E. Antonio (Nino) Chiocca was born in the city of Padova in northeastern Italy on November 15, 1959, where he was raised. His father was in the Italian air force and then worked for NATO, while his mother is a US citizen originally from Yonkers (NY). In 1979, he moved with his parents to El Paso, TX where his father was stationed at Ft. Bliss. He attended college at the University of Texas at El Paso, where he graduated with a BS in 1982. His interest in biomedical research was solidified by an undergraduate research project that he attended at MD Anderson Hospital in the summer of 1981. In fact, he entered the MD/PhD program offered by the University of Texas Medical School at Houston and the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences where he graduated with both degrees in 1988. His PhD thesis centered around the transcriptional regulation of transglutaminase by retinoids. In 1989, he began his residency in Neurological Surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital, which he completed in 1995. During his residency he worked also in research laboratories, first of Dr. Martuza and then of Dr. X. Breakefield, on gene transfer and therapy for CNS diseases and glioma. He joined the faculty at MGH in 1995 as an assistant professor and was promoted to associate professor in 1998. In 2004, he became the first Chairman of the newly developed Department of Neurological Surgery at the Ohio State University Medical Center, where he held the Dardinger Family Endowed Chair in Oncological Neurosurgery. In 2012 he became the Chairman of the Department of Neurosurgery at Brigham & Women's Hospital and the Harvey W. Cushing Professor of Neurosurgery at Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Chioccas research interests center around the biology and translational treatment of gliomas. He is currently principal investigator on 2 R01, 1 R21, 1 project of a program project, and 2 subcontracts from other NIH-funded research work and oversees a research group of approximately 20 postdoctoral fellows, junior faculty and students. He holds several patents on gene transfer techniques and is author or co-authors of more than 200 peer-reviewed publications. He has been elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI), is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and a member of the American Academy of Neurosurgery. He also is a member of the NCI-D (clinical studies) parent committee, that makes final recommendations on large budget grants to the NIH, and of the developmental therapeutics NIH study sections. He serves on the editorial boards of Journal of Neurosurgery, Molecular Therapy, Neuro-oncology, and Journal of Neurovirology.

Dr. Chiocca and his wife, Charlotte, have 4 young children, Cristina, Alex, Andrew and Austin. He enjoys swimming, running and alpine skiing.