Laura Magnotti

Laura Magnotti is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology within the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University. She teaches multiple neurobiology courses including Neuro 170 (Brain Invaders: Building and Breaking Barriers in the Nervous System), Neuro 102 (Designer Neurons: How Cell Types are Generated in the Nervous System and the Lab), and courses at the Harvard Extension School. She also serves as one of three academic advisors for over 300 undergraduate students concentrating in Neuroscience.

Dr. Magnotti earned her undergraduate degree in Biological Basis of Behavior and History and Sociology of Science from the University of Pennsylvania, followed by a PhD in Neurobiology from Harvard University, where she has remained on faculty. Her educational background reflects her interdisciplinary approach to neuroscience, combining biological and social perspectives.

Dr. Magnotti's research focuses on neural stem cells, nervous system development, and neural barriers. Her work explores how different cell types in the nervous system develop and interact, with special attention to gap junctional communication between oligodendrocytes and astrocytes and their role in myelin formation. She has also investigated the filum terminale as a neural progenitor cell niche, examining its potential for therapeutic applications. Her publications show a progression from basic cellular neuroscience to more applied research on neural stem cells and their therapeutic potential.

As an educator, Dr. Magnotti has designed and taught several innovative courses focused on teaching students to analyze primary neuroscience literature. Beyond Harvard, she has taught neuroscience to students in Bangalore and New Delhi, India, and to Native American high school students at Harvard Medical School. She has also developed a pre-college summer program introducing high school students to neuroscience through hands-on activities.

Dr. Magnotti maintains her office in the Biological Labs (BioLabs) Building at Harvard, where she is available by appointment. Her research program appears to focus on neural stem cells and their potential applications, with a trajectory showing increasing focus on identifying and characterizing neural progenitor niches that could be leveraged for regenerative medicine approaches.