Daniela Perani

Direector

She is a Full Professor of Neuroscience at Vita-Salute San Raffaele University in Milan, where she also leads the In vivo Human Molecular and Structural Neuroimaging Unit within the Division of Neuroscience at the San Raffaele Scientific Institute. She serves as Medical Coordinator for Neuroimaging Diagnostics in the Nuclear Medicine Department at San Raffaele Hospital and, since 2021, as Director of the School of Specialization in Neuropsychology within the Faculty of Psychology.

She graduated in Medicine and Surgery at the University of Milan, where she later completed specializations in Neurology and Radiology. Her international training includes research appointments at the Royal Post-Graduate Medical School, Hammersmith Hospital, University of London.

Her career spans key research positions at the Italian National Research Council (CNR), including the Institute of Advanced Biomedical Technologies and the Institute of Neuroscience and Bioimaging. She has been an invited researcher at leading institutions such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the University of California San Diego (UCSD), and the Max Planck Institute for Neuropsychological Research, where she also served on the International Scientific Advisory Board.

She is a member of the Italian Society of Neuropsychology, the International Society for Neuroscience, and has been part of the International Neuropsychological Symposium since 2000. She was also invited as Visiting Professor at the Institut de France – Académie des Sciences.

Her research focuses on structural (MRI), molecular (PET), and functional (fMRI) neuroimaging applied to neurodegenerative diseases and cognitive functions. She has coordinated numerous national and European research projects, including several within the EU Framework Programmes, particularly in the fields of dementia diagnostics, language function imaging, and neuroinflammation.

Author of more than 200 scientific publications (CI: 6333; H-index: 62), she leads a multidisciplinary research team working across physics, chemistry, neuroscience, engineering, and pharmacology, and contributes to major European networks of excellence in neuroimaging.