Nicolas Matias Phielipp
Biography
Nicolas Matias Phielipp, M.D., is Associate Professor in the Department of Neurology at the University of California, Irvine, where he serves as Parkinson's and Movement Disorders Fellowship Director, Director of the Movement Neurophysiology and Deep Phenotyping Laboratory, and Director of the Huntington's Disease Society of America Center of Excellence. Phielipp received his M.D. from the University of Buenos Aires in 2004 and completed clinical fellowships in movement disorders and neurophysiology at the Favaloro Foundation University Hospital and the University of Toronto, where he trained under Anthony Lang and Robert Chen.
Phielipp has established a research program focused on biomarkers, neurophysiology, and deep phenotyping of movement disorders. He founded the Movement Neurophysiology and Deep Phenotyping Laboratory at UCI in 2015, which has evolved to incorporate clinical, neurophysiological, and multiomics studies in Parkinson's disease and movement disorders cohorts. Since 2020, he has served as site principal investigator for first-in-human gene therapy and stem cell trials in Parkinson's disease and Multiple Systems Atrophy through the Alpha Clinic at UCI. His work has contributed to understanding cortical and subcortical neurophysiological mechanisms in dystonia and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and he led the cortical myoclonus section of a publication with the International Parkinson's and Movement Disorders Society Clinical Neurophysiology Study Group.
Phielipp has mentored undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate trainees in clinical care and research, with multiple students pursuing careers in medicine and healthcare. He has organized the annual UCI Parkinson's Disease Symposium since 2014, attracting between 200 and 400 community members each year, and led the inaugural Parkinson's Disease Symposium in Spanish in 2025. His clinical practice has received recognition through patient donations totaling over $1.5 million to support research and fellowship training, and he was named one of the top 20 physicians at UCI Health for patient communication in 2024.
Return to topDistinctions
- UCI Top 20 physician in achieving outstanding results in patient communication, 2024
- Honor your Hero award, Toronto Western Hospital, Movement Disorders Centre, 2010-2013
Areas of Expertise
- Movement Disorders Neurology
- Parkinson's Disease Biomarkers
- Clinical Neurophysiology Techniques
- Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation
- Gene Therapy Trials
- Stem Cell Therapeutics
- Deep Phenotyping Methods
Recent Publications
- Phielipp N, Henchcliffe C, “Investigational Gene Therapies for Parkinson's Disease” (opens in new tab), CNS Drugs, vol. 39, no. 8, pp. 725-737, 2025.
- Van Laar AD, Christine CW, Phielipp N, Larson PS, Elder JB, Merola A, San Sebastian W, Fiandaca MS, Kells AP, Wisniewski ME, Bankiewicz KS, “Intraputaminal Delivery of Adeno-Associated Virus Serotype 2-Glial Cell Line-Derived Neurotrophic Factor in Mild or Moderate Parkinson's Disease” (opens in new tab), Movement Disorders, vol. 40, pp. 1297-1306, 2025.
- Baveja S, Rajmohan R, Phielipp N, “Letter to the Editor: A systematic review of transcranial magnetic stimulation randomized controlled trials in Parkinson's disease patients with mild cognitive impairment” (opens in new tab), Clinical Neurophysiology, vol. 174, pp. 28-30, 2025.
- Videnovic A., Coffey C.S., Klerman E.B., Cudkowicz M., Cho H.J., Amara A., Marder K., Zee P., Desir C., Ernst H., Steinhart E., Costigan M., Gudjonsdottir A., Klingner E., Ecklund D., Chase M., Wang A., Charles D., Clifford D., Coleman J., et al., “ENLITE PD: A Randomized Clinical Trial of Light Therapy for Impaired Sleep in Parkinson's Disease” (opens in new tab), Movement Disorders, vol. 40, pp. 2445-2456, 2025.
- Latorre A, Ganos C, Hamada M, Phielipp N, Rocchi L, Merchant S, Tijssen MA, van der Veen S, Chen R, “Diagnostic Utility of Clinical Neurophysiology in Jerky Movement Disorders: A Review from the MDS Clinical Neurophysiology Study Group” (opens in new tab), Movement Disorders Clinical Practice, vol. 12, pp. 272-284, 2024.
