.
March 16, 2022
Congrats to Abby Salinero on her OSSD travel award!
March 10, 2022
Zuloaga alumni (and current collaborator) Dr. Lisa Robison received her first grant as a PI in her own lab from the American Heart Association! 
January 20, 2022
Kasey Belanger-Mayer joined our lab as a new postdoc today!  We are SO excited to have her join us!
January 11, 2022
Congrats to Charly Abi Ghanem - he was elected to the OSSD council as the trainee representative!
January 1, 2022
Congrats to Abby Salinero - she was awarded an American Heart Association Predoctoral Fellowship!  
October 20, 2021
Kristen Zuloaga gave a talk for the American Physiological Society "Trends in Sex and Gender Medicine" Conference on how "Diet-induced obesity influences sex differences in neurogenesis".
October 14, 2021
Dr. Zuloaga was interviewed on WTEN ABC about her new grant from Alzheimer's Association.
October 12, 2021
Kristen Zuloaga gave a talk for the Women's Health Research Cluster on "Sex Differences in Metabolic and Hormonal Contributions to Dementia". Click here to link to the video.
October 6, 2021
Congrats to co-first authors Olivia Gannon and Lisa Robison! Their new pre-print "High fat diet exacerbates cognitive decline in mouse models of Alzheimer’s disease and mixed dementia in a sex-dependent manner" is available on BioRxiv 
August 25, 2021
Congrats to Kristen Zuloaga & team on their new AARG grant from Alzheimer's Association!  They will be investigating the impact of menopause and estrogen on co-morbid Alzheimer's disease and metabolic disease.
July 1, 2021
Congrats to the Kristen Zuloaga & collaborators on their new U01 grant from NIA!  They will be investigating the functional impact of AD risk genes on neuro-vascular interactions. 
July 1, 2021
Kristen Zuloaga became the new Director of Graduate Studies for the Department of Neuroscience & Experimental Therapeutics at AMC.  
April 13, 2021
Congrats to Charly Abi Ghanem and Olivia Gannon on their OSSD travel awards!
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April 13, 2021
Our newest paper in collaboration with Sally Temple’s lab is featured on the cover of Stem Cell Reports! It was also featured on 3 news sites (1, 2) including an interview with Drs Temple & Zuloaga (3).

April 8, 2021
Congrats to our long-time high school intern Alvira Tyagi who was accepted to Harvard University!
April 6, 2021
Kristen Zuloaga was invited to be on the Scientific Advisory Board for the Albert Research Institute for White Matter and Cognition.
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April 1, 2021
Congrats to Olivia Gannon on her 2 awards! Dean’s Certificate for Excellence in Research and Dean’s Certificate & Prize for Excellence in Extramural Research Activities

March 3, 2021
Congrats to Olivia Gannon on her Excellence in Poster Presenation Award for AMC Poster Day!
March 3, 2021
Kristen Zuloaga gave an invited talk at the Albert White Matter Research Institute Symposium.
December 23, 2020
Congrats to Olivia Gannon on her Society for Neuroscience Trainee Professional Development Award! 
November 4, 2020
Congrats to David Kordit on his Medical School Investigation Day win!  Based on his outstanding poster presentation, he was chosen to represent AMC at the Eastern-Atlantic Student Research Forum.  
Sept 30, 2020
Olivia Gannon presented a talk "Mechanisms underlying the risk for vascular dementia after menopause" for the Cerebral Blood Flow Virtual Seminar Series. Click here to view.
Sept 29, 2020
Congrats to Lisa Robison and Olivia Gannon on their co-first author publication in J of Neuroinflammation.  This was Olivia's first co-first author paper!  Check out their work here!
Sept 17, 2020
Congrats to Abby Salinero on her first first-author paper as a graduate student! Check out her work in FASEB! 
July 30, 2020
Congrats to Lisa Robison on her new faculty position at Stetson College! We are so lucky that she will continue to do research with us remotely as she also embarks on her new teaching adventure!
June 17, 2020
Congrats to Olivia Gannon on her F31 predoctoral fellowship from NINDS!!!!
June 12, 2020
David’s Riccio's last day as our lab manager! So sad to see him go, but SO proud of him because he is leaving us to go to medical school at SUNY Buffalo!
June 5, 2020
Congrats to Melissa Thomas on her AOA Carolyn L Kuckein Student research fellowship for medical students!!!
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April 30, 2020
Kristen Zuloaga gave a talk at the Alzheimer’s Afternoon’s virtual seminar series for 215 researchers. If you missed the talk you can view it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-r2U2KXKZow

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March, 2020https://youtu.be/-r2U2KXKZow
Like many labs across the country we are trying to work remotely as much as possible.   With the help from some friends, we have developed a list of resources (webinars, books, podcasts, etc) for  when you need break from data analysis and writing!  Enjoy!
Click on button or here to view.

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February 28, 2020
Kristen is interviewed by Benita Zhan for Channel 13 Health Beats

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February 28, 2020
Kristen, Ivan Fung and Qi Yang are interviewed by ​Channel 6 news, see the video here. 


February 13, 2020
Kristen was awarded a grant from Skarlow Memorial Trust to test a novel hormonal therapeutic in Alzheimer's disease!

February 7, 2020
Our recent eNeuro paper is recommended for F1000 Prime by Anne Dorrance as an influential paper in our field. Thank you Anne!
Access the recommendation on F1000Prime

February 6, 2020
Our recent collaboration with Qi Yang’s lab is featured on ​Newsweek! Click here to read.
The story was also featured on at least 8 other websites, including this one with photos - click here.




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January 28-30, 2020
David Riccio is accepted to several different medical schools! Which one will he choose? Stay tuned!


