Caretti Lab Team and Alumni

Mario Carrera is a PhD student in the Immunology Program at the MD Anderson UTHealth Houston Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, working in the laboratories of Viola Caretti, MD, PhD, and Louise D. McCullough, MD, PhD, FAHA. His research asks why an injury sustained at birth produces neurological impairment that persists, and often worsens, across a lifetime. He studies cellular senescence—a state in which cells permanently stop dividing but remain metabolically active and inflammatory—as a mechanism connecting the acute injury to its chronic consequences. His work follows myeloid cells from the injured brain to the bone marrow and asks whether the same features are present in infants with HIE.

Nicolas Romero-Lotta is a research assistant in the Caretti Lab, where he studies the role of the gut microbiome in neonatal HIE. His current work investigates whether fecal microbiota transplant can improve neurological outcomes in animal models of HIE, pairing hands-on laboratory and animal work with metagenomic data analysis. He is particularly interested in the gut-brain axis and in microbial metabolites, especially short-chain fatty acids, as a link between intestinal communities and neurological outcomes in the newborn.

Nicolas earned his Bachelor’s of Science in industrial microbiology from Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá, Colombia, where his undergraduate thesis examined the effects of the probiotic Limosilactobacillus fermentum on neurons. His technical background spans microbiology, cell culture, molecular biology, and bioinformatics, and he is currently deepening his expertise in shotgun metagenomics and the bioBakery suite of tools.

In his free time, Nicolas enjoys playing music, video games, and exploring new places.

Kylie Lodes is a medical student researcher in the Caretti Lab, where she studies neonatal hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) and factors that may influence neurological injury and recovery. Her work includes clinical data collection and analysis as well as preclinical research examining brain injury in animal models of HIE.

Kylie earned her Bachelor of Science in biochemistry with a minor in neuroscience from Southern Methodist University and is currently a medical student at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston. Her long-term interests include pediatric neurology, neurodevelopment, and translational research aimed at improving outcomes for children with neurological conditions.

Juliana Capozzi is an undergraduate student at Texas A&M University studying Kinesiology with a concentration in Motor Behavior and Development. Her academic interests center on understanding the neurological processes that influence motor development and long-term outcomes following early-life neurological injury.

During the summer, Juliana worked on a research project investigating hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) in neonates, with a particular focus on staining and identifying neutrophils within neonatal brain tissue. Through this research, she gained experience with histological techniques and developed a deeper interest in understanding the cellular mechanisms underlying brain injury and recovery.

Her research experience has strengthened her interest in the intersection of neuroscience, development, and clinical medicine and has motivated her to continue pursuing research that can contribute to improved outcomes for patients with neurological conditions.