Calli McMurray is senior reporter at The Transmitter, where she covers research integrity, brain-body physiology and unique animal models. She also reports on structural and regulatory issues that affect research.

Before joining The Transmitter in 2024, she interned at The Chronicle of Higher Education and freelanced for STAT, The Texas Observer, KFF Health News and elsewhere.

Education

  • M.A. in science journalism, New York University
  • B.S. in neuroscience, University of Texas at Austin

Explore more from The Transmitter

Ground squirrel.

How thirteen-lined ground squirrels illuminate retinal development

In most mammalian retinas, rods outnumber cones. But that ratio is flipped in ground squirrels, a quirk that helps Seth Blackshaw explore how retinal cells develop their identities.

By Sarah Thau
31 July 2026 | 5 min read
Research image of the association cortex.

Cortical territories compete in developmental space race

Sensory and association regions are established through a reciprocal process, according to a new model of cortical development.

By Holly Barker
30 July 2026 | 5 min read