Federico Emanuele Pozzi

I completed my Neurology Residency in 2023 at the Università degli Studi Milano-Bicocca in Italy, graduating summa cum laude with a final grade of 70/70. Prior to this, in 2018, I earned my Doctor of Medicine and Surgery degree from the Università degli Studi di Milano, where I also graduated summa cum laude with a final grade of 110/110. Earlier, in 2012, I received a Piano Diploma from the Conservatory “A. Vivaldi” in Alessandria, Italy.

In my research career, I have held several positions. Since 2023, I have been pursuing a PhD in Neuroscience at the Università degli Studi Milano-Bicocca, focusing on dementia prevention through multimodal interventions as part of the Age-It project, working with Professor C. Ferrarese. From 2022 to 2023, I served as a doctor-researcher at Alzheimercentrum Amsterdam in the Netherlands, contributing to the DEvELOP project on Dementia with Lewy Bodies (DLB) and the SCIENCe project on Subjective Cognitive Decline (SCD) with Professor W. van der Flier. In 2024, I joined the BarcelonaBeta Research Center in Spain as a researcher, working on the Β-AARC project focused on SCD under the supervision of Dr. M. Suarez-Calvet. Additionally, since 2021, I have been a subinvestigator in several clinical trials, including EMBARK, CLARITY-AD, POST-GRADUATE, TOGETHER, ADEPT-1, and ENVISION, all conducted at the Università degli Studi Milano-Bicocca.

In my clinical career, I currently work as a neurologist at the Brain Health Service and Memory Clinic at Fondazione IRCCS San Gerardo dei Tintori in Monza and at Centro Medico Sant’Agostino in Monza. Since 2023, I have also been serving as a neurologist on call at Gravedona Hospital, Domodossola Hospital, and Aosta Hospital. From 2019 to 2024, I was a medical doctor in the Continuity of Care program for ATS Milano and ATS Insubria in Italy. I have also gained international experience through a visiting doctor position in Neurosurgery at Neurokopf-Zentrum Klinikum Rechts der Isar in Munich, Germany, in 2018, and a clinical clerkship in Gynecology at Spitalul Clinic Panait Sârbu in Bucharest, Romania, in 2016. Earlier, in 2014, I volunteered as a medical doctor at Nkawie Governmental Hospital in Kumasi, Ghana.

I have also been involved in clinical study management, contributing to the writing of protocols, ethical committee submissions, and database management for several studies, including the CoGniChESs, CAPE, BPSDiary, IN-TeMPO, PEA, and DemeNSS studies, since 2021. Additionally, I have taught courses on clinical research and statistics to neurology residents at the University of Milano-Bicocca in 2023, and I have prior teaching experience as a piano teacher at Accademia Gustav Mahler from 2012 to 2018 and as a history of music teacher at Liceo Scientifico Vittorio Veneto from 2010 to 2012.

My skills include clinical management of cognitive disorders, working proficiency in multiple languages (including Italian, English, Spanish, Dutch, Romanian, French, German, Russian, Portuguese, and Catalan), and experience with Freesurfer, R, SPSS, and JASP software.

PhD research project

Early diagnosis of cognitive decline in the elderly to promote multicomponent preventive interventions

Background: Dementia significantly impacts patients, caregivers, and healthcare systems. Prevention could mitigate these effects, with up to 40% of cases potentially preventable by addressing modifiable risk factors. However, single-risk factor approaches have proven ineffective, highlighting the need for multidomain interventions (MI) tailored to individual risk profiles. Trials like FINGER, MAPT, and PreDIVA have shown modest cognitive benefits from lifestyle interventions, especially in high-risk groups. The FINGER trial, the most extensive and longest-running, demonstrated small but meaningful cognitive improvements, emphasizing the potential of comprehensive, intense interventions. Yet, many questions remain regarding MI’s impact on brain pathology, the optimal intervention timing, and the appropriate outcomes for trials. Current studies often lack deep phenotyping and fail to target those with early cognitive complaints, such as subjective cognitive decline (SCD) or mild cognitive impairment (MCI).
Objective: The “ItaliaN Study With Tailored Multidomain Interventions to Prevent Functional and Cognitive Decline in Community-dwelling Older Adults” IN-TeMPO (https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT06248723) project aims to evaluate whether a comprehensive MI protocol can delay or reduce dementia risk and slow brain pathology progression, focusing on different etiologies of early cognitive decline using advanced biomarkers.
Methods: IN-TeMPO will be a multidisciplinary, multicenter randomized controlled trial across different Italian centers. The multi-domain interventions will include physical exercise, a Mediterranean diet-based nutritional plan, cognitive training, regular medical check-ups, oral hygiene treatments and counseling, monitoring and counseling on visual and auditory abilities, counseling on sleep hygiene and treatment, control of cardiovascular, metabolic, and infectious risk factors, adjustment of drug therapy, suggestions for improving social interactions. The goal of this interventional non-pharmacological study is to investigate the effects of a MI (“active intervention”), compared to that followed by normal clinical practice (“self-guided intervention”), in older adults. The primary objective is whether these interventions can prevent functional and cognitive decline in at-risk subjects.