Giovanni B Frisoni CURRICULUM VITAE - centro alzheimer

1. PERSONAL DATA
Giovanni B Frisoni
CURRICULUM VITAE
as of January 26, 2012
Name: Giovanni B. Frisoni
Sex: male
Place and date of birth: Brescia (IT), February 26, 1961
Nationality: Italian
Marital status: father of 4 children aged 8 to 16, the partner is a geriatrician and psychotherapist
Private address: via Elia Capriolo 30, 25122, Brescia (IT), Tel +390302772845, Mobile +393339710273
Professional address: IRCCS San Giovanni di Dio – FBF, via Pilastroni 1, 25125 Brescia (IT), Tel
+390303501261, Fax +390303501313, email gfrisoni@fatebenefratelli.it
Languages: native Italian, English: C1/C2, French: learning
2. PRESENT POSITION
� Deputy Scientific Director of the IRCCS (Istituto di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico – Scientific
Institute for Research and Care) Fatebenefratelli – The National Centre for Alzheimer’s and
Psychiatric Diseases, Brescia, Italy.
� Director of the LENITEM – Laboratory of Epidemiology Neuroimaging & Telemedicine at the IRCCS‐
FBF.
� Scientific Coordinator of the Northern Italy branch of the AFaR – Associazione Fatebenefratelli per
la Ricerca.
More details on these service and facilities can be found in sections 7 and 8.
3. DIPLOMAS
1990: specialized in Neurology at the University of Parma. The thesis was published in Stroke (see ref
#P3 in the list of Scientific Publications).
1986: graduated in Medicine at the University of Brescia with 110/110 cum laude. The thesis was
published in Behavioral Brain Research (ref #P5).
4. TRAINING AND EDUCATION SINCE SECONDARY SCHOOL
1998: sabbatical in population epidemiology at the Department of Geriatrics, Karolinska Institute (head:
Bengt Winblad) as a Visiting Scientist.
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1993, 1994, 1996: training in epidemiology at the School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University,
Baltimore, MD.
1985‐1990: residency in Neurology, University in Brescia, head Luigi A. Vignolo.
5. POST‐GRADUATE PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES
My first working appointment was in 1991 at the then Istituto Sacro Cuore now IRCCS Fatebenefratelli,
in Brescia, where I am still serving.
2007‐to date: Vice Scientific Director of the IRCCS‐FBF. The staff of IRCCS‐FBF is made of 7 senior
researchers, 12 post‐docs, and about 60 fellows and 20‐30 students at all times.
1999‐to date: head of the LENITEM – Laboratory of Epidemiology Neuroimaging & Telemedicine at the
IRCCS‐FBF, a research facility with a staff of 20 to 25 (currently 3 post‐docs, 3 PhD students, 15 fellows,
and 4 students). The research at the LENITEM focuses on imaging of cognitive disturbances with the
tools of clinical epidemiology and aims to develop protocols for more accurate and earlier diagnosis,
improve the understanding of disease pathophysiology, and translate scientific acquisitions into clinical
practice. For 3 years, telemedicine services for the remote diagnosis and assessment of patients with
cognitive disturbances have been provided by LENITEM.
1991‐1999: Head of the Day Hospital at IRCCS‐FBF, a diagnostic and rehabilitation service with 15
patients with cognitive impairment daily.
1991: founding staff neurologist at the Alzheimer's Unit, IRCCS‐FBF. The IRCCS‐FBF was the first Italian
Alzheimer’s Clinic and is funded by the National Health System to carry out research and provide
advanced care to patients with Alzheimer’s and psychiatric diseases.
6. TEACHING
Post‐graduate courses. My teaching background has been mainly in the context of post‐graduate
courses that I have taken part as a speaker or I have personally organized. Since june 2005 (previous
teaching activities are unfortunately no longer on record), I have delivered over 50 lectures in national
and (mainly) international post‐graduate courses (see APPENDIX 1) and have organized the following
courses, where international experts have taken part (minor local initiatives have been omitted):
� July 2011: Chairman of the Alzheimer’s Imaging Consortium Preconference at ICAD (International
Conference on Alzheimer’s Disease), Paris. Teachers: K Herholz, C Jack, D Park, E Kenny, 17 oral
communications, and about 350 posters. Participants: 1000 world’s leading imaging and non‐
imaging specialists.
