Affiliation: University of California, San Francisco, Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases (IND), Dept. of Neurology

Angelique di Domenico, PhD, is an Assistant Adjunct Professor at the Institute for Neurodegenerative diseases of UCSF, working under the supervision of Nobel Laureate Dr. Stanley B. Prusiner. Dr. di Domenico received her Master’s in Neuroscience with a specialization in neurodegenerative diseases at King’s College London and continued her studies in the field of neurodegeneration, specializing in Parkinson’s disease, during her PhD years at the University of Barcelona and postdoc years at the New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF). Her research has been focused primarily on glial cells and more specifically, on the roles that astrocytes play during the progression of neurodegeneration. In her paper titled “Patient-Specific iPSC-Derived Astrocytes Contribute to Non-Cell-Autonomous Neurodegeneration in Parkinson's Disease,” which was published in Stem Cell Reports (2019) and won the City of Barcelona Award in 2020 for its breakthroughs in the field, she demonstrated direct evidence for the first time that astrocytes have a neurotoxic role in LRRK2 Parkinson’s disease.