EUGENIO BARONE

AVVISO PER GLI STUDENTI DEI SEGENTI CORSI:

COME DA LINEE GUIDA SAPIENZA LE LEZIONI DEL CORSO DI BIOCHIMICA PER OGNUNO DEI CORSI DI LAUREA SOPRA INDICATI SI TERRANNO IN MODALITA' TELEMATICA.

TUTTE LE INFORMAZIONI RELATIVE A CIASCUN CORSO VERRANNO FORNITE ATTRAVERSO LA PIATTAFORMA E-LEARNING ALLA QUALE GLI STUDENTI SONO PREGATI DI ISCRIVERSI QUANTO PRIMA.

Eugenio Barone is Full Professor of Biochemistry at the Faculty of Pharmacy and Medicine, Sapienza University of Rome, where he leads a research group dedicated to understanding the biochemical and metabolic alterations underlying neurodegenerative disorders and brain aging. He graduated in Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Technology from the University of Calabria in 2006 and obtained a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Rome in 2011. He trained in internationally renowned laboratories, first at the University of Kentucky (USA, 2010–2011) and then at the Brain Mind Institute of the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL, 2012–2014). In 2014 he was awarded a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship funded by the European Union, which enabled him to return to Italy and join Sapienza University of Rome.

Professor Barone's work explores the cellular mechanisms underlying cognitive decline in aging, intellectual disability associated with Down syndrome, and Alzheimer's disease. Pioneering studies from his group identified early alterations of brain insulin signaling and unveiled a novel biomarker, the protein biliverdin reductase-A (BVR-A), whose alterations precede those of canonical markers. This discovery links insulin resistance to mitochondrial dysfunction and cognitive decline, highlighting a mechanism shared by the brain and peripheral tissues that represents a major risk factor for both diabetes and Alzheimer's disease. Prof. Barone has also contributed substantially to the understanding of intranasal insulin therapy in Alzheimer's disease, being among the first to clarify the molecular mechanisms underlying its beneficial effects. More recently, his research has expanded to GLP-1 signaling as a potential therapeutic target and to the development of liquid-biopsy approaches based on plasma neuron-derived extracellular vesicles (nEVs), aimed at identifying predictive biomarkers of neurodegeneration in living individuals.

He is the author of more than 115 scientific publications in international journals (H-index 47; over 5,500 citations, Scopus) and co-inventor of five granted patents. He is a member of the Ph.D. School in Biochemistry and of the SapiExcellence Program Committee at Sapienza University of Rome. He has received competitive funding from international and national organizations, including the Alzheimer's Association (2020–24), the Jérôme Lejeune Foundation (2019–21 and 2022–24), the European Commission (2014–16), and the Italian Ministry of University and Research (2023–25, 2015–18).
He was one of the first two recipients of the Society for Redox Biology and Medicine Fellowship Award (2010) and has received numerous international awards, including the Investigator Award of the Society for Free Radical Research – Europe (2026), the Springer Nature Editor of Distinction Award (2026), and awards from the Society for Redox Biology and Medicine (2015 and 2016), the Federation of European Pharmacological Societies (2013), the Alzheimer's Association (2017), and the Trisomy 21 Research Society (2017). In 2026 the City of Cosenza conferred on him a public recognition for his contribution to Alzheimer's disease research. In 2024 he chaired the Organizing Committee of the 5th International Conference of the Trisomy 21 Research Society (www.t21rs2024.com).

He currently serves as Associate Editor for NeuroMolecular Medicine (Springer Nature), Antioxidants (MDPI), and Frontiers in Neuroscience (Frontiers). He holds leadership roles in several international scientific societies and bodies: he is a member of the Executive Board of the Trisomy 21 Research Society (2022–2026), where he chairs the Membership & Sponsorship Committee; he served on the Executive Board of the Society for Redox Biology and Medicine (2020–2024); and he is a member of the Schools Initiative Committee of the International Society for Neurochemistry (ISN). Since 2026 he has been a member of the Scientific Committee of the Jérôme Lejeune Foundation (Paris), and since 2021 he has been part of the European Brain Research Area (EBRA) for the Trisomy 21 cluster. He is also a member of the Italian Down Syndrome Task Force and of the Down Syndrome network of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ECNP).

Alongside his scientific activity, Prof. Barone is committed to public engagement and institutional dialogue: in 2026 he was heard by the Italian Parliamentary Commission for Childhood and Adolescence as representative of the Italian Down Syndrome Task Force, and in 2025 he organized the celebration of World Down Syndrome Day at the European Parliament in Brussels.