� July 2011‐ ICAD 2011 (International Convention on Alzheimer’s Disease), Paris. Featured session:
Early Onset Alzheimer’s Disease. Patterns of Cortical and Subcortical Atrophy in Early‐Onset and
Late‐Onset Alzheimer’s Disease. Participants: 200 dementia Italian specialists.
� November 8 2010 – IRCCS‐FBF: International course: Amyloid imaging for the diagnosis of
Alzheimer’s disease: opportunities and challenges. Teachers: Agneta Nordberg, Karl Heholtz,
Stefano Cappa, and others. Expected participants: 150 dementia specialists from Italy.
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� July 2010: Chairman of the Alzheimer’s Imaging Consortium Preconference at ICAD (International
Conference on Alzheimer’s Disease), Honolulu. Teachers: D Holzman, M Greicius, F La Ferla, J van
Weeden, 15 oral communications, and about 300 posters. Participants: 800 worldwide dementia
specialists.
� July 2010 – ICAD2010 (International Convention on Alzheimer’s Disease), Honolulu. Featured
Session: Predementia Diagnosis of Alzheimer’s Disease in the Clinical Routine: Development of
Standard Operational Procedures for Marker Collection. Teachers: Bruno Dubois, Philip Scheltens,
Bill Jagust, Clifford Jack, Kaj Blennow. Participants: 150 dementia specialists from Italy.
� Jan 31 2008 – IRCCS‐FBF: The New Diagnostic Criteria for Alzheimer’s Disease. Teachers: Bruno
Dubois, Daniela Perani, Elio Scarpini, and myself. Participants: 150 Italian geriatricians,
neurologists, and psychiatrists
� Jan 31 2008 – IRCCS‐FBF: Feasibility of the New Diagnostic Criteria for Alzheimer’s Disease in the
Clinical setting. Teachers: Bruno Dubois and myself. Participants: 70 local general practitioners
� March 26, 2009 – IRCCS‐FBF: Update on Neuroimaging (Course of the Neuroimaging Group of the
Italian Society of Neurology). Teachers: Massimo Filippi, myself, and 14 more Italian experts.
Participants: 80 Italian neurologists, neuroradiologists, and nuclear medicine physicians
� June 1998 ‐ IRCCS‐FBF: Imaging in Alzheimer’s Disease. Teachers: Martin Rossor, Nick Fox, and
myself. Participants: 100 Italian geriatricians, neurologists, and psychiatrists.
University appointments. Between 2003 and 2005 I have served as Professor of Clinical Epidemiology at
the University of Insubria, Varese, Italy, where I was in charge of the post‐graduate courses on clinical
epidemiology of the dementias. I have dropped the appointment due to the inconvenient location of
the city of Varese.
Educational activities at the societal level. With the aim of enhancing awareness at the societal level of
the issues related to dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, I have developed a number of educational
videos on the current understanding of Alzheimer’s, its current and future therapies, and strategies for
the most frequent behavioural disturbances. The videos are posted on youtube (search “Frisoni
Alzheimer”) and can be accessed through the website of the LENITEM (www.centroAlzheimer.org).
It should also be underlined that the website www.centroAlzheimer.org has been active since 1999
(check WHO WE ARE: historical home pages) and has been instrumental to disseminate the new
findings on Alzheimer’s disease at the societal and professional levels. A weekly newsletter and a
forthnightly newsletter are regularly distributed to an address list of over 1000 professionals and family
relatives. www.centroAlzheimer.org is also a useful show case for national and international research
projects.
7. RESEARCH
Overview
I believe I can define myself a translational scientist for my unfaltering interest to turning scientific
acquisitions into new diagnostic and therapeutic protocols for the care of patients. I am author of more
than 350 publications indexed in Medline (about 20% of which as the lead and 30% as the last author)
and 25 books and book chapters. The full list of publications can be found in APPENDIX 2. My impact on
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the scientific and clinical community has been increasing steadily over time. While the crude number of
publications shows a trend to increase over time, but with a couple of peaks and draughts due to local
circumstances (left graph), thanks to the increasingly accurate choice of scientific journals, citations
have increased steadily at an exponential rate from 1991 to date (right graph).
