Diego Mastroeni’s research focuses on understanding the genetic basis behind neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE. Mastreoni is an associate research professor in the School of Life Sciences and researcher at ASU’s Biodesign Institute and part of the ASU-Banner Neurodegenerative Disease Research Center at ASU’s Biodesign Institute, a new research alliance to advance the scientific study, treatment and prevention of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and other neurodegenerative diseases.

Mastroeni uses state-of-the-art tools of laser capture microdissection technology, which allowed his research team to identify unique pathways in human brain cells from Alzheimer's, Parkinson’s and healthy brains (donated from the brain bank at Banner Sun Health Research Institute). Their technology, in combination with gene expression data has been instrumental in identifying many unique pathways that may have been missed with conventional analysis.