CIBM | Center for Biomedical Imaging

CIBM MRI HUG-UNIGE Clinical MR Imaging Section

Giannina Rita (Giannarita) Iannotti, a Neuroscientist with a Physics background, initiated her research career in 2011 as a post-graduate Research Assistant at the Computational Neuroscience Department at the University Federico II in Naples. Transitioning to the “Functional Brain Mapping Laboratory” at the University of Geneva in 2013, she earned her PhD in Neuroscience in 2018. Her doctoral focus was on characterizing brain functions in drug-resistant epileptic patients using simultaneous EEG-fMRI, in collaboration with Dr. F Grouiller, and under the joint supervision of Prof. C Michel from the University of Geneva and Prof. MD S Vulliémoz from the Division of Epilepsy at the University Hospitals of Geneva (HUG).

During her 5-year post-doctoral experience, she worked alongside the Neurorehabilitation, Neurosurgery, and Neurodiagnostic Divisions at HUG, with Prof. R Ptak, Prof. MD K Schaller, and Prof. MD KO Lovblad. Specializing in neuroimaging techniques and algorithm development, her work spans both research on healthy subjects and clinical applications, with a particular emphasis on: , i) understanding the spatio-temporal characteristics of brain functions in epilepsy, ii) brain functional connectivity in chronic stroke, iii) and developing advanced solutions to enhance the pre-surgical localization of functional brain areas in neurosurgical patients. Her expertise covers various neuroimaging modalities, including EEG, structural and functional MRI, and TMS.

Since 2022, Giannina has the role of Coordinator of the Clinical NeuroCentre in Geneva (HUG-NeuroCentre). Her primary responsibilities involve facilitating collaborations among HUG clinical researchers, fostering connections between them and local and international partner institutions, and manage a clinical research unit supporting clinical studies focused on various neuro-pathologies.

Concurrently, in 2024, she joined the CIBM as a Research Staff Scientist, contributing to the development of state-of-the-art 7 Tesla protocols aimed at advancing research and clinical applications to further improve patient outcomes.

Keywords: EEG-fMRI, TMS, functional MRI, artefact correction, clinical neuroscience, cognitive neuroscience, Self, Heart-Brain interaction.