Scientific biography
My scientific biography can be divided into 4 periods: the early times, the “geriatric” period, the
“Alzheimer’s” period, and the “European” period.
The early times (late eighties to early nineties). This is the period between graduation at the general
medicine and neurological specialty school (1986 to 1990), when I published as the first author his first
full paper on a the case of a young man with disulfiram polyneuropathy and review of the literature (ref
#R1). The general medicine and neurological specialty dissertations found space in Behavioral Brain
Research (second author) and Stroke (first author), respectively (ref #P5 and P3). While attending my
residency in neurology, I observed a couple of peculiar neurological cases whom I described (#P2, P4).
Notably, under the Italian educational system, there were no obligation to publish scientific
manuscripts neither for dissertations nor residency. I did this for the mere pleasure of understanding
what was happening to my patients and hopefully be able to help them more effectively.
The “geriatric” period (mid to late nineties). In 1989 I joined the group of Marco Trabucchi, former
President of the Italian Geriatric Society, under whose leadership I started entertaining interests in
cognitive disturbances and geriatric topics at large, publishing as a first author in the major geriatric
journals J Am Geriatrics Soc, (#P14) and J Gerontol (#P9, P21) and contributing statistical and clinical
expertise to a large number of studies on disability, falls, nutrition, comorbidity, frailty, caregiver issues,
quality of life, insight, organizational research, and cognitive and physical rehabilitation. In 1997 I was
scientific coordinator of the EU‐funded study SCUD – The Special Care Units for Demented: a Controlled
Study of Effectiveness.
In this period, the two main areas of personal interest were apoE and imaging. I have been the first to
report on the association between apoE and vascular dementia (#L5 in JAMA), of apoE with rate of
disease progression (#P20 in Ann Neurol), and the first to study apoE in dementia in Italy. Due to
limitations on the technical facilities available in my institution at that time, I closed my line of research
on apoE and marked this with an editorial in the JNNP (#E1). My first functional and structural imaging
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studies were aimed to standardize the then exquisitely subjective reading of imaging exams (e.g. #P28
in AJNR) and use imaging tools to improve diagnostic accuracy (e.g. #P31 in JNNP and P46 in
Neurology). On these issues, I was the pioneer in Italy and have summarized my achievements in the
field of imaging with non computational tools in an editorial appeared in the JNNP (#E2).
The “Alzheimer’s” period (late nineties to mid‐2000). In 1999, with the birth of the LENITEM, my
scientific interests have veered more strongly towards the translational application of imaging
techniques in the clinic. In the very early times of computational neuroscience, I have been the first in
Italy to apply voxel‐based morphometry to neurological patients (#P79) and adopt the more
sophisticated methods of cortical and hippocampal mapping (#R7 in Lancet Neurol, P127 in
NeuroImage, and P141 in Brain).
In this period, I have taken the lead of the Neuroimaging Interest Group of the EADC – European
Alzheimer’s Disease Consortium and produced a European consensus document on the use of
neuroimaging tools to rate key imaging features (#R8), brought the ADNI methods for multicentre MR
image acquisition from the US to Europe (#P164), and investigated the diagnostic and therapeutic
procedures of Italian dementia expert centres (#P177, P154, P133, P109, P87). Lastly, I have
summarized the relevant advances in dementia research of the year 2006 in the January 2007 issue of
The Lancet Neurology (#E6).
In 2003 I have been appointed Scientific Coordinator of AFaR – Associazione Fatebenefratelli per la
Ricerca. This is the scientific branch of the 25 Fatebenefratelli (Religious Order of St John of God) health
services in Italy. My mission was to promote evidence‐based medical care in the pilot Fatebenefratelli
hospital of San Maurizio Canavese, in the Turin area, where I have set up all the necessary procedures
and trained personnel to the early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s and other cognitive disorders with the
innovative use of imaging biomarkers (medial temporal and hippocampal atrophy based on high
resolution MR). Since then, physicians in charge use hippocampal volumetry as part of their clinical
assessment.
