Ignacio (Nacho) F. Mata, PhD

Ignacio is currently Associate staff at the Genomic Medicine Institute (GMI), part of the Lerner Research Institute (LRI) at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation and assistant professor of molecular medicine at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University. He has worked in the field of Parkinson’s disease (PD) genetics for nearly 16 years and authored/co-authored over 100 manuscripts on PD genetics. Ignacio’s primary research goals are to understand the genetic component of neurological disorders, specifically in PD, Parkinson’s Disease Dementia (PDD), and Dementia with Lewy Bodies (DLB). Ignacio’s lab uses case-control and family studies to identify genetic factors that modify risk or cause the disease. A significant focus of his research is performing genetic studies in non-European populations, especially those with minority ethnic backgrounds. For this, Ignacio created and coordinates the Latin American Research consortium on the Genetics of PD (LARGE-PD), a collaboration of more than 40 institutions in 13 Latin American countries.