Alberto Albanese

BIOGRAPHY

ACADEMIC POSITION:
Professor of Neurology and Head Neurologist at the National Neurological Hospital 'Carlo Besta', Milan

EDUCATION:
Alberto Albanese graduated from the Catholic Univer­sity Medical School in Rome, Italy, in 1977; he received his certification in Neurology in 1981 and in Psychiatry in 1985. From 1978 to 1979, Dr Albanese was recipient of a Fulbright-Hays fellowship at the Brain Research Institute, University of California Los Angeles.

MEMBERSHIPS/AWARDS:
In 1990, he received the Roussel prize for research on ageing. In 1997, he was appointed visiting professor at the University of Cordoba (Argentina) and in 2003, he was nominated Membre d’honneur à titre étranger by the French Neurological Society.

Professor Albanese is an honorary member of the French Neurological Society and of the Swiss Neurological Society. He is a regular member of several scientific societies, including the Italian Neurological Society (since 1980; repeatedly member of the executive committee), the Italian Movement Disorders Society (founder, President 2006-2007), the Movement Disorders Society (co-chair of the Task Force on DBS in Dystonia), and the American Academy of Neurology (corresponding fellow since 1991).

RESEARCH INTERESTS:
His first research interests were in basic science. Using morphological staining and tract-tracing techniques in the 1970s, he studied the normal and abnormal activity of dopaminergic and cholinergic CNS neurons. He also evaluated animal models of disease developed using inbred mouse strains and monkeys rendered parkinsonian with 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydro­pyridine (MPTP). From the 1980s, Dr Albanese became progressively more engaged in patient care and clinical research in the field of movement disorders and was a fellow in London with the late David Marsden, first in Denmark Hill and then in Queen Square. His research interest became focused mainly on dystonia, Parkinson’s disease, and other parkinsonian syndromes (such as multiple system atrophy). His publications cover an ample spectrum of movement disorders, including choreas and tics. He has been a pioneer in the introduction of botulinum toxins in Italy and has pioneered the use of deep brain stimulation in Parkinson’s disease and other movement disorders. In this clinical capacity, Prof Albanese has raised several generations of Italian neurologists with expertise in movement disorders and has mentored medical graduates who now hold neurological positions of international stance, such as: Prof Enza Maria Valente (Rome), Dr Anna Rita Bentivoglio (Rome), Dr Carlo Colosimo (Rome), Dr Elena Moro (Toronto).

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