Yasser Iturria Medina, PhD
Assistant Professor
Yasser Iturria-Medina is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery. He is also an associate member聽of the Ludmer Centre for Neuroinformatics and Mental Health and聽the McConnell Brain Imaging Centre.
Iturria-Medina鈥檚 Lab 鈥� Neuroinformatics for Personalized Medicine 鈥� pursues primarily the goal of making precision medicine in Neurology a reality. It focuses on defining and implementing multiscale and multifactorial brain models for understanding neurological disorders and identifying effective personalized interventions. The lab combines molecular, imaging and cognitive data using integrative mathematical modelling to create both individual and population-based mechanistic brain models.
Iturria-Medina鈥檚 research has spanned neurodegeneration modelling, brain multimodal connectivity estimation, and statistical analysis for characterizing/predicting abnormal brain states. He currently is focusing on the creation and validation of integrative molecular, neuroimaging, and computational tools for understanding complex causal interactions among ageing, neurodegeneration and different therapeutic conditions.
Iturria-Medina received his undergraduate degree in Nuclear Engineering from the Higher Institute for Nuclear Sciences and Technology, Cuba, in 2004 and his Master鈥檚 degree in Neurophysics and Neuroengineering from the Cuban Neuroscience Center in 2006. He then completed his PhD in Neuroimaging and Neuroinformatics at the National Center for Scientific Research and Havana鈥檚 University of Medical Science in 2013. He came to the MNI as a postdoctoral student in 2013, before being appointed as an Assistant Professor in 2018.
Neuroimaging and Neuroinformatics
Yasser Iturria-Medina, Felix M. Carbonell, Alan C Evans and ADNI, 2018. Multimodal Imaging-based Therapeutic Fingerprints for Optimizing Personalized Interventions: Application to Neurodegeneration.聽NeuroImage, Vol. 179, Pages 40鈥�50.
Yasser Iturria-Medina, Vladimir Hachinski, and Alan C Evans, 2017. The vascular facet of Late-Onset Alzheimer's disease: an essential factor in a complex multifactorial disorder.聽Current Opinion in聽Neurology. 30(6):623-629.
Yasser Iturria-Medina, F茅lix Carbonell, Roberto C Sotero, Francois Chouinard-Decorte, Alan C Evans, ADNI, 2017. Multifactorial Causal Model of Brain (dis)Organization and Therapeutic Intervention: application to Alzheimer鈥檚 Disease.聽NeuroImage, Volume 152, Pages 60鈥�77.
Yasser Iturria-Medina, Sotero RC, Toussaint PJ, Mateos-P茅rez JM, Evans AC, and ADNI, 2016. Early Role of Vascular Dysregulation on Late-Onset Alzheimer麓s Disease Progression: evidence from a multi-factorial data-driven analysis.聽Nature Comms.,聽7, # 11934, doi:10.1038/ncomms11934.
Yasser Iturria-Medina and Alan C. Evans, 2015. On the central role of brain connectivity in neurodegenerative disease progression.聽Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience. Review paper. May, vol 7, article 90. DOI: 10.3389/fnagi.2015.00090.
Sanchez-Rodriguez, L. M., Iturria-Medina, Y., Baines, E. A., Mallo, S. C., Dousty, M., Sotero, R. C., 2018. Design of optimal nonlinear network controllers for Alzheimer's disease.PLoS Comput. Biol. 14(5): e1006136.聽
F茅lix M. Carbonell, Yasser Iturria-Medina, and Alan C Evans, 2018. Mathematical Modeling of Misfolding Protein Mechanisms in Neurological Diseases: an historical overview. Frontiers in Neurology, 9:37. DOI: 10.3389/fneur.2018.00037.
Marie Forest*, Yasser Iturria-Medina*, Jennifer Goldman, Amanda Lovato, Alan Evans, Antonio Ciampi, Aur茅lie Labbe, and Celia Greenwood, 2017. Gene networks for adult human brain connectivity reveal plasticity pathways.聽Human Brain Mapping, Mar., DOI: 10.1002/hbm.23579.
S茅bastien Tremblay, Yasser Iturria-Medina, Jos茅 Maria Mateos-P茅rez, Alan C. Evans and Louis De Beaumont, 2017. Anatomical network analysis and the development of an MRI-based diagnostic tool for remote sports concussions.聽European Journal of Neuroscience, doi:10.1111/ejn.13583.
Francisco J. Rom谩n, Yasser Iturria-Medina, Kenia Mart铆nez, Sherif Karama, Miguel Burgaleta, Susanne M. Jaeggi, Aron K. Barbey, Alan C. Evans, and Roberto Colom, 2017. Enhanced structural connectivity within a brain sub-network supporting working memory and engagement processes after cognitive training.聽Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, 141:33-43. DOI: 10.1016/j.nlm.2017.03.010.