L. Daniel Estrella

I started my postdoctoral research fellowship in the Bennett lab in the spring of 2025. I received my PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Nebraska Medical Center in May of 2025 working in the laboratory of Dr. Kelly Stauch. Using tools like immunoblotting, microscopy, proteomics, and patch-clamp electrophysiology, my doctoral work focused on understanding the co-occurrence of different brain pathologies present across multiple neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Frontotemporal Dementia, and Traumatic Brain Injury. My neuroscientific background covers mitochondrial function at the synapse, the role of neuroinflammation in disease states, and the mechanisms of tau protein aggregation in disease-relevant brain regions. My current research in the Bennett laboratory focuses on characterizing the role of heat-shock proteins as a response from brain endothelial cells to neuropathological conditions, such as AD, using both experimental models and AD human post-mortem tissue.