Maria Grazia Spillantini

Born in Arezzo (Italy), Maria Grazia Spillantini received a Laurea in Biological Sciences from Florence University and a PhD in Molecular Biology from Cambridge University working at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology. In 1996 she moved to the Department of Clinical Neurosciences at Cambridge University, where she was first a Lecturer, then a Reader, and since 2007 Professor of Molecular Neurology. Her interest is on understanding mechanisms of disease in tauopathies and alpha-synucleinopathies. With her collaborators she identified alpha-synuclein as the component of the filaments that form the Lewy bodies in Parkinson’s disease, dementia with Lewy bodies and the glial inclusions in multiple system atrophy and described one of the first mutations in the MAPT gene causing frontotemporal dementia. She has received several awards, including the Potamkin Prize and the Jay Van Andel award for achievements in Parkinson’s disease, the Golgi Medal, the Thudicum Medal and the European Grand Prix of the French Fondation Recherche Alzheimer, the Mika Salpeter Life time achievement award of the SFN. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society (London), the Academy of Medical Sciences (London), the Royal Society of Biology, Member of the Research Honor Society Xi, Member of the Academia Europaea, EMBO member and Knight Officer of the Star of Italy. She is fellow of Clare Hall and life member of Peterhouse.