Alberto Rábano M.D., PhD,  is a neuropathologist and basic neuroscientist, working since 2009 at the CIEN Foundation as Head of the Neuropathology and Biobank Platform and Scientific Director of the CIEN Tissue Bank. His research interests are focused on diagnostic and molecular neuropathology of neurodegenerative diseases, mixed pathologies in dementia, biospecimen science and biobanking, and on ethical issues related to tissue donation for research. Since 2014 he is the principal investigator of the Vallecas Alzheimer’s Reina Sofía (VARS) cohort, a clinicopathological cohort of patients with dementia institutionalized at the Alzheimer’s Centre Queen Sofía Foundation, Madrid.
During the “mad cow” crisis (2000-2009) he oversaw the neuropathological diagnosis of prion diseases in several regions of Spain, including Madrid, and was a member of several governmental committees dealing with prion disease surveillance and biosafety issues. Alberto Rábano has been a member of the Ethical Advisory Board of the Human Brain Project (2014 – 2018) and of the Steering Committee of the Spanish National Biobank Network (2014 – 2020), and President of the Spanish Neuropathology Club (2017 – 2021). In 2024 Alberto Rábano was awarded by the Pasqual Maragall Foundation for the development of the GADIR project (GenOmics and Digital Neuropathological Phenotyping of Iberian Brains) (2025-2027).