Sabina Capellari

Key facts

• Associate Professor in the Department of Biomedical and Neuromotor Sciences (DIBINEM), University of Bologna, discipline Neurology, and consultant neurologist at IRCCS ISNB; ORCID 0000-0003-1631-1439.
• Trained in molecular biology on prion diseases in Prof. Gambetti's group at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, and now works on genetics of degenerative dementias and early-onset dementia.
• Co-author of the 2021 histo-molecular classification of genetic CJD (208 carriers, 17 PRNP mutations), which found a distinct group in E200K carriers with an intermediate-size PrPSc fragment.
• Co-author of the skin punch biopsy RT-QuIC study (71 samples, 35 patients, 89 percent sensitivity, 100 percent specificity) with Caughey and Parchi.
• Co-author of the second-generation CSF RT-QuIC validation across CJD subtypes with RML (Caughey, Hughson) and Edinburgh (Green).
• Co-author with ISS Rome (Pocchiari, Ladogana, Poleggi) of the finding that CYP4X1 modulates age at onset in E200K and sporadic CJD; the same publication list includes a 2018 PET study of microglia activation in fatal familial insomnia with her as co-author.
• Co-author of a 2025 study showing a plasma BD-tau to p-tau217 ratio matched CSF 14-3-3 accuracy for CJD and that BD-tau levels predicted survival.
• Co-author of the 2025 Brain multiomic CJD risk gene study with Mead, Zerr, Hermann, Appleby and Ladogana, and of a 2024 PLOS ONE GWAS on age at onset and duration of sporadic CJD.
• Co-author of a 2026 Italian CJD Registry study with ISS Rome authors on 181 patients with rapidly progressive dementia and parkinsonism, 111 with prion disease.
• Co-author of a 2024 report that atypical genetic CJD (PRNP p.T183A-129M) did not transmit to transgenic mice, and of 2025 CSF proteomic signatures that separate sporadic CJD subtypes and predict survival.

Timeline

1. 2017Co-author of the second-generation CSF RT-QuIC validation (Scientific Reports).
2. 2018Co-author of the CYP4X1 age-at-onset study in E200K and sporadic CJD.
3. 2020Co-author of the skin punch biopsy RT-QuIC study.
4. 2021Co-author of the histo-molecular classification of genetic CJD (Acta Neuropathologica).
5. 2024Co-author of the PRNP p.T183A transmission study (Acta Neuropathologica).
6. 2025Keynote speaker at the Alzheimer Europe conference in Bologna.
7. 2025Co-author of the blood-based tau biomarker study in CJD (Alzheimers and Dementia).
8. 2025Co-author of the multiomic CJD risk gene study (Brain).
9. 2025Co-author of CSF proteomic signatures of sporadic CJD subtypes (Acta Neuropathologica Communications).
10. 2026Co-author of the sporadic CJD cortical subtype phenotype paper (Annals of Neurology).
11. 2026Co-author of the Italian CJD Registry study on rapidly progressive dementia with parkinsonism (Parkinsonism Relat Disord).