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December 3, 2019
Congrats to Olivia Gannon on her Predoctoral Fellowship from American Heart Association!!!!


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December 23, 2019
Congrats to Lisa Robison and the rest of team on our publication in eNeuro which has received attention in the press, being featured on 9 different science news websites, Twitter, and Instagram! It made eNeuro's list of "most shared" articles for Nov/Dec 2019 and was one of the 3 articles featured on their homepage banner for January 2020.


November 11, 2019
Congrats to Kristen for being appointed to the Editorial Board for Biology of Sex Differences!

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October 31, 2019
Our annual lab Halloween fun!  This year we did reverse trick-or-treating and delivered candy and lots of laughs to other labs and staff at AMC!


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October 20, 2019
Abby, Lisa, and Olivia present their posters at SfN in Chicago, IL. 


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October 9, 2019
Olivia passed her candidacy exam! So proud of her!  She did amazing! 


October 4, 2019
Our annual departmental retreat was amazing - Kristen gave talks on Networking and the new Postdoc Development Program and Lisa gave a talk on How to Find a Postdoc Position.  

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October 2, 2019
Anne Dorrance from Michigan State University came to visit us and gave us tons of advice on laser speckle contrast imaging and gave a fantastic talk on hypertension and VCID.  


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September 25, 2019
Successful first session of our new Postdoc Development Program at AMC - founded by Kristen and our friends Yannick Poitelon, Gabby Fredman, and John Lamar!  Kristen presented on networking and "elevator" pitches.  Check out the program website www.amc.edu/academic/pdp


September 24, 2019
So proud of Melissa, Nathan, and Lauren for representing our lab so well at Medical School Investigation Day!  Special congrats to Melissa who was selected to represent AMC and present her work to this year's Albany Prize winners!

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August 19, 2019
We are so excited to welcome our new postdoc Charly Abi Ghanem!!!


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August 7, 2019
First day of graduate school for Abby and first day of medical school for Melissa and Nathan - congrats to all!!! 




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July 13-17 , 2019
Lisa and Kristen attend the Alzheimer's Association International Conference where Lisa gave a fantastic talk!

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June 21, 2019
Olivia passes her qualifying exam!  Congrats to Olivia!

June 17, 2019
David re-joins the lab as our new lab manager!  So happy to have him back!

June 1, 2019
Kristen received a Volunteer Recognition Award from the American Heart Association for "8 years of outstanding performance, leadership, and professionalism in advancing the mission of the American Heart Association and Peer Review".

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May 20, 2019 
Our recently funded grant is featured on AMC website.

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May 8, 2019
Kristen chaired a session on Sex Differences in Metabolic Contributions to Dementia at OSSD! Lisa gave a phenomenal talk in the session along with our other fantastic speakers Drs Robbie Brinton, Kristen O’Connell, and Adviye Ergul!   Kristen was also appointed Education Chair for OSSD. 


April 18, 2019
Kristen is elected as Council Member for the Organization for the Study of Sex Differences for a 3 year term!

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April 9, 2019
We received the notice of award that our first R01 is being funded by NINDS!!!! The new grant will determine the effect of menopause on VCID pathology and determine if increasing estrogen in the brain can be used as a potential therapeutic. We are looking for a new postdoc to join our team!


March 27, 2019
Febronia is pre-accepted to medical school at SUNY Upstate - congrats!!! Super impressive considering she is only a freshman!

February 25, 2019
Abby accepts the offer to attend AMC for grad school!!!!  

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February 20, 2019
Abby's first research seminar!  She did such an amazing job - definitely ready for graduate school!


January -February, 2019
Abby is invited for interviews at all 5 of the PhD programs she applied to! Abby is accepted to all of the PhD programs she has interviewed at - we are all waiting on pins and needles to find out where she will choose!   Congrats to Abby on the 100% success rate!  Excited about her bright future!

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January 2, 2019
Kristen is selected as the AMC Department of Neuroscience & Experimental Therapeutics Employee of the Month. Thank you to Olivia & Lisa for the nomination!  Love our lab family!  


November - December, 2018
Both Olivia and Lisa's review articles are published!!! All the summer reading and writing paid off!  Special congrats to Olivia - her first 1st-author publication! 
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30580011
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30471324


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November 26, 2018
Abby places second in the Dana Foundation Brain Awareness Week international sticker design contest and is featured on their blog! Congrats to Abby!  https://bit.ly/2WqsUMb




​​October 17, 2018
Kristen's first NINDS R01 receives a score of 18th percentile!  Funding is highly likely!  Stay tuned for updates in February! 

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​​October 1, 2018
Kristen gave a talk and Olivia, Lisa and Kristen presented posters at the American Physiological Society-Sex Specific Conference in Knoxville, TN.   Congrats to Olivia on her travel award!


August 27, 2018
Kristen gave an invited talk at UT Health & Science Center to Dr. Louise McCullough's research group. 


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​​July 23, 2018
Abby, Olivia, and Lisa presented their work at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference in Chicago, IL and ran the AAIC 5K together!





​June 20, 2018
Congrats to Lisa - Her graduate work was featured in US News & World Report.
https://health.usnews.com/wellness/mind/articles/2018-06-20/running-or-walking-briskly-away-from-addiction

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May 2, 2018
Kristen gave a talk at the Organization for the Study of Sex Differences Conference in Atlanta, GA.

​January 1, 2016
Congrats to Kristen - She received an American Heart Association Scientist Development Grant!
http://neuralsci.org/dr-kristen-zuloaga-receives-american-heart-association-award-study-link-pre-diabetes-vascular-cognitive-impairment
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