The “European period” (late‐2000). From 2005, I decidedly entered the arena of European projects. I
led my first FP project as a Principal Investigator in 2005 (ENIR – European NeuroImaging Repository,
www.centroalzheimer.it/ENIR.doc), aiming to develop the theoretical foundations for a Europe‐wide
infrastructure capable of storing and processing a vast amount of brain imaging data with sophisticated
computational algorithms. In that same year, talks were started between the European Alzheimer’s
Disease Consortium and the US ADNI – Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (www.adni‐
info.org) to explore the latitude for an extension of the ADNI to Europe, and I obtained funds from the
US Alzheimer’s Association to carry out the Pilot European Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative
(pilot E‐ADNI) in 7 Alzheimer’s centres throughout Europe (http://www.centroalzheimer.it/E‐
ADNI_project.htm) in close connection with US ADNI.
In 2008 I obtained a € 2.8 M funding from FP7 for neuGRID ‐ A Grid‐Based e‐Infrastructure for Data
Archiving/Communication and Computationally Intensive Applications in the Medical Sciences
(www.neuGRID.eu). The project successfully concluded in January 2011, creating the necessary
conditions for two expansions: outGRID, a € 440 K project funded under EC FP7 (www.outGRID.eu)
aiming to make neuGRID interoperable with homologous infrastructures in the US and Canada and
neuGRID for users (N4U) which aims to provide neuroscientists with a Global Virtual Laboratory by
further developing and deploying the neuGRID infrastructure. The long term vision is to develop the
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“Google for brain imaging”, where neuroscientists worldwide will be able to find the world’s largest
image databases on Alzheimer’s, algorithm tools to extract diagnostic and progression tracking
markers, and adequate computational resources.
This vision has been further strengthened with the IMI PHARMACOG – Prediction of Cognitive
Properties of New Drug Candidates for NeuroDegenerative Diseases in Early Clinical Development
project. This is a € 22M study where I am leading the largest workpackage (€ M 4.5) on the
development of markers for disease modifying drugs in humans, representing the final success of
developing a large ADNI‐based study in Europe (European ADNI). The image data that will be collected
in the context of the PHARMACOG‐European ADNI initiative will contribute to further expand the base
of data that neuGRID (and what will come after neuGRID) can accommodate and process.
In this period, I have carefully kept thriving my traditional line of research on Alzheimer’s and cognitive
disturbances. I have been the first Italian to publish on amyloid imaging (#P188 in Neurology), the only
with a say in major journals (#E7) despite amyloid imaging has not yet landed in Italy, the first to show
evidence of validity of the new revised criteria for the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease worldwide
(#P197), and, to the best of my knowledge, the first to test the new revised criteria in a clinical service
(the “Translational Outpatient Memory Clinic” at the IRCCS‐FBF) (#P197). I have given further fuel to my
translational approach to the early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s with the launch of an international effort
aimed at developing standardized operational procedures for the measurement of hippocampal
atrophy (Harmonization of Protocols for the Manual Tracing of the Hippocampus Development and
Validation of a Unified Standard Protocol: An EADC‐ADNI Joint Effort), whose vision is to turn
hippocampal volumetry from a diagnostic procedure feasible in few highly specialized research setting
into a routinely applicable diagnosic exam.
With the appointment as Head of the Psychogeriatric Ward in 2005, I have opened a new line of
research on psychiatric diseases. The clinical population of the ward is made of scientifically dejected
patients, i.e. psychiatric patients (mainly schizophrenics) over 65 years of age, with decades of the most
diverse pharma and non‐pharma treatments. By applying the analytical tools successfully used in
patients with neurodegenerative disorders, I have been able to describe their brain structural features
in a paper published in Biological Psychiatry (#P189), and more manuscripts are currently in
preparation. Moreover, thanks to the use of a creative approach to study hundreds of healthy persons
with MR imaging, my research group has described the structural features of a normal personality trait,
i.e. alexithymia (#P167).
