Diversity in Life Sciences

Dr. Moreno is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Environmental and Radiological Health Sciences at Colorado State University, Fort Collins. She earned her Ph.D. in Cell and Molecular Biology at Colorado State University and was a Career Development Fellow in Neurodegeneration at the Medical Research Council Toxicology Unit in Leicester, United Kingdom. She was also a Postdoctoral Fellow at Prion Research Center at Colorado State University, Fort Collins. Dr. Moreno’s research goals are to develop diagnoses and treatments for neurodegenerative protein-misfolding diseases (NPMDs). These diseases like Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and rarer prion diseases share common characteristics, which include pathogenic misfolded proteins, glial inflammation, neuronal dysfunction, and death. In her laboratory, she utilizes naturally occurring diseases like cognitive decline in canines and felines as well as laboratory models of neurodegeneration in mice and C. elegans to gain a better understanding of disease progression and phenotypes. Her laboratory also examines how aging plays a role in these diseases as well.