Maurizio Pocchiari

Key facts

• A 2017 ISS organigram lists the Department of Neuroscience as directed by Maurizio Pocchiari, and his 2018 publisher biography says he chairs that department at ISS, Rome.
• An official ISS CV states that Daniela Merlo has directed the ISS Department of Neuroscience since 2025-08-01, so he no longer holds the director post; no page opened says whether he is retired or still on staff.
• His 2018 biography says he has run the Italian CJD surveillance unit since 1993 and sits on the Coordination Committee of the European CJD Surveillance Network (EuroCJD) of ECDC.
• The ISS National CJD Registry was founded in 1993 in the Department of Neuroscience and joins national surveillance of incidence and mortality with prion research; its public page names no individuals.
• He coauthored the Italy and France phase 2 doxycycline trial (Lancet Neurol 2014), 121 patients randomised to doxycycline 100 mg daily or placebo, which showed no survival difference and stopped for futility.
• In 2015 he and Anna Ladogana published a JNNP commentary on rethinking doxycycline therapy in CJD.
• His RT-QuIC and diagnostic work includes the 2014 NEJM nasal brushing test, the 2016 Ann Neurol international CSF RT-QuIC study, the 2020 ring trial of second generation RT-QuIC with Groveman, and the 2022 validation of revised international CJD surveillance criteria.
• His genetic epidemiology work includes a 2013 PLoS One study of age at death across generations of Italian E200K carriers and the 2018 JNNP paper showing that CYP4X1 modulates age at onset in E200K and sporadic CJD, with the Bologna group.
• In the last 24 months he is a coauthor on a January 2024 J Neurol MRI study, a July 2024 PLoS One GWAS of sporadic CJD duration and onset (3,773 cases), a July 2024 multiomic risk gene preprint, and a July 2025 Int J Mol Sci scrapie transit paper with an ISS affiliation.
• He co-edited Human Prion Diseases, volume 153 of the Handbook of Clinical Neurology, with Jean Manson, published in June 2018.
• The CJD Foundation awarded him the 2009 Stephen D. Able Memorial Research Grant for work on pentosan polysulphate delivery for prion disease therapy.

Timeline

1. 1993Italian National CJD Registry established at ISS; he runs the surveillance unit from this year.
2. 2005EUROCJD genetic prion disease analysis published in Hum Genet.
3. 2009CJD Foundation Stephen D. Able Memorial Research Grant on pentosan polysulphate delivery.
4. 2014Lancet Neurol phase 2 doxycycline trial in CJD published with him as coauthor.
5. 2015Commentary with Ladogana on rethinking doxycycline therapy in CJD published online.
6. 2017ISS organigram lists him as director of the Department of Neuroscience.
7. 2018Human Prion Diseases, Handbook of Clinical Neurology volume 153, published with him as co-editor.
8. 2022Coauthor of the JAMA Netw Open validation of revised international CJD surveillance criteria.
9. 2024Coauthor of a J Neurol study of MRI in CJD and other rapidly progressive dementia.
10. 2024Coauthor of the PLoS One GWAS of clinical duration and age at onset of sporadic CJD, and of a medRxiv multiomic risk gene preprint.
11. 2025Coauthor of an Int J Mol Sci paper on sciatic nerve integrity and scrapie spread after footpad injection, affiliation ISS.
12. 2025Daniela Merlo becomes director of the ISS Department of Neuroscience, the post he held after 2017.