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

Illustration of folded origami.

Dimensionality—neuroscience’s red herring?

Placing too much emphasis on a specific interpretation of dimensionality, or treating it as an end-all quantification of some aspect of neural computation, may hinder progress in understanding the brain.

By Matthew Perich
7 September 2026 | 8 min read
Monkeys at Dutch primate center.

Dutch primate center awaits October animal research debate

Science is forging ahead at the Biomedical Primate Research Centre in the Netherlands, following a reversal of last year’s mandate to phase out primate studies. But researchers aren’t sure how long the reprieve will last.

By Lauren Schenkman
2 September 2026 | 5 min read

When we sleep, our brain is filled with spontaneous neural activity. What is it doing?

Daniel Levenstein explains how internally generated brain activity during sleep shapes our cognition, and why NeuroAI is such a powerful approach to understanding the brain.

By Paul Middlebrooks
2 September 2026 | 96 min listen