Professor Giovanna Mallucci 

Giovanna Mallucci is Associate Director of the UK Dementia Research Institute (UK DRI) at the University of Cambridge and van Geest Professor of Clinical Neurosciences. Her undergraduate degrees were in Physiological Sciences from the University of Oxford and Medicine from University College, London. She obtained her PhD from London University, for which she generated the first adult onset mouse model of prion protein knockout that paved the way to her discoveries about reversibility of early neurodegeneration and underlying mechanisms. Since her PhD, she has combined clinical work and basic research and led groups in the MRC Prion Unit (2001-2008) and the MRC Toxicology Unit (2008-2018), before moving to Cambridge in 2014. She has been a professor of neuroscience since 2008. She has published original research in Nature, Science, Neuron, EMBO Journal and Science Translational Medicine, inter alia. She is an internationally recognised pioneer in translational dementia research: her work on the role of the UPR in neurodegeneration was hailed as “turning point in search for medicines to control and prevent Alzheimer’s“. She is Honorary Consultant Neurologist at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, specialising in Dementia. She has received numerous national and international awards, including a SciAm50 award for leadership in research as one of the top 50 scientific innovators worldwide, and has given many plenary and keynote talks at international conferences. She is an ERC Consolidator Fellow. In 2017, she was elected Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences.

MRC Success Story