Shaena Montanari.

Shaena Montanari

Former reporter
The Transmitter

Mail - opens a new tab Instagram - opens a new tab Threads - opens a new tab X twitter - opens a new tab Linkedin - opens a new tab Bluesky - opens a new tab Bluesky

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

Explore more from The Transmitter

Kevin Dunbar.
Brain imaging

In memoriam: Kevin Dunbar, who traced the neural basis of human reasoning

Using imaging technologies, he transformed our understanding of how creativity and scientific discovery arise in the brain.

By Alissa de Chassey
24 July 2026 | 6 min read
Research image of neuronal migration.
Developmental neuroscience

Neurons engage in risky, DNA-breaking business during migration

The cells later repair the damage, which occurs mostly in transcriptionally silent parts of the genome.

By Sarah Thau
24 July 2026 | 4 min read
Child sitting on a trampoline.
Spectrum

Study questions DSM-5’s combining of autism traits

Sensory traits and restricted and repetitive behaviors are best understood as distinct but related characteristics, the new work suggests.

By Lauren Schenkman
23 July 2026 | 5 min read