8. CLINICAL
Clinical positions
2005‐2010: Head of the Psychogeriatric Ward at the IRCCS (Istituto di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere
Scientifico – Scientific Institute of Research and Care) Fatebenefratelli Hospital, Brescia – FBF, a long‐
term 40‐bed ward devoted to elderly psychiatric patients with behavioral disturbances. The medical
staff is made of trained and specialized physicians (2 psychiatrists and one geriatrician).
2000‐2004: temporary interruption of clinical duties following a request from the Scientific
Direction of the IRCCS‐FBF to devote up to 85% of my time to research, aiming to foster domestic
scientific productivity. In this period, I have continued seeing outpatients 2 half days per week.
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1991‐1999: Head of the Day Hospital at IRCCS‐FBF, a diagnostic and rehabilitation service with 15
patients with cognitive impairment daily. During this period I was fully in charge of patients and could
count on the help of between 1 and 3 residents.
1991: founding staff neurologist of the Alzheimer's Unit at the then Istituto Sacro Cuore
Fatebenefratelli, now IRCCS Fatebenefratelli. The Alzheimer's Unit was the first Italian Alzheimer’s Clinic
and was funded by the regional government of the Regione Lombardia for its first 7 years of operation,
after which it gained IRCCS status and was funded by the Italian Ministry of Health. Its mission is to
develop innovative diagnostic, therapeutic, and rehabilitative protocols for patients with Alzheimer’s
and psychiatric diseases.
9. ADMINISTRATION
I personally develop the budget of my national and international projects, and am in charge opf the
budget of my Psychogeriatric Ward. I closely and frequently supervise the work of the administrative
secretariats in charge of the budget of my national and international projects, while the routine
financial work of the Psychogeriatric Ward is more automated and requires less frequent supervision.
10. PROFESSIONAL SOCIETIES
2010‐to date: Chairman of the NeuroImaging Public Interest Association of ISTAART.
2009‐to date: member of ISTAART, the professional society of the Alzheimer’s Association to promote
high standards of care and research in patients with Alzheimer’s and related diseases.
2008‐to date: member of the Executive Committee of the Neuroimaging Interest group of the ENS –
European Neurological Society.
2008‐to date: member of the Executive Committee of the Neuroimaging Working group of the SIN –
Italian Society of Neurology and in charge of its website (www.neuroimmagini.it).
2000‐to date: member of the Italian Association of Neuroradiology (AINR – Associazione Italiana di
Neuroradiologia).
1992‐to date: member of the Italian Society of Geriatrics and Gerontology (SIGG – Società italiana di
Geriatria e Gerontologia).
1986‐to date: member of the Italian Society of Neurology (SIN – Società Italiana di Neurologia).
11. TECHNICAL AND SCIENTIFIC ROLES
2010: Issue Editor of the Special Issue of NeuroBiology of Aging on ADNI studies.
2009‐to date: Imaging Section Editor of Neurobiology of Aging. Editor of the upcoming special issue on
ADNI studies.
2008‐to date: I have served as a reviewer for a number of projects submitted for funding to the
European Commission and as expert for the development of calls in HEALTH and ICT.
2003‐to date: Coordinator of the Neuroimaging Interest Group of the EADC – European Alzheimer’s
Disease Consortium, the network of EU academic Alzheimer’s Centres.
2003‐to date: Scientific Coordinator of the Northern Italy branch of the AFaR – Associazione
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Fatebenefratelli per la Ricerca, the scientific arm of the Fatebenefratelli (St John of God) hospital
network. St John of God Brotherhood Order is the largest private multinational health corporation,
featuring 389 health care facilities in 49 countries of 5 continents.
2000‐to date: founding editorial board member of The Lancet Neurology.
1995‐to date: editorial board member of Journal of Neurology, Alzheimer Disease & Associated
Disorders, Aging Clinical and Experimental Research, and a number of other minor international
scientific journals.
12. GRANTS
Grants as a Principal Investigator
Only in the past 2 years (since 2008), I have brought about € 5M to the IRCCS‐FBF, as can be
appreciated by the list below. This should be placed in the context of the relatively small research
facility where I am working. The IRCCS‐FBF lives almost exclusively (except for the grants reported
below) on about € 2M per year from the Italian Ministry of Healh (socalled Ricerca Corrente). Of these
funds, about 10% goes to my Unit (LENITEM). Thus, my research lives for the vast part on external
grants.
