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