Amanda H. Mahnke

Amanda H. Mahnke, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Neuroscience & Experimental Therapeutics at Texas A&M University’s School of Medicine. Her research focuses on understanding how prenatal environmental exposures (e.g., alcohol, opioids) shape lifelong health outcomes through stem cell programming and microRNA (miRNA) mechanisms. She leads a lab investigating miRNAs as biomarkers for neurodevelopmental disorders and explores extracellular vesicles’ roles in intercellular communication during development.

Education & Training:

• PhD in Cell and Molecular Biology from Tulane University (2014)
• Postdoctoral Fellow/Associate Research Scientist at Texas A&M University Health Science Center (Department of Neuroscience and Experimental Therapeutics)

Research Interests: Her work integrates molecular biology, epigenetics, and clinical research to study:

• Prenatal exposure impacts on neural stem cells
• miRNA biomarkers for Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) and Neonatal Opioid Withdrawal Syndrome (NOWS)
• Sex-based differences in developmental toxicity
• Extracellular vesicle-mediated communication in neural development

Advising & Grants: While no formal advisees are listed, her interdisciplinary work suggests active collaboration with graduate students and postdoctoral researchers. She serves as a board member for the Texas Research Society on Alcoholism, indicating leadership in alcohol-related research advocacy.

Labs/Teams: Her lab focuses on translatiopnary research at the intersection of developmental neurobiology and clinical diagnostics, leveraging cutting-edge techniques like single-cell RNA sequencing and machine learning for biomarker discovery.