B.S. Biochemistry from Villanova University; May, 2017
Ph.D. Medical Pharmacology, University of Arizona College of Medicine December 2021
Medical informatics and neuropharmacology. Impact of estrogen therapies on Alzheimer's disease pathways.
My family is from Philadelphia and I grew up spending time in Maryland and Philly. Growing up, holidays and family get-togethers were always very loud and filled with delicious food and great stories. I went to undergrad at Villanova University outside of Philadelphia. It was at Villanova that I was first exposed to research and developed a passion for science thanks to my research mentor, Dr. Angela DiBenedetto. At Villanova I experience an amazing community of people who were supportive and challenging and pushed me to grow. I was fortunate enough to be awarded a research fellowship at the Scripps Research Institute after my sophomore year and worked on an extremely translational project in neuroscience in the Jerold Chun Lab. From that point on, I was hooked on the idea of pursuing an MD-PhD which is what brought me to the University of Arizona. I recieved my Ph.D. from the Roberta Brinton group in the Center for Innovation in Brain Science and investigated the roles of estrogen pathways in Alzheimer's Disease. I'm currently back in the clinical years in the College of Medicine working through the 3rd year clerkships and hope to pursue residency in neurology. My spare time is filled with friends, music, cooking and dancing. I play five instruments and enjoy everything from Mozart to the Beatles.
Honors
- AAN Visiting Medical Student Scholarship
- Outstanding Graduate Student Research Award; Department of Pharmacology
- Lawrence Z Stern Scholarship for Outstanding Performance in Neurology
- UA GSPC Promising Practice Grant
- Koff Memorial Scholarship
- Arizona Regenetative Medicine Scholarship
- Medical Student Scholarship to AAN Annual Meeting
- Phi Beta Kappa, Sigma Xi inductee
- Who's Who Among American College and Universities
- Dennis M Cook Endowed Gregor Mendel Chair in Genetics Research Fellow
- Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship at The Scripps Research Institute
Funding
- Arizona Translational Research on Alzheimer's Disease and AD Related Dementias (AZ-TRADD) T32 training grant (T32-AG061897), Roberta Brinton Lab; Jan 2017
- Medical Student Award of Excellence; MD-PhD scholarship
Professional Socieities:
- American Academy of Neurology
- Society for Neuroscience
- Alzheimer's Association International Society to Advance Alzheimer's Research and Treatment (ISTAART)
- American Medical Association
- Socieity for Developmental Biology
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Branigan GL, Soto M, Neumayer L, Rodgers K, Brinton RD. Association Between Hormone-Modulating Breast Cancer Therapies and Incidence of Neurodegenerative Outcomes for Women With Breast Cancer. JAMA Netw Open. 2020
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Vitali F, Branigan GL* , Brinton RD. Preventing Alzheimer's disease within reach by 2025: Targeted-risk-AD-prevention (TRAP) strategy. Alz&Dem TRCI. 2021
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Branigan GL, Torrandell-Haro G, Soto M, Gelmann E, Vitali F, Rodgers KE, Brinton RD. Androgen-targeting therapeutics mitigate the adverse effect of GnRH agonist on the risk of neurodegenerative disease in men treated for prostate cancer. Cancer Med. 2022
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Torrandell-Haro G, Branigan GL*, Brinton RD, Rodgers KE. Association between Type 2 Diabetes Therapies and Risk of Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias in Propensity-Scored Matched Type 2 Diabetic Patients. Frontiers Aging Neuroscience. April 2022
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Branigan GL, Torrandell-Haro G, Vitali F, Brinton RD, Rodgers KE. Implications for Age and Sex Differences on Anti-Hyperglycemic Therapies Exposure and Incidence of Newly Diagnosed Multiple Sclerosis in Propensity Score Matched Type 2 Diabetics. Heliyon. 2022
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Torrandell-Haro G, Branigan GL*, Vitali F, Geifman N, Zissimopoulos JM, Brinton RD. Statin therapy and risk of Alzheimer's and age-related neurodegenerative diseases. Alz&Dem TRCI. 2021
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Kim Y, Soto M, Branigan GL, Rodgers K, Brinton RD. Association between menopausal hormone therapy and risk of neurodegenerative diseases: implications for precision hormone therapy. Alz&Dem TRCI. 2021
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Menghani SV, Branigan GL, Smith K. On the Transition from Medical School to Graduate School in MD-PhD Trainees. J. Academic Medicine 2022.
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Murphy T, Melville H, Fradkin E, Branigan GL, Olson K, Hanbya H, Garbade H, DiBenedetto A. (2017). Knockdown of Histone-directed Transcriptional Coregulator Brd2a Disrupts Apoptosis and Expression of Patterning Genes in the Central Nervous System of Zebrafish Embryos. Mechanisms of Development. In press.
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Branigan GL, Olson K, DiBenedetto A. Epigenetic Transcriptional Co-Regulator Brb2b is Necessary for Proper Excretory, Circulatory, And Central Nervous System Development in Zebrafish and May Act Antagonistically with Paralog Brd2a. (J Dev Bio, Spring 2021)
*co-first authorship
Conferences:
- American Academy of Neurology Annual Meeting (presentation- 2x); April 2022.
- Clinical Trials in Alzheimer’s Disease-CTAD (Poster); Boston MA; November 2021
- Society for Neuroscience (Poster); virtual; November 2021
- Alzheimer Association International Conference (poster- 3x); Denver CO June 2021
- Arizona Alzheimer Conference (poster); University of Arizona, April 2021
- American Academy of Neurology Annual Meeting (presentation); April 2021.
- American Academy of Neurology Annual Meeting (poster); April 2021.
- Alzheimer Association International Conference (poster); virtual July 2020.
- Arizona Alzheimer Conference (poster); University of Arizona May 2020
- Arizona Alzheimer’s Retreat (presentation); Lake Havasu AZ Jan 2020
- Society for Neuroscience (Poster); Chicago IL; October 2019
- Arizona Regenerative Medicine Conference (Poster); Phoenix, AZ; May 2019
- American Academy of Neurology Annual Meeting, Philadelphia PA, May 2019
- Awarded Medical Student Scholarship of Excellence to attend meeting
- Sigma Xi Research Conference (Poster); Villanova University, Villanova Pennsylvania, April 2017
- Inducted into Sigma Xi for best poster presentation winner
- Society for Developmental Biology & International Society of Differentiation Joint Meeting (Poster); Boston MA, August 2016
- Mid-Atlantic Zebrafish Research Conference (Poster); Perelman Medical School of University of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania PA, April, 2016
- Sigma Xi Research Conference (Poster); Villanova University, Villanova Pennsylvania, April 2016
- Scripps Research Institute Summer Symposium (Presentation); The Scripps Research Institute, San Diego CA, July 2015