Dr. Giulia Purpura currently serves as an Assistant Professor and Developmental Therapist at the School of Medicine and Surgery, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy. Dr. Purpura worked as a Neurodevelopmental Disorders Therapist at IRCCS Fondazione Stella Maris (Pisa, Italy) from March 2009 to August 2020 and as a Ricercatori a tempo determinato at the University of Milano-Bicocca from September 2020 to August 2025. Dr. Purpura is also a member of the Editorial Board of Frontiers in Psychology (2022), Frontiers in Human Neuroscience (2023), and BMC Pediatrics (2024). Dr. Purpura’s main research interests include cerebral palsy, children, neurodevelopmental disorders, rehabilitation, and visual impairment.
Prof. Renata Nacinovich currently serves as an Associate Professor at the School of Medicine and Surgery, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy. She received her degree in Medicine and Surgery from the University of Pisa in 1982, specializing in child neuropsychiatry. Her research, aimed at diagnostic and therapeutic protocols in the development and pathology of language, was awarded a scholarship from the Ministry of Health. From February 2005 to February 2008, she served as a researcher at the University of Brescia with clinical activity at the NPI of the Spedali Civili of Brescia. Since March 2008, she has been a researcher at the University of Milan Bicocca with clinical activity at the NPI Clinic of the San Gerardo Hospital in Monza. Prof. Nacinovich is also an associate member of the Italian Psychoanalytic Society with affiliation to the Milan Center and is the NPI teacher for various university courses. Her main research interests include eating disorders in developmental age (DCA), personality disorders in adolescence, developmental disorders, parental couple and children’s psychopathology, the effectiveness of psychotherapeutic interventions, and cerebral palsy and rehabilitation.
Prof. Andrea Eugenio Cavanna currently serves as an Associate Professor in Neuropsychiatry, Consultant in Behavioural Neurology (BSMHFT and University of Birmingham, UK), and Associate Professor in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy). He received his MBChB and MD from the University of Turin (Italy), completed his specialty training in Neurology at Amedeo Avogadro University, Novara (Italy), and was awarded his PhD in Clinical Neurology from University College London (UK). Since 2008, he has been the Lead Consultant for the specialist Tourette Syndrome Clinic at the Department of Neuropsychiatry, BSMHFT. He is Deputy Director of the Clinical Neuropsychiatry MSc/PGDip/PGCert at the University of Birmingham. He has published over 250 international peer-reviewed articles in the fields of behavioral neurology and neuropsychiatry, with a special focus on the behavioral aspects of movement disorders and epilepsy. In 2010, he received the American Neuropsychiatric Association Career Development Award. Prof. Cavanna is also a member of the editorial boards of several scientific journals, including Epilepsy and Behavior. His main research interests include behavioral neurology and clinical neuropsychiatry.
