Alonso Ortega Gurrola

POSTDOCTORAL SCIENTIST

alonso.ortegagurrola@nyulangone.org

Alonso earned his BA in Biology from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) in 2017, followed by an MS in developing an injury paradigm to study brain regeneration in the axolotl. He completed his PhD in the Tosches Lab at Columbia University, where he investigated the evolution and regeneration of glutamatergic neuron types in the newt telencephalon. As a postdoctoral researcher in the Liddelow Lab, Alonso now examines the evolutionary origins of reactive glia and compares reactive gliosis across species to reveal how these processes have shaped brain degeneration and repair.

KEY PUBLICATIONS

(* = equal contribution)

  1. Woych J*, Ortega Gurrola A*, Deryckere A*, Jaeger ECB*, Gumnit E*, Merello G, Gu J, Joven Araus A, Leigh ND, Yun M, Simon A, Tosches MA (2022) Cell-type profiling in salamanders identifies innovations in vertebrate forebrain evolution. Science 377(1063): eabp9186. PMID: 36048957.

  2. Zeppilli S, Ortega Gurrola A, Demteci P, Brann DH, Attey R, Zilkha N, Kimchi T, Datta SR, Singh R, Tosches MA, Crombach A, Fleischmann A (2025) Mammalian olfactory cortex neurons retain molecular signatures of ancestral cell types. Nat Neurosci 28, 937–948. PMID:  37645751.

  3. Deryckere A, Choudhary S, Lynch C, Limperis LKVP, Affatato P, Woych J, Gumnit E, Ortega Gurrola A, Satija R, Mayer C, Tosches MA (2025) A conserved logic for the development of cortical layering in tetrapods. BioRxiv 2025.10.01.679862. PMID:  41256365

  4. Gattoni G, Ortega Gurrola A, Chua NJ, Tosches MA (2026) Evolution of neuron types in the brain of non-mammalian vertebrates. In Herculano-Houzel S. (Eds.). Evolution of Nervous Systems (3rd ed). Elsevier ISBN: 9780443273803.