Maria Assunta Rocca

Professor Maria Assunta Rocca is a neurologist at the Neurology Unit of the IRCCS Ospedale San Raffaele.

She is also an Associate Professor of Neurology at the Vita-Salute San Raffaele University and the Director of the White Matter Neuroimaging Unit of the Central Nervous System at IRCCS Ospedale San Raffaele in Milan. Professor Rocca coordinates the Research Phase I Unit and is responsible for the Functional Unit at the Neurology Unit of the IRCCS Ospedale San Raffaele.

In 1996, she graduated in Medicine and Surgery from the University of Milan and specialized in Neurology in 2002 at the Vita-Salute San Raffaele University.

Her work focuses on the diagnosis and treatment of conditions such as multiple sclerosis and other inflammatory diseases of the Central Nervous System (e.g., neuromyelitis optica, vasculitis, etc.), and she is involved in numerous clinical trials.

Her research activities have always centered on the application of MRI to improve the diagnosis and treatment of patients with white matter disorders of the CNS, with a primary interest in multiple sclerosis. She has also dedicated herself to developing and implementing structural and functional MRI techniques to enhance understanding of CNS functioning in healthy subjects and the progression of disability in patients with various conditions, primarily multiple sclerosis, vasculitis, and migraine.

She is a member of several international scientific societies, holding or having held institutional roles in some of them (Co-Chair of the Steering Committee of MAGNIMS - European Community Network for the application of MRI in MS; Co-Chair of the Scientific Panel on Neuroimaging of the European Academy of Neurology; Study Group on Neuroimaging of the Italian Society of Neurology).

Professor Rocca is the author of over 646 articles in indexed journals (Scopus H-index: 90). She is on the Editorial Board of several international scientific journals and regularly reviews for the fields of neurology and neuroimaging, including for governmental entities and private foundations. She is also an Associate Editor of the journal *Multiple Sclerosis and Related Disorders*.