Dr Giuseppe Barisano
Dr Barisano’s training and education allowed him to build a solid foundation not only of human anatomy, physiology, and clinical knowledge, but also of molecular and cellular biology, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), biostatistics, and translational research. He received his Medical Degree from San Raffaele University in Italy, and since he was in medical school he has been working on the development and application of imaging approaches to investigate various neurological diseases, including brain tumor, stroke, and neurodegenerative disorders. During his training, he acquired numerous skills, especially in the analysis and optimization of MRI methods for pre-clinical and clinical research, suchs as: structural MRI data for surface- and volume-based analysis as well as quantification and mapping of perivascular spaces; T2*weighted sequences for the identification and analysis of deoxygenated hemoglobin, hemosiderin and microbleeds, calcification, and amyloid plaques; dynamic contrast-enhanced and dynamic susceptibility-contrast techniques for quantitative measures of neurovascular dysfunctions; arterial spin labelling techniques for measuring tissue perfusion and cerebral blood flow; diffusion imaging methods for quantitative analysis of structural white matter connectivity; blood-oxygenated-level-dependent functional MRI technique for the analysis of functional connectivity; positron-emission tomography methods to measure the cerebral metabolic activity as well as the accumulation of amyloid plaques and aggregates of tau in the brain.
Giuseppe recently contributed to the development of neuroimaging techniques and tools that can be applied to both pre-clinical and clinical MRI data to obtain quantitative and accurate measures of cerebral perivascular spaces. In addition to neuroimaging, he is also proficient in programming in multiple computer languages, such as R, Python, and MATLAB, as well as in data mining techniques for examining large data sets, including not only clinical research databases, but also databases of Genotypes and Phenotypes for genome-wide association studies and single-cell sequencing data.
“My current research focuses on the study of the cerebral vasculature, perivascular spaces, and blood-brain barrier in the context of cognitive impairment and neurodegeneration, both in humans and animal models. I am studying the contribution of vascular, genetic, and environemntal risk factors to the development of neurovascular dysfunction and the pathophysiology of dementia, using both in vivo and in vitro methodological approaches. The goal is to understand the mechanisms underlying the early pathological changes leading to neurodegeneration and to clarify the temporal sequence of these events. I am also interested in characterizing the molecular and biological responses to chronic hypoxia in the neurovascular unit, in order to develop new therapeutic strategies to combat hypoxic insults and microvascular dysfunction found in numerous neurological disorders.”
Awarded grants
Fellowship from the Neuroscience Graduate Program – University of Southern California
Recent publications
“Image processing approaches to enhance perivascular space visibility and quantification using MRI” Sepehrband F, Barisano G, Sheikh-Bahaei N, Cabeen RP, Choupan J, Law M, Toga AW. Sci Rep. 2019 Aug 26;9(1):12351. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-48910-x. PMID: 31451792
Publication link: www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-48910-x
“Perivascular space fluid contributes to diffusion tensor imaging changes in white matter” Sepehrband F, Cabeen RP, Choupan J, Barisano G, Law M, Toga AW; Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative. Neuroimage. 2019 Aug 15;197:243-254. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.04.070. Epub 2019 Apr 30. PMID: 31051291
Publication link: www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053811919303623
Related links
Dr Giuseppe Barisano - list of publications (PubMed)