- R. Rajmohan, Z. Al-Darsani, N. Phielipp, T. Montine, M. Corrada, C. Kawas, “Accuracy of Clinical features for Substantia Nigra Hypopigmentation and Cortical Lewy Body Presence in the Oldest-Old: The 90+ Study”, 2024. Presented at International Congress of Parkinson's and Movement Disorders, Philadelphia, September 27-Oct 1, 2024.
- C. Song, A. Basu, I. Bedoy, J. Li, J. Ruiz Tejeda, S. Nguyen, R. Rajmohan, N. Phielipp, “Characterizing Dopaminergic Correlates of Depression in Parkinson's Disease: The PPMI Cohort”, 2024. Presented at International Congress of Parkinson's and Movement Disorders, Philadelphia, September 27-Oct 1, 2024.
- J. Li, A. Basu, C. Song, I. Bedoy, J. Ruiz Tejeda, S. Nguyen, R. Rajmohan, N. Phielipp, “Assessing the Accuracy of Clinical features, CSF Dopamine Metabolites, and Striatal Binding Ratios for the Likelihood of Depression Over 10-year Follow Up in the PPMI Cohort”, 2024. Presented at International Congress of Parkinson's and Movement Disorders, Philadelphia, September 27-Oct 1, 2024.
- Phielipp N., Chen R, Jankovic J, “Motor Control of Movement Disorders”, Medlink Neurology, 2024.
- Ilene Trinh, Angeni Muralidhar, Justin Yang, Nicolás Phielipp, “Quantified Striatal Dopaminergic Denervation as Predictor for Motor Outcomes in Parkinson's disease” (opens in new tab), Movement Disorders Clinical Practice, vol. 10, no. 6, pp. 896-902, 2023.
- Joshua Li, Dana Tran, Sydney Nguyen, Nicolás Phielipp, “Orthostatic vital sign changes do not influence 5-year motor outcomes in PD”, 2023. Presented at International Congress of Parkinson's and Movement Disorders, Copenhagen, August 27-31, 2023.
- Joshua Li, Dana Tran, Sydney Nguyen, Nicolás Phielipp, “Neurogenic orthostatic hypotension is not associated with generalized dysautonomia in early motor PD”, 2023. Presented at International Congress of Parkinson's and Movement Disorders, Copenhagen, August 27-31, 2023.
- E. Shah, T. Khachatryan, N. Phielipp, S. Attaripour, “PD+: A comprehensive, user-friendly mobile application for clinicians treating Parkinson's Disease”, Movement Disorders Journal, vol. 37, pp. S82-S82, 2022. Presented at International Parkinson's and Movement Disorders Congress, Madrid, September 15-18, 2022.
- A Van Laar, C Christine, A Merola, N Phielipp, B Elder, P Larson, N Stoicea, W San Sebastian, M Fiandaca, A Kells, K Bankiewicz, “GDNF Gene Therapy for Parkinson's Disease (PD): Preliminary Safety and Clinical Findings from a Phase Ib Study”, Movement Disorders Journal, vol. 37, pp. S82-S82, 2022. Presented at International Parkinson's and Movement Disorders Congress, Madrid, September 15-18, 2022.
- J. Li, N. Phielipp, “Dopaminergic denervation as predictors of Falls in PD patients”, Movement Disorders Journal, vol. 37, pp. S82-S82, 2022. Presented at International Parkinson's and Movement Disorders Congress, Madrid, September 15-18, 2022.
- J. Li, N. Phielipp, “Dopaminergic denervation as predictors of Axial Dysfunction in Parkinson's Disease”, Movement Disorders Journal, vol. 37, pp. S82-S82, 2022. Presented at International Parkinson's and Movement Disorders Congress, Madrid, September 15-18, 2022.
- Cricia Rinchon, Carolyn Gunraj, Nicolas Phielipp, Kaviraja Udupa, Neil Drummond, Talyta Cortez Grippe, Robert Chen, “TU-156. Increased susceptibility to long-term depression and impaired metaplasticity in the primary motor cortex of focal hand dystonia patients”, Clinical Neurophysiology, vol. 141, pp. S23, 2022.
