Casanova graduated from
Colegio San Ignacio de Loyola in 1970. He earned a Bachelor of Science (Chemistry) from the
University of Puerto Rico and his medical degree from the
University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine. He then completed clinical and research fellowships at
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, including three years in
neuropathology, where he was in-charge of pediatric
neuropathology, which was when his interest in developmental disorders of the
brain arose. He subsequently helped establish two
brain banks, the Johns Hopkins Brain Resource Center and the Brain Bank Unit of the Clinical Brains Disorders Branch at the
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). Casanova spent several years as a deputy
medical examiner for
Washington, D.C., where he gained experience with the postmortem examination of
sudden infant death syndrome and
child abuse, which was when he began publishing extensively on postmortem techniques, including neuronal morphometry immunocytochemistry,
neurochemistry, and autoradiography. He also worked as a consultant and was staff
neuropathologist at Sinai Hospital in
Maryland, the North Charles Hospital, and the D.C. General Hospital. Served from 1984 to 1990 reaching the rank of Mayor in the
United States Army Reserve with the
Army Medical Department Augmentation Detachment (FAAD) and the 100th Station Hospital. He is also a former lieutenant commander in the
United States Public Health Service. After serving as a professor of
psychiatry and
neurology at the
Medical College of Georgia, he subsequently joined the University of Louisville faculty. In June 2014, he moved to the University of South Carolina and the Greenville Health System. ==Research==