Nutrition as an anti-aging strategy

How to age healthily? The goal of the research group is to study the pervasive role of nutrition as a non-pharmacological strategy for the prevention of accelerated aging and age-related diseases.

Areas:

Research areas

The aging population represents one of the greatest challenges for society, largely due to the increase of age-associated diseases. Chronic systemic inflammation and visceral adipose tissue play crucial roles in the development of cardio-metabolic disorders such as abdominal obesity, hypertension, dyslipidemia, and hyperglycemia.Eating habits are a fundamental part of every lifestyle, having an immediate impact on metabolism—and stimulating, when incorrect or excessive, metabolic inflammation. Adhering to healthy dietary patterns such as the Mediterranean diet can reduce the risk of age-associated metabolic diseases.

 

Research projects

  • Study of the impact of nutrition on aging, frailty, and cognitive response;
  • Study of the effect of nutrition on inflammation and intestinal microbiota;
  • Study of the correlation between nutrition and body composition in the elderly.

 

Aims of the research updated

The effect of diet is influenced by a number of variables such as genetics, geography/ethnicity, and sex/gender. Today, the belief that interventions (pharmacological and non-pharmacological) and medical treatments can be adapted to an individual’s biochemical, physiological, behavioral, and environmental exposure profile is of great interest in the field known as personalized preventive medicine.

In the future we hope to address the following points:

  • The heterogeneity of the response to treatment with the Mediterranean diet
  • The long-term effects of the Mediterranean diet on the health of the elderly
  • The study of biomarkers of aging/longevity in response to nutrition.

 

Active grants

  • European Project- JPI-HDHL INTIMIC METADIS; Project title: EURODIET- Dietary Patterns in the Ageing European Population: an Interdisciplinary Approach to combat Overweight-Related Metabolic Diseases (2020-2023: Project ID 1164)

responsible

Collaborators

Dott.ssa Morena Martucci, membro del Team;

Dr. Chiara La MorgiaIRCCS Istituto delle Scienze Neurologiche-Ospedale Bellaria, Bologna

Prof. Marco Candela, Dr. Silvia Turroni, Dr. Elena Biagi, Dr. Simone RampelliDepartment of Pharmacy and Biotechnology, University of Bologna

Prof. Patrizia Brigidi, Department of Medical Science and Surgery -DIMEC, University of Bologna

Prof. Daniela MontiDepartment of Experimental and Clinical Biomedical Sciences “Mario Serio”, Università di Firenze

Prof. Fawzi KadiUniversity of Orebro, Sweden

Prof. Paul O’TooleDepartment of Microbiology, University College of Cork, Ireland

Dr. Blandine ComteDept of Metabolism and mass spectrometry, Université Clermont Auvergne, Clermont-Ferrand, France

Prof. Barbara PietruszkaFaculty of human Nutrition, University of Warsaw, Poland

Prof. Susan Fairweather-TaitMedical School, University East Anglia, Norwich, UK

Prof. Lisette de GrootDept, of Human Nutrition and Health, University of Wageningen, the Netherland

Dr. Alberto Del RioInnovamol srl

How to reach us

Lab of Biology, Immunology, Genetic and Epigenetic of Human Ageing, of Longevity and Age-Related Diseases

Via San Giacomo, 12 Bologna