Piera Pasinelli, PhD

Dr. Pasinelli is the Frances & Joseph Weinberg Professor in Neuroscience at Thomas Jefferson University and the founder and Director of the Jefferson Weinberg ALS Center, a Clinical-and-Research Integrated Program.

She graduated with a dual Bachelor and Master in Science degree from the University of Milan, Italy, where she studied Chemistry and Technology in Pharmaceutical Industry and obtained her PhD in Neuro-biochemistry from the University of Utrecht, The Netherlands. She performed postdoctoral training at Massachusetts General Hospital-Harvard Medical School and, in 2006, joined Thomas Jefferson University as the co-director of the Frances & Joseph Weinberg Unit for ALS Research. In 2016, under her leadership, Jefferson expanded the ALS program adding a multidisciplinary clinic and a clinical-research program to complement the existing research laboratories and launching the Weinberg ALS Center.

Her research focuses on the cell death mechanisms that overtake the motor neurons in ALS and the role played by glia cells in disease. She also leads clinical research studies aimed at identifying disease biomarkers and new therapeutic targets.

Dr. Pasinelli has been the Scientific Director of the Robert Packard Center for ALS Research from 2008 to 2020 and now serves on the scientific advisory board of the Center. She is also member of the scientific advisory board of AriSLA and of the ALS/MND International Alliance. She is passionate about educating the ALS patients about research and over the years has taken an active role in raising awareness of ALS in the community.