Shaena Montanari.

Shaena Montanari

Former reporter
The Transmitter

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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.

From this contributor

Leafcutter ants carrying leaves.
Social behavior Microphone

Neuropeptides reprogram social roles in leafcutter ants

By Shaena Montanari
11 July 2025 | 6 min read
Research image from a retracted paper.
Cell types Microphone

Nature retracts paper on novel brain cell type against authors’ wishes

By Shaena Montanari
9 July 2025 | 4 min read
Confocal microscopy images.
Publishing

Authors correct image errors in Neuron paper that challenged microglia-to-neuron conversion

By Shaena Montanari
26 June 2025 | 3 min read
Raphael Yuste leaning on a bench in his lab. A red filter colors the scene.
Neural networks

Releasing the Hydra with Rafael Yuste

By Brady Huggett, Shaena Montanari
4 April 2025 | 10 min read
Methods

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

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Research image of lesion network mapping.
Brain imaging

‘Overdue’ debate unfurls over neuroimaging method

After a January paper questioned the validity of an approach called lesion network mapping, its users are pressure testing their results.

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Research image of zebrafish brain activity.
Spectrum Microphone

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