Antonio Masone

Key facts

• Every bibliographic record checked and both PMC full texts name the first author as Antonio Masone with ORCID 0000-0001-8357-5931; the first name Alessandro used in the order and in R1021 appears to be an error.
• His ORCID lists a master degree in medical and pharmaceutical biotechnology at the University of Pavia (2012 to 2015), a Mario Negri specialist course in biomedical research (2015 to 2018) and a PhD in Life Sciences, Neuroscience, at Mario Negri (October 2018 to May 2023).
• The same paper reports that the compound reached the mouse brain poorly (brain to plasma ratio about 0.035), lowered brain PrP by only about 20 percent after 12 weeks and did not delay disease in RML infected mice, so the in vivo result was negative.
• He is first author of the 2024 Neural Regeneration Research minireview arguing that the two part mechanism of Zn(II)-BnPyP could guide a new class of dual mechanism anti-prion compounds, and of the 2026 ChemBioChem paper using a HaloTag fused prion protein to follow PrP production, misfolding and turnover in living cells, including how PrP lowering compounds act.
• No porphyrin paper after the 2024 minireview appears in his publication list; his later first author work is the D178N strain paper and the HaloTag method paper.
• He is first author of the 2026 Acta Neuropathologica study showing that mice carrying the D178N mutation linked to fatal familial insomnia and genetic CJD did not make infectious prions, and that RML prions passed through D178N PrP gained new strain properties unlike the human diseases; he co-wrote the paper and did mouse and biochemical work, with partners at ISS Rome, NIAID Rocky Mountain Laboratories, UKE Hamburg, CIC bioGUNE and the Carlo Besta institute.
• He is a co-author of the 2021 Mario Negri study in which presymptomatic doxycycline improved memory and circadian rhythm in FFI mice but did not prevent terminal disease, work that sits behind the Italian doxycycline prevention approach for FFI carriers.
• From January 2024 to August 2025 he was a postdoctoral scientist at the Taub Institute, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, and a 2025 Alzheimers and Dementia paper on PP2A enzymes and injury related oligomeric tau carries his Columbia affiliation.
• He co-authored a 2025 Mario Negri paper, with Gianluigi Forloni among the authors, showing that tau oligomers impair memory in normal mice but not in mice lacking the prion protein.
• The Mario Negri prion lab page read on 2026-10-17 lists four researchers under Roberto Chiesa and does not include him, while his ORCID records a new Mario Negri postdoc role from July 2026.

Timeline

1. 2018Starts PhD in Life Sciences (Neuroscience) at Mario Negri, Milan.
2. 2021Co-author of the FFI mouse doxycycline study from the Mario Negri prion lab.
3. 2023Completes PhD and becomes a Mario Negri postdoctoral scientist.
4. 2023First author of the iScience paper on the dual action porphyrin Zn(II)-BnPyP.
5. 2024Moves to the Taub Institute, Columbia University, New York, as a postdoc (to 2025-08).
6. 2024First author of the Neural Regeneration Research minireview on dual mechanism anti-prion compounds.
7. 2026First author of the Acta Neuropathologica D178N strain paper.
8. 2026First author of the ChemBioChem HaloTag prion protein paper.
9. 2026Self reported return to Mario Negri Neuroscience as a postdoc.