Staff:
Angelo Schenone, Full Professor
Antonio Uccelli, Full Professor
Dario Arnaldi, Associate Professor
Maurizio Balestrino, Associate Professor
Marina Grandis, Associate Professor
Matilde Inglese, Associate Professor
Alice Laroni, Associate Professor
Lucio Marinelli, Associate Professor
Matteo Pardini, Associate Professor
Giacomo Boffa, Fixed-term Researcher
Maria Cellerino, Fixed-term Researcher
Christian Cordano, Fixed-term Researcher
Federico Massa, Fixed-term Researcher
Research topics:
The main lines of research in neurology are developed in the area of multiple sclerosis and neuroimmunology, cerebrovascular diseases and cerebral energy metabolism, neuromuscular diseases, sleep disorders, epilepsy, neurodegenerative diseases of the central nervous system, including Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative dementias, Parkinson's disease and other movement disorders, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
- The Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and Neuroimmunology Research Group is very active on innovative therapies, and in particular on intense immunosuppression followed by autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in severe forms; in MRI imaging study; and in neuropathology. Particular attention has been paid in recent years to the experimental, and more recently clinical, study of mesenchymal stem cells in the animal model of experimental autoimmune encephalitis and in multiple sclerosis and on the basic immunological mechanisms underlying the onset of the latter. Neuroimmunology also has ongoing clinical and laboratory studies beyond MS that target immune-mediated neuropathies, non-SM autoimmune encephalitis, and paraneoplastic encephalitis.
The study of cerebrovascular and cerebral energy metabolism diseases is characterized in the clinical testing of new treatments, epidemiological research of juvenile stroke, and the search for molecules for therapy of rare diseases (hereditary creatine deficiency, glucose transporter deficiency) that could also be neuroprotective in cerebral ischemia.
Research on neuromuscular diseases is articulated in the study of pathogenetic mechanisms of acquired and inherited neuropathies and in muscle diseases. For this purpose, myelinating cultures of Schwann cells from transgenic animals, genetic-molecular analyses in patients with these diseases by studying specific gene mutations (muscle disease and hereditary neuropathies), identification of biological markers of demyelination such as sphingomyelin (immune-mediated neuropathies) or axonal suffering such as light-chain neurofilaments (experimental models of hereditary neuropathies) are used. Clinical research is directed toward epidemiological studies in neuropathies and muscle diseases, pharmacological and rehabilitative therapeutic trials in immune-mediated and inherited neuropathies, and identification of innovative outcome measures using robotic and artificial intelligence techniques in collaboration with Unige Polytechnic.
Research on Parkinson's disease and movement disorders is primarily focused on the early and prodromal stages of disease. Morphologic and functional imaging data, neurophysiopathologic correlates of the disease, genetics, and motor and non-motor clinical data are studied, with emphasis on cognitive function and sleep disorders.
Research on Alzheimer's disease and other dementigenic neurodegenerative disorders such as frontotemporal dementia and Lewy body dementia has a multidisciplinary slant from the molecular to the clinical including assessment of the genetics of cognitive impairment, blood and CSF markers of inflammation and the presence of pathological proteins, magnetic resonance neuroimaging techniques through structural and functional techniques, molecular imaging, neuropsychological and behavioral assessment, and digital biomarkers. The research group has a special interest in early forms of disease (subjective memory disorders, mild behavioral disorder) and their clinical characterization.
- Research on sleep disorders is focused on both REM and NREM parasomnias, narcolepsy and hypersomnias of central origin, and insomnia by means of advanced neurophysiological investigations, morphological and functional imaging studies, and objective methods of studying sleep-wake rhythm and circadian rhythm.
Research on epilepsy is focused on epilepsies related to brain neoplasms, sleep-related epilepsies, and forms resulting from autoimmune encephalitis through advanced neurophysiological investigations, morphological and functional imaging studies, and clinical and molecular features of these conditions.
Research on amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is particularly focused on clinical, genetic, epidemiological, rehabilitation aspects, advanced imaging studies, and nuclear medicine through collaboration with other UNIGE departments such as DISSAL.
Neuroradiological research studies, through MRI changes, functional and structural changes caused by the most important neurological and psychiatric diseases; it also studies changes on brain reorganization secondary to traditional and innovative rehabilitation protocols.
Research in neurophysiology focuses on the study of nociceptive pathways and SNV by cutaneous electrical stimulation, neuromuscular ultrasound in peripheral nervous system pathologies, new intraoperative monitoring techniques, and the use of botulinum toxin in neuropathic pain.
The neuro-ophthalmology research group is particularly interested in the OCT (optical coherence tomography) study of changes in retinal morphology in neurological pathology. Translational research focuses on the use of VEPs (visual evoked potentials) and OCT as biomarkers useful in the study of demyelination and neurodegeneration in mouse models of demyelinating disease, with special focus devoted to the study of remyelinating therapy.