Giandomenico Iannetti was born in Rome in 1974. He graduated in Medicine and Surgery from “La Sapienza” University of Rome, where he obtained his MD in 1999, and his PhD in Neuroscience in 2003.
During his PhD he has been working in the laboratory of Giorgio Cruccu, investigating the brainstem neural circuits subserving trigemino-facial reflexes in humans, by using electrophysiological recording and MR imaging, as well as the cortical responses to selective stimulation of the nociceptive system, by recording scalp electroencephalographic (EEG) responses to radiant laser stimuli (laser-evoked potentials, LEPs).
In 2003 he moved to Oxford and joined, as Post Doctoral Research Fellow, the laboratory of Irene Tracey, to investigate further the central nervous system responses to nociceptive stimuli in humans. In Oxford he set up the technique to record laser-evoked potentials, which he used to achieve novel physiological information about spatial-temporal summation of nociceptive inputs and perceptual-related activity of cortical nociceptive areas. He also successfully combined the recording of EEG and functional MRI responses to laser stimulation in humans. Part of his research activity has been devoted to the pharmacological modulation of central nervous system responses to nociceptive stimuli; this research has lead to a better understanding of the brain deactivations in response to external stimuli, in the wider context of the field investigating the brain activity at rest. In 2005 he was Visiting Scientist at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the United States, where he applied the technique of functional MRI to investigate quantitatively the neural activity in the spinal cord during voluntary movement.
In 2006 Dr Iannetti was awarded a University Research Fellowship of the Royal Society and joined St. Catherine’s College as Fellow by Special Election. The Royal Society Fellowship allowed him to build his own research group, which has been initially based in Oxford. Dr Iannetti’s current research focuses on the neurophysiology of sensory systems in humans, with particular interest on the somatosensory system. His research group is currently based at the Department of Neuroscience, Physiology and Pharmacology of University College London.
