I graduated from the University of Texas in 2018 with a B.S. in Neuroscience and moved to Seattle in 2020 to join the Neuroscience Graduate Program at the University of Washington. I am interested in the plasticity of the brain, specifically in investigating ways to promote cellular repair after injury or during disease. My thesis work focuses on pericyte remodeling, a phenomenon in which surviving pericytes extend their processes to recover the exposed endothelium after pericyte loss. I am utilizing in vivo two-photon microscopy to study the mechanisms of pericyte remodeling and the effects of cerebral amyloid angiopathy on pericyte function. Outside of the lab, I love hiking and backpacking in the mountains of Washington, and dancing with my dance company, Coalescence.

Cara.Nielson@seattlechildrens.org