Ignacio Mata, PhD, is Assistant Professor at Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine. He hold a Bachelor of Science and PhD in Human/Medical Genetics from la Universidad de Oviedo in Asturias, Spain, and he received his PhD in Neurogenetics from Mayo Clinic. Dr. Mata's lab is working towards identifying and understanding the genes that play a role in those diseases that affect the brain (neurological disorders). These include the very well-known Parkinson’s disease (PD), but also other less common disorders such as a form of PD that presents with severe cognitive problems/dementia (PDD) and another type of dementia called Dementia with Lewy Bodies (DLB).
Recent Publications
- Step, K, Hernández, CF, Khani, M, Eltaraifee, E, Hernández-Medrano, AJ, Kung, PJ, Ostrožovičová, M, Zirra, A, Pérez-Palma, E, Mencacci, NE et al.. Genome-Wide Assessment Reveals Ancestral Differences in Homozygosity Patterns Potentially Linked to Parkinson's Disease Etiology. Mov Disord 2026; : . PubMed PMID:41808632 .
- Step, K, Ndong Sima, CAA, Grant, S, Kim, JJ, Waldo, E, Bardien, S, Mata, IF, Global Parkinson’s Genetics Program (GP2). Polygenic risk scores and Parkinson's disease in South Africa advancing ancestry informed disease prediction. PLoS Genet 2026; 22 (3): e1012064. PubMed PMID:41801886 .
- da Silva, PHP, Abreu, JS, Gomes, RSG, Oliveira, HKA, Schuh, AFS, Mata, IF, Santos-Lobato, BL. Revisiting the Association of Pesticide Exposure and Parkinson's Disease: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Environ Toxicol 2026; : . PubMed PMID:41566858 .
- Step, K, Waldo, E, Leal, TP, Mendes, M, Bardien, S, Mata, IF. Insights into X-Linked Susceptibility to Parkinson's Disease in the South African Population. medRxiv 2025; : . PubMed PMID:41480044 PubMed Central PMC12755251.
- Step, K, Madula, L, Kuznetsov, N, Maasdorp, E, Carr, J, van Coller, R, Mata, IF, Bardien, S. Comprehensive genetic screening of the South African Parkinson's disease study collection using the NeuroBooster array. medRxiv 2025; : . PubMed PMID:41445612 PubMed Central PMC12723977.
- Sun, W, Schulte, C, Gasser, T, Tan, M, Global Parkinson’s Genetic Program (GP2). TMEM175, SCARB2 and CTSB associations with Parkinson's disease risk across populations. NPJ Parkinsons Dis 2025; 11 (1): 348. PubMed PMID:41331295 PubMed Central PMC12678402.
- Step, K, Ndong Sima, CAA, Grant, S, Kim, JJ, Waldo, E, Bardien, S, Mata, IF. Polygenic risk scores and Parkinson's disease in South Africa: Moving towards ancestry-informed disease prediction. medRxiv 2025; : . PubMed PMID:41256174 PubMed Central PMC12622108.
- Chaparro-Solano, HM, Mata, IF. Is one too many? Rethinking the innocence of heterozygous variants in recessive disorders. Parkinsonism Relat Disord 2026; 142 : 108114. PubMed PMID:41238429 .
- Santos-Lobato, BL, Schuh, AFS, Mata, IF. Household herbicide use is associated with the risk of Parkinson's disease and a younger age at onset in PPMI and Fox Insight cohorts. J Neural Transm (Vienna) 2025; : . PubMed PMID:41171381 .
- Barberena-Jonas, C, Flores-Ocampo, V, Ogonowski, NS, Piña-Escudero, SD, Mata, IF, Yokoyama, JS, García-García, L, Aguilar Salinas, CA, ENSANUT consortium, Tusié-Luna, MT et al.. Genetic analysis of APOE reveals distinct origins and distribution of ancestry-enrichment haplotypes in the Mexican Biobank. Genes Dis 2026; 13 (1): 101542. PubMed PMID:41049132 PubMed Central PMC12495275.
