Natalia Mesa

Reporter
The Transmitter

Natalia Mesa is a reporter for The Transmitter, covering funding trends, neurogenetics and neural coding. Before joining The Transmitter in 2025, she was a fellow at High Country News and freelanced for National Geographic, Science, The Scientist and elsewhere.

From this contributor

Teaching

A change at the top of SfN as neuroscientists gather in San Diego

By Natalia Mesa

16 November 2025 | 6 min read

Illustration of coins falling through space.

Funding

Establishing a baseline: Trends in NIH neuroscience funding from 2008 to 2024

By Natalia Mesa

15 November 2025 | 8 min read

Hands cut up a pie chart with dining utensils.

Funding

NIH awarded 37 percent fewer neuroscience-related grants in 2025 than in past years

By Natalia Mesa

29 September 2025 | 4 min read

Research image visualizing genetic variation.

Spectrum

Long-read sequencing unearths overlooked autism-linked variants

By Natalia Mesa

18 September 2025 | 6 min read

Research image visualizing copy number variant duplications and deletions tied to certain brain regions in people with diagnoses of schizophrenia and autism.

Spectrum

Autism-linked copy number variants always boost autism likelihood

By Natalia Mesa

4 September 2025 | 6 min read

Education

Ph.D. in neuroscience, University of Washington
B.A. in biological sciences, Cornell University

Explore more from The Transmitter

Memory

By Claudia López Lloreda

26 November 2025

4 min read

To persist, memories surf molecular waves from thalamus to cortex

During the later stages of learning, the mouse brain progressively activates transcriptional regulators that drive memory consolidation.

Memory

To persist, memories surf molecular waves from thalamus to cortex

During the later stages of learning, the mouse brain progressively activates transcriptional regulators that drive memory consolidation.

By Claudia López Lloreda

26 November 2025 | 4 min read

Sex hormones

By Angie Voyles Askham

26 November 2025

5 min read

Sex hormone boosts female rats’ sensitivity to unexpected rewards

During the high-estradiol stages of their estrus cycle, female rats learn faster than they do during other stages—and than male rats overall—thanks to a boost in their dopaminergic response to reward, a new study suggests.