- Amber D Van Laar, Chadwick W Christine, Aristide Merola, Nicolas M Phielipp, J Bradley Elder, Paul S Larson, Nicoleta Stoicea, Waldy San Sebastian, Massimo S Fiandaca, Adrian P Kells, Krystof S Bankiewicz, “Safety and Preliminary Clinical Findings of Neurosurgical AAV2-GDNF delivery for Parkinson's disease”, Molecular Therapy, vol. 30, no. 4, pp. 374-375, 2022. Presented at 25th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy.
Most Cited Publications
- Wainger BJ, Macklin EA, Vucic S, McIlduff CE, Paganoni S, Maragakis NJ, Bedlack R, Goyal NA, Rutkove SB, Lange DJ, Rivner MH, Goutman SA, Ladha SS, Mauricio EA, Baloh RH, Simmons Z, Pothier L, Kassis SB, La T, Hall M, et al., “Effect of Ezogabine on Cortical and Spinal Motor Neuron Excitability in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: A Randomized Clinical Trial” (opens in new tab), JAMA Neurology, vol. 72, no. 2, pp. 186-196, 2021.
- Pondal M, Marras C, Miyasaki J, Moro E, Armstrong MJ, Strafella AP, Shah BB, Fox S, Prashanth LK, Phielipp N, Lang AE, “Clinical features of dopamine agonist withdrawal syndrome in a movement disorders clinic” (opens in new tab), Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, vol. 84, no. 2, pp. 130-5, 2013.
- Ni Z, Kim SJ, Phielipp N, Ghosh S, Udupa K, Gunraj CA, Saha U, Hodaie M, Kalia SK, Lozano AM, Lee DJ, Moro E, Fasano A, Hallett M, Lang AE, Chen R, “Pallidal deep brain stimulation modulates cortical excitability and plasticity” (opens in new tab), Annals of Neurology, vol. 83, no. 2, pp. 352-362, 2018.
- Vadera S, Chan A, Lo T, Gill A, Morenkova A, Phielipp NM, Hermanowicz N, Hsu FP, “Frameless Stereotactic Robot-Assisted Subthalamic Nucleus Deep Brain Stimulation: Case Report” (opens in new tab), World Neurosurgery, vol. 97, pp. 762, 2017.
- Espay AJ, Edwards MJ, Oggioni GD, Phielipp N, Cox B, Gonzalez-Usigli H, Pecina C, Heldman DA, Mishra J, Lang AE, “Tremor retrainment as therapeutic strategy in psychogenic (functional) tremor” (opens in new tab), Parkinsonism and Related Disorders, vol. 20, no. 6, pp. 647-50, 2014.
- Elahi B, Phielipp N, Chen R, “N-Methyl-D-Aspartate antagonists in levodopa induced dyskinesia: a meta-analysis” (opens in new tab), Canadian Journal of Neurological Sciences, vol. 39, no. 4, pp. 465-72, 2012.
- Emilia M Gatto, Ruth H Walker, Claudio Gonzalez, Martin Cesarini, Giovanni Cossu, Christopher D Stephen, Bettina Balint, Mayela Rodríguez-Violante, Joseph Jankovic, Francesca Morgante, Hyder A Jinnah, “Worldwide barrier to genetic testing for movement disorders” (opens in new tab), European Journal of Neurology, vol. 28, no. 6, pp. 1901-1909, 2021.
- Mestre TA, Beaulieu-Boire I, Aquino CC, Phielipp N, Poon YY, Lui JP, So J, Fox SH, “What is a clinically important change in the Unified Dyskinesia Rating Scale in Parkinson's disease?” (opens in new tab), Parkinsonism and Related Disorders, vol. 21, no. 11, pp. 1349-54, 2015.
- Paff M, Wang AS, Phielipp N, Vadera S, Morenkova A, Hermanowicz N, Hsu FPK, “Two-year clinical outcomes associated with robotic-assisted subthalamic lead implantation in patients with Parkinson's disease” (opens in new tab), Journal of Robotic Surgery, vol. 14, pp. 559-565, 2019.
Contact Information
Website: https://sites.uci.edu/lndp/
Email: nphielip@uci.edu
Phone: (949) 824-1264
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Last updated on 8/18/2026.