� 2011: Principal Investigator of CoEN GENFI: “The GENetic Frontotemporal Dementia Initiative
(GENFI): a new multi‐centre platform for the study of frontotemporal lobar degeneration” , a £ 455K
project.
� 2011: Principal Investigator of NeuGRID for you – An expansion of NeuGRID services and outreach
to new user communities a € 3,6 M project funded under EC FP7
� 2010: Principal Investigator of “Harmonization of Protocols for the Manual Tracing of the
Hippocampus – Development and Validation of a Unified Standard Protocol: an EADC‐ADNI Joint
Effort”, a US$ 200K project funded by the Alzheimer’s Association (http://www.hippocampal‐
protocol.net.
� 2009: Principal Investigator of outGRID ‐ A Worldwide e‐Infrastructure for Computational
Neuroscientists, a € 440K project funded under EC FP7 (www.outGRID.eu).
� 2009: Leader of Workpackage 5 Human Studies on Disease Modifying Drugs, a € 4.5M workpackage
in the context of € 22M IMI‐funded PHARMACOG – Prediction of Cognitive Properties of New Drug
Candidates for NeuroDegenerative Diseases in Early Clinical Development
(http://www.centroalzheimer.org/sito/ip_pharma_cog.php). The funding to IRCCS‐FBF is € 1M.
� 2009: Principal Investigator of Molecular Imaging for the Early Diagnosis and Monitoring of
Alzheimer’s Disease in Old Individuals with Cognitive Disturbances: an ADNI‐Compatible Prospective
Study, a € 300K project funded by the Italian Ministry of Health.
� 2008: Principal Investigator of neuGRID ‐ A Grid‐Based e‐Infrastructure for Data Archiving/
Communication and Computationally Intensive Applications in the Medical Sciences, a € 2.8 M
project funded under EC FP7 (www.neuGRID.eu).
� 2008: Principal Investigator of Diagnosis of incipient Alzheimer disease: development of ADNI‐based
imaging markers for use by the National Health System, a € 400K project funded by the Italian
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Ministry of Health.
� 2008: Principal Investigator of Harmonization of Protocols for the Manual Tracing of the
Hippocampus Development and Validation of a Unified Standard Protocol: An EADC‐ADNI Joint
Effort, funded in part by Lilly and Wyeth (http://www.centroalzheimer.org/sito/ip_sops_e.php).
� 2005: Principal Investigator of the Pilot E‐ADNI ‐ The European Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging
Initiative: a pilot study of the European Alzheimer’s Disease Consortium, a € 240K project funded by
the Alzheimer’s Association (http://www.centroalzheimer.it/E‐ADNI_project.htm).
� 2005: Principal Investigator of ENIR – European NeuroImaging Repository, a € 150K FP6‐funded
project involving 14 Alzheimer’s centres throughout Europe (www.enir.eu).
� 2004: Principal Investigator of Archivio Normativo di Morfometria Cerebrale con Risonanza
Magnetica, a € 200K project funded by the Italian Ministry of Health.
Grants as a co‐Principal Investigator or Participant (non exhaustive list)
� 2012: JPND BIOMARKAPD‐ “Biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease”. I am in
charge of €136.8K funded by the Italian Ministry of Health
� 2012: Partner of COST‐ “Action Arterial spin labelling Initiative in Dementia (AID)”, a € 89.9K project
� 2010: Scientific Coordinator of DECIDE ‐ Diagnostic Enhancement of Confidence by an International
Distributed Environment, a € 2,4 M project funded under EC FP7
� 2010: CATI – Centre pour l’Acquisition et le Traitement de l’Image, funded by the French Sarkozy
Plan for Alzheimer’s disease. I am in charge of the 250K WorkPackage for international
cooperation.
� 2009: co‐Principal Investigator of COURAGE in Europe ‐ COllaborative Research on AGEing in
Europe, a € 3,0 M project funded under EC FP7
� 2003: co‐Principal Investigator of Rete Nazionale Alzheimer: protocollo di consenso per diagnosi,
trattamento e riabilitazione di eccellenza negli I.R.C.C.S, a € 300K project funded by the Italian
Ministry of Health.
