PAOLO CASSANO, MD, PHD
Dr. Cassano is an Assistant Professor in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, and Director of Photobiomodulation at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Division of Neuropsychiatry and at the MGH Depression Clinical and Research Program.
He graduated the MGH-McLean Adult Psychiatry Residency Program in June 2009. Since 2009, he has served as PI on multiple studies on Transcranial Photobiomodulation (tPBM) for several neuropsychiatric diss –such as major depressive dis (MDD) and generalized anxiety dis (GAD)– sponsored by the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation (NARSAD), by the Dupont Warren/Livingston Fellowship Harvard Medical School and by private companies. These groundbreaking projects ─in collaboration with the MGH Wellman Center for Photomedicine─ have led to very promising results; they have demonstrated preliminary efficacy of near-infrared radiation for the treatment of mood diss and for ameliorating cognition. Considerable press attention stemmed these studies, with CNN and Washington Post coverage at the national level.
At the MGH Neuropsychiatry and Neuromodulation lab, he is actively pursuing the identification of biological targets of the effects of tPBM: he has been the PI on a pilot study to investigate the effects of tPBM on cerebral blood flow (Diffuse Correlation Spectroscopy - DCS), on brain electrical activity (electroencephalography – EEG), autonomic reactivity (heart rate variability – HRV and skin conductance – SCR) and cognition in healthy subjects.
Dr. Cassano is particularly interested in studying tPBM, as a pro-cognitive intervention, in patients with cognitive impairment and has reported with other groups on the use of tPBM to treat chronic traumatic brain injury and Down Syndrome, as well as to enhance cognition in healthy volunteers.
Dr. Cassano’s research on tPBM is currently funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), by the National Institute of Aging (NIA), by the Alzheimer Association “Part the Cloud” and by the Down Syndrome Research Foundation (UK).
In Nov 2016, he co-founded a neurotech, Niraxx Light Therapeutics Inc., to facilitate the technology transfer translational research to readily available product for the general public.