Professional Bio
Monica M. Santisteban Calvo, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Department of Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
She earned her PhD from the Department of Physiology and Functional Genomics, under the mentorship of Dr. Mohan Raizada, at the University of Florida College of Medicine, where she investigated neurogenic mechanisms of hypertension. As a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Costantino Iadecola in the Brain and Mind Research Institute of Weill Cornell Medicine, she investigated the effects on hypertension on the cerebral vasculature and cognitive behavior. Her studies have revealed distinct neuroimmune mechanisms involving brain resident perivascular macrophages, as well as select lymphocyte subpopulations seeded in the dural meninges that contribute to cognitive impairment in models of hypertension.
Dr. Santisteban’s projects focus on the mechanisms of the neurovascular dysfunction and cognitive impairment produced by hypertension, a leading risk factor for stroke and dementia, including Alzheimer's disease. The goal of her research is to make discoveries that will not only advance our understanding of the deleterious impact of hypertension on the brain but will also provide new therapeutic clues of great public health relevance. Her research program also focuses on brain border immunity in hypertension, which is currently an unexplored field of study, and utilizing an interdisciplinary approach by integrating the autonomic nervous and immune systems with cerebrovascular biology.
Education
PhD - Medical Sciences/Physiology - University of Florida, 2015
Fellowship - Dept. of Physiology and Functional Genomics - University of Florida, 2015
Fellowship - Neuroscience - Cornell University, 2020
Contact
Email
Kimryn.Rathmell@Vumc.Org
Address
777 Preston Research Building
2220 Pierce Ave
Nashville, TN 37232-6307