Shaena Montanari was a reporter for The Transmitter from 2023 to 2025. She was previously an investigative health reporter at the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting in Phoenix. Prior to becoming a journalist, Shaena worked as a paleontologist.
Shaena Montanari
Former reporter
The Transmitter
From this contributor
Neuropeptides reprogram social roles in leafcutter ants
By
Shaena Montanari
11 July 2025 | 6 min read
Nature retracts paper on novel brain cell type against authors’ wishes
By
Shaena Montanari
9 July 2025 | 4 min read
Authors correct image errors in Neuron paper that challenged microglia-to-neuron conversion
By
Shaena Montanari
26 June 2025 | 3 min read
Releasing the Hydra with Rafael Yuste
By
Brady Huggett, Shaena Montanari
4 April 2025 | 10 min read
Plaque levels differ in popular Alzheimer’s mouse model depending on which parent’s variants are passed down
By
Shaena Montanari
4 February 2025 | 0 min watch
Education
- M.A. in investigative journalism, Arizona State University
- Ph.D. in comparative biology, Richard Gilder Graduate School at the American Museum of Natural History
- B.S. in geological sciences, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Fellowships
- AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellowship
- AAAS Mass Media Fellowship
- Royal Society Newton International Fellowship
Articles
- “Cracking the egg: the use of modern and fossil eggs for ecological, environmental and biological interpretation” | Royal Society Open Science
- “Pliocene paleoenvironments of southeastern Queensland, Australia inferred from stable isotopes of marsupial tooth enamel” | PLOS ONE
- “Dinosaur eggshell and tooth enamel geochemistry as an indicator of Mongolian Late Cretaceous paleoenvironments” | Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology
Explore more from The Transmitter
Large-scale neuroimaging datasets often lack information specific to women’s health, constraining AI’s analysis potential
Addressing this gap will require collecting widespread data on pregnancy, menopause and other life events women experience—and could bring us closer to the “holy grail” of linking brain and behavior.
Large-scale neuroimaging datasets often lack information specific to women’s health, constraining AI’s analysis potential
Addressing this gap will require collecting widespread data on pregnancy, menopause and other life events women experience—and could bring us closer to the “holy grail” of linking brain and behavior.
By
Amy Kuceyeski
16 March 2026 | 0 min watch
Remembering Annette Dolphin, who helped explain gabapentin’s effects
The "intuitive" neuropharmacologist pushed against the status quo.
Remembering Annette Dolphin, who helped explain gabapentin’s effects
The "intuitive" neuropharmacologist pushed against the status quo.
By
Michael Eisenstein
13 March 2026 | 7 min read
Revised statistical bar extracts less-common variants from autism genetics studies
Adjusting genetic analyses could help plug autism’s heritability gap, according to a new preprint.
Revised statistical bar extracts less-common variants from autism genetics studies
Adjusting genetic analyses could help plug autism’s heritability gap, according to a new preprint.
By
Holly Barker
12 March 2026 | 4 min read