Diana Neely Ph.D.
diana.neely@vanderbilt.edu

Assistant Research Professor of Psychiatry

I was born and grew up in Basel, Switzerland. After high school I attended the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zuerich, Switzerland where I received my “Diploma in Natural Sciences” concentrating in Biochemistry (equivalent of MS). My Ph.D. thesis research focused on the cytoskeleton and cytoskeletal toxicants. For my first postdoctoral position I returned to Basel, Switzerland where I joined Dr. John Nicholls’ laboratory at the Biocenter of the University of Basel to study neuronal growth cone motility and the role of its cytoskeleton. For a second postdoctoral training I joined Dr. D. Graham’s and Dr. T. Montine’s laboratories in the Department of Pathology at Vanderbilt University where I became interested in the role oxidative stress plays in neurodegenerative disease. My research focused on the effects lipid peroxidation products have on the neuronal cytoskeleton. Recently I joined the Deutch lab to study changes in striatal dendritic spines and how these changes relate to the loss of striatal dopaminergic afferents in Parkinson’s disease.