� 2001: co‐Principal Investigator of Decadimento cognitivo lieve non dementigeno: stadio preclinico di
malattia di Alzheimer e demenza vascolare. Caratterizzazione clinica, strumentale, genetica e
neurobiologica e sviluppo di criteri diagnostici utilizzabili nella realtà nazionale, a € 600K project
funded by the Italian Ministry of Health.
Fund raising activities
In 2003 I have launched the program for fund raising of the IRCCS Fatebenefratelli. I have partnered
with a local fitness centre where fitness activities would be hold during the day/week of World
Alzheimer’s Day (on September 21 st ) whose participation required a small donation in favour of
Alzheimer’s research. Fund raising was a mere € 7,000 on the first year and increased gradually up to €
53,000 in the year 2008 (http://www.irccs‐fatebenefratelli.it/fitness/sito/home_page.htm). Funds
collected in the years 2007‐8 were donated to support the Translational Outpatient Memory Clinic. In
2009, € 12.000 were collected that were devoted to 10 prizes for graduate thesis in the field of
Alzheimer’s disease.
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In 2005, the European Alzheimer’s Disease Consortium met in Brescia at the IRCCS Fatebenefratelli for
its regular annual meeting. I took the opportunity of organizing a fund raising event (Alzheimer
Awareness Gala http://www.infoalzheimer.it/Donazioni/donazioni.htm) where an Italian TV showman
(Michele Mirabella) took part together with national celebrities (olympic judo champion Ezio Gamba). A
motto was devised (Alzheimer: Niente Ricerca Niente Cura – Alzheimer’s: No Reseach No Drugs) after a
popular TV commercial, and a leaflet was devised to be distributed throughout the city during the event
(http://www.irccs‐fatebenefratelli.it/public/sito/contenuti/0208/5xmille.pdf). The amount of donations
reached € 60.000.
13. THESIS DIRECTOR
I have been tutor of 10 graduate and PhD theses, listed below. It should be underlined that the IRCCS
Fatebenefratelli is a research institution but has no formal mission to education as is the case for
university. In this context, the relatively low rate of graduate and PhD theses, should be regarded as
remarkably high:
� 2011: Vita‐Salute San Raffaele University and Hospital, Milan (Italy), PhD course in Experimental
Neurology
Michela Pievani ‐ Structural and functional integrity of the major white matter tracts in neurodegenerati‐
ve disorders assessed with Diffusion Tensor and functional MRI
� 2010: University of Maastricht (The Netherlands), PhD Course in Clinical Neuroscience
Anna Caroli ‐ Multimodal analysis of neuroimages in Alzheimer's disease
� 2009: Universita’ degli Studi di Padova, Graduate Course in Psychology and Clinical Neuroscience
Cristina Scarpazza ‐ Differenti profili di perdita di materia grigia tra demenza frontotemporale e
demenza di Alzheimer: studio con Cortical Pattern Matching.
� 2006: University of Kuopio (Finland), PhD Course in Clnical Neuroscience
Marina Boccardi – MRI studies in frontotemporal dementia.
� 2003: Universita’ Degli Studi Di Milano, PhD Course in Pathophysiology of Aging
Roberta Riello ‐ Decadimento Cognitivo Dell’anziano: Oltre La Neurobiologia Della Cognitività. Uno
Studio Dei Correlati Clinici Di Sintomi Non Cognitivi E Consapevolezza Di Malattia.
� 2003: Università degli Studi di Pavia, Post‐Graduate Medical Specialty School in Geriatrics
Cristina Geroldi ‐ Decadimento cognitivo lieve: descrizione e caratterizzazione epidemiologica e clinica.
Studio Inchianti e Studio MCIBS.
� 2002: Università degli Studi di Pavia, Graduate School of Economics
Andrea Panzarasa ‐ Modelli statistici per la valutazione quantitativa di diagnosi mediche: un problema
di Neuroimaging.
� 1999: Universita’ Cattolica del Sacro Cuore di Brescia, Graduate School of Mathematics
Luisa Colosio ‐ Elaborazione di immagini ottenute da Risonanza Magnetica con un nuovo modello
neurale.
