Study Group

Kaj Blennow is MD and holds a Specialist Competence in both General Psychiatry and in Cinical Chemistry. He is Professor and Academic Chair in Neurochemistry at University of Gothenburg, and Head of the Clinical Neurochemistry Lab at Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Gothenburg, Sweden. Prof Blennow holds the Torsten Söderberg Professorship at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Dr. Blennow has published more than 1050 original research papers and review articles in peer-reviewed journals, and has an H-index of 111. He is President of the Society for CSF analysis and Clinical Neurochemistry and head of the Alzheimer’s Association QC program for CSF biomarkers and Chair of the International Federation of Clinical Chemistry (IFCC) working group on CSF proteins. He has received several scientific awards, such as the Alois Alzheimer Research Award (2001), the Henry Wisniewski Lifetime Achievement Award in Alzheimer’s Disease Research (2011), the IFRAD European Grand Prix in Research (2013), the Söderberg Price in Medicine at the Swedish Society for Medicine (2016), and the Nordic Prize in Medicine (2017).

Lucilla Parnetti is Professor in Neurology at University of Perugia and Head of Center for Memory Disturbances whiten the Neurology Clinic at Perugia University Hospital. Her main expertise in on the field of cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers for early diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases, with special interest on Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease. She authored more than 300 papers and her research was funded by the European Commission, Italian Ministry of University and Research, Italian Ministry of Health, Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson research. She is Vice-President of the Society for CSF analysis and Clinical Neurochemistry and member of Editorial Board of Movement Disorders and Journal of Alzheimer Disease.

Massimiliano Orso works at Regional Health Authority of Umbria and acts as consultant for several research institutions such as the National Agency for the Healthcare Research. He holds a second-level university master course in Epidemiology and Biostatistics. His major fields of interest are: public and health communication; evidence based medicine; health technology assessment; biomedical and health research methodology; analysis and evaluation of health services using electronic databases; health services research. He co-authored several systematic reviews and meta-analyses.

Dr. Oskar Hansson studied at Lund University, gaining his PhD in neurobiology in 2001, his M.D. in 2005, and became senior consultant in neurology in 2012 and full professor of neurology in 2017. Oskar Hansson has performed internationally recognized clinical and translational research focusing on Alzheimer's and Parkinson’s diseases. His clinical research is internationally recognized and his work on biomarkers has led to over 200 original peer-reviewed publications. Eight years ago he started the prospective and longitudinal Swedish BioFINDER study (www.biofinder.se), where the research team focuses on the development of optimized diagnostic algorithms for early diagnosis, and also studies the consequences of different brain pathologies on cognitive, neurologic and psychiatric symptoms in healthy individuals and patients with dementia and parkinsonian disorders. Besides being responsible for the outpatient ward of the Memory Clinic at Skåne University Hospital, he is also in leading positions of several research networks and he is co-director of the strategic research area of neuroscience at Lund University.

Paolo Calabresi is Full Professor of Neurology and Chief of the Clinical Neurology Section at the University of Perugia, Italy. He is the Director of the Experimental Neurology Laboratories at the University of Perugia (Italy). He currently coordinates a clinical and preclinical research group composed of approximately forty-five people. Prof. Calabresi is also the Scientific Coordinator of the Molecular Medicine Ph.D. program and of the School of Neurology of the University of Perugia.  Prof. Calabresi’s research has investigated the synaptic communication between the cerebral cortex and the basal ganglia, focussing on corticostriatal synapses and their activity-dependent plasticity. In particular,  Prof. Calabresi’s group has extensively investigated how corticostriatal communication depends on the activation of dopamine receptors and how it is affected by pathological conditions such as Parkinson’s disease. The international leadership of Prof. Calabresi is proved by more than 350 scientific articles, mainly published on high impact peer-reviewed international scientific journals.

Paolo Eusebi obtained his PhD in mathematics and statistics in 2007. He works as clinical epidemiologist and biostatistician at the Neurology Clinic, Perugia University Hospital. He works also as epidemiologist and statistician at the Regional Health Authority of Umbria. He applied statistical modeling to biomarker discovery studies, diagnostic systematic reviews, meta-epidemiological studies and clinical trials. His methodological research was funded by the Italian Ministry of Health and he collaborated as consultant with the World Health Organization. His main therapeutic area of expertise is neurodegenerative diseases, particularly focusing on Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease.

Silvia Paciotti is a biochemist. She is Assistant Professor at the University of Perugia and she works in the Clinical Neurochemistry Lab within the Center for Memory Disturbances of Neurology Clinic, Perugia University. Her main expertise is on the field of lysosomal enzymes activities and lysosomal storage disorders. Recently, her research interest has been focused on the role of lysosomal dysfunction in the onset and progression of Parkinson’s Disease.