Overview
Dr. Barca is a physician scientist with experience in neuromuscular disease. His work focuses on metabolic myopathies and mitochondrial diseases. Dr. Barca worked for many years with adult onset Pompe Disease patients in one of the major neuromuscular center in Europe. As he joined Columbia initially as a research scientist, he acquired considerable experience in Mitochondrial medicine. Mitochondrial disease became the focus of his clinical interest he joined the North American Mitochondrial Disease Consortium (NAMDC) as clinical fellow. He completed adult neurology residency at Columbia Irving Medical Center where he became proficient in diagnosis and treatment of most neurological conditions.
Academic Appointments
- Assistant Professor of Neurology
Gender
- Male
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Location(s)
Insurance Accepted
Aetna
- Aetna Signature Administrators
- NY Signature
- POS
- Student Health
Affinity Health Plan
- Essential Plan
Cigna
- EPO
- Great West (National)
- Medicare Managed Care
- POS
Emblem/GHI
- Medicare Managed Care
- PPO
Emblem/HIP
- POS
- Select Care (Exchange)
- Vytra
Local 1199
- Local 1199
- NYP Employee Plan
Medicare
- Railroad
- Traditional Medicare
Multiplan
- Multiplan
RiverSpring
- Special Needs
UnitedHealthcare
- Compass (Exchange)
- Empire Plan
- HMO
- Oxford Freedom
- Oxford HMO
- Oxford Liberty
- POS
- PPO
VNSNY CHOICE
- SelectHealth
World Trade Center Health Plan
- World Trade Center Health Plan
*Please contact the provider’s office directly to verify that your particular insurance is accepted.
Credentials & Experience
Education & Training
- M.D., 2008 University of Messina, Italy
- PhD, 2017 Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Messina, Italy
- Internship: 2020 New-York Presbyterian Hospital, Columbia University Medical Center
- Residency: 2023 New-York Presbyterian Hospital, Columbia University Medical Center
- Fellowship: 2018 Columbia University Medical Center
- Fellowship: 2019 University of Messina, Italy
Honors & Awards
- 2020, Loeb Intern Award, Columbia University Irving Medical Center
- 2023, Resident Research Award, Columbia University Irving Medical Center
- 2024, Clinical Research Training Scholarship (American Academy of Neurology)
Research
Dr. Barca research interests focus on rare metabolic diseases. He joined the Houston Merritt Center for research in neuromuscular diseases (Columbia University) in 2013. His research involves molecular genetics, biochemistry and bio-energetic evaluation of cells and tissues. He worked with several collaborators on a variety of topics including mitochondrial DNA depletion in Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) to Biochemical evaluation in GLUT-1 mouse model. His PhD was related to Coenzyme Q10 primary deficiencies and cerebellar neurodegenerative disorders. He recently described a new cause of Leigh Syndrome due to mutations in a new gene, USMG5, that he demonstrated to be related to ATP synthase function. Dr. Barca also works in clinical research, including analysis of population databases and he participates in different clinical trials for neuromuscular patients.
For a complete list of publications, please visit PubMed.gov