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Diego Iacono, MD, PhD
Associate Professor of Biomedical Sciences
Bio
Dr. Iacono is a physician-scientist and neurologist. He is the Director of Neuropathology Research at BRInj and Lead Researcher for Atlantic Health System. Dr. Iacono’s career, both clinical and research, has been centered on the study of neurodegenerative diseases, mainly dementias and movement disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Lewy body Dementia, Fronto-Temporal Dementia, Parkinson’s disease, rarer parkinsonian disorders such as Progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), Corticobasal degeneration (CBD), and epilepsy. Dr. Iacono has expertise in using standard clinical, cognitive, behavioral, and motor assessments, and various neurophysiology techniques (EEG, MEG, EP, TMS).
Dr. Iacono has worked in some of the premier European institutions for neurology and neuroscience throughout Switzerland, France, and the UK; and served as Senior Researcher and Head of The Brain Bank at Karolinska Institutet, Sweden. He has been involved in several large-scale, longitudinal clinic-pathological investigations, such as the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging and the Nun Study. Results of this research have provided new perspectives on normal aging and dementia, including mechanisms that may lead to pathology resistance, relationships between higher cognitive function (i.e. language) and AD, and the possibility that certain personality traits may reduce the risk of AD development.
Dr. Iacono founded the neuropathology and neurohistology lab at BRInj. He operates a stereology unit dedicated to the unbiased measurements of human and non-human tissue, and the Brain Bank at BRInj, which specializes in collecting brains and brain-related tissues for studies in neurology, psychiatry, and neuroscience. Dr. Iacono is actively engaged in several academic collaborations that focus on the pathogenesis of rarer movement disorders, such as Tourette syndrome and dystonia, and continues his clinic-pathological investigations of dementias, movement disorders and developmental disorders. Dr. Iacono is also Director of Neuropathology Research at MANA, performing research related to brain development antecedents and aging, genetic risk factors, and treatments for brain-injured premature babies.
Education
Residency, Neuorology, University “G. D’Annunzio” School of Medicine, Chieti, Italy
PhD, Neuroscience, The Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, School of Medicine, Rome Italy
MD, The Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, School of Medicine, Rome, Italy
Publications
View on pubmed.com >
Experience
Senior Researcher and Head, The Brain Bank at Karolinska Institutet, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
Postdoctoral Training, Neuropathology, Johns Hopkins University
Visiting Fellow, Neurology, Centre d’Investigation Clinique, Hospital of Pitié Salpétrière, Université de Paris VI, PARIS, France
Visiting Fellow, Neuropathology, University of Geneve, Geneve, Switzerland