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� 1998: Universita’ Cattolica del Sacro Cuore di Brescia, Graduate School of Educational Sciences
Cristina Franzoni ‐ Il ruolo della salute percepita e della disabilità nella definizione della qualità della vita
nell’anziano: risultati dell’indagine epidemiologica “Centro storico di Brescia”.
� 1998: Universita’ degli Studi di Brescia, PhD Course in Neuroscience
Cristina Geroldi ‐ Biological markers of disease and disease progression in Alzheimer’s disease.
Apolipoprotein E and regional atrophic changes of the brain.
� 1992: Universita’ degli Studi di Padova, Graduate Course in Psychology and Clinical Neuroscience
Tabaglio Lionello ‐ Prevalenza della depressione associata a demenza secondo diversi strumenti di
rilevazione.
14. REMARKS AND COMMENTS
Personal features that might represent winning factors
Picking and leading people. In my 20 years’ career, I have tutored dozens of young physicians,
psychologists, and non biomedical professionals. In my working Institution, I am credited with the
ability of picking young clinical and scientific talents and teach them the principles of the scientific
method with passion, discipline, and commitment. Some of these have become or are becoming
successful scientists such as Nicola Filippini (who has recently published in PNAS), Cristina Geroldi (99
entries in Pubmed since 1994), Samantha Galluzzi (35 entries in Pubmed since 2000), Marina Boccardi
(21 entries in Pubmed since 2001), Roberta Rossi (17 entries in Pubmed since 2002), and Anna Caroli
(14 entries in Pubmed since 2005).
Cooperativeness. I can boast a large number of cooperations at all geographical levels, from the IRCCS‐
FBF institution (senior coauthors Zanetti, Binetti, Gennarelli, Miniussi, and Geroldi), to the national level
(Caltagirone, Trabucchi, Soricelli, Beltramello, Padovani, Babiloni, Nobili, Falini, Rozzini, Bellelli, Perani,
Filippi, Pantoni, Rossini), the European level (Vellas, Winblad, Soininen, Rinne, Tihonen, Robert,
Scheltens, Barkhof, Hampel, Touchon, David Smith, Wahlund, Fox, Waldemar), and the International
level (Whitehouse, Toga and Thompson, De Carli, Weiner, Ferrucci, Collins, Jack, Csernansky,
Davatzikos, De Leo) (non exhaustive lists). Notably, I have been able to work with scientists coming
from the most disparate fields of science, from psychology to genetics, neurobiology, bioinformatics,
mathematics and statistics, computer science, and physics. Only 2 of my current research group of 25
people are physicians, all the others being psychologisits, mathematicians, bioinformaticists, and
neurobiologists. The latter has recently been hired to work on animal imaging in the context of Pharma‐
cog (see section 14 Grants and Research Project Report), demonstrating my motivation to a cross‐talk
with the basic sciences.
My approach to professional cooperation can be summarized in the motto “always negotiate, never
compromise”, meaning that a balance among the different agendas of clinically and scientifically driven
people can as a rule be stricken in all cooperative projects, but this should never occur at the expense
of patient care, methodological integrity, and scientific soundness.
Creativity. In my native country, I am credited with the peculiar achievement of having been able to
produce top rank scientific products in the field of imaging despite the lack of a scanner in my
institution. Indeed, the IRCCS‐ FBF is not hosting any radiological facility, and imaging research has been
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carried out thanks to cooperation agreements with neighboring facilities and painstakingly elaborate
fine tuning of image acquisition protocols and continuous remote quality control.
Efficiency. The IRCCS‐FBF receives about € 2M per year from the Italian Ministry of Healh (socalled
Ricerca Corrente), 10% of which (i.e. about € 200K per year) goes to my Unit (LENITEM). Since the
IRCCS‐FBF was born, my Unit has produced between 25% and up to 50% of the global scientific
production of IRCCS‐FBF. Thus, from the perspective of my Institution, my unit produces between 2.5
and 5 times more than predictable based on institutional funding.
15. APPENDIXES
Appendix 1 – Full list of Teaching Courses
Appendix 2 – Full list of Scientific Publications
Appendix 3 – Report of Selected Research Projects
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