Dr. Cortese is a physician-scientist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She received a medical degree from the University of Heidelberg in Germany and a PhD in epidemiology at the University of Bergen in Norway. Her research is dedicated to identifying biomarkers, early signs, and risk factors for the onset and progression of neurologic diseases, such as Parkinson’s disease (PD), multiple sclerosis, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. She has a special interest in advancing the understanding of the prodromal phase of PD, which could provide an opportunity for early diagnosis and intervention. Dr. Cortese has extensive experience in the conduct of large longitudinal studies and in the analysis of large datasets using biological samples from the Harvard cohorts, the US military cohort, clinical trial study populations and a variety of Scandinavian population registries.