Leading scientist

Name: Claudio Franceschi

Academic degree: Ph.D., professor

Position: Honorary Professor of Immunology, University of Bologna

Research Interests: Gerontology, geriatrics, immunology, longevity

Scientific recognition:
2005 – Award for research on Human Longevity by Associazione PROFUTURA, Bologna, ITALY
2006 – Leadership and Excellence Award at the 4th International Bologna Meeting on Affective, Behavioural, and Cognitive Disorders in the Elderly
2008 – Laurea Honoris Causa in Medicine, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba (Argentina)
2012 – Annual Hayflick Lecturer 2012, University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Center for Aging
2012 – The Oxygen Club of California Award: Aging Research Award

Scientific achievements:
Among the main achievements of the leading scientist are the following:
Claudio Franceschi was the first to identify some of the main characteristics of immunogenicity in humans (for example, a lack of naive T cells, accumulation of memory cell clones, a decrease in the T cell repertoire, an anti-inflammatory profile of immune cells in the elderly, an age-related increase in non-specific autoantibodies) and identified the main biological parameters of longevity people (preserved function of hematopoietic stem cells, mild hypothyroid function, the ability of cells to proliferate, low levels of circulating IGF-1).

The leading scientist is the author of the following approaches and theories:
1) the theory of “inflammation”, which identifies chronic low-level inflammation as the most important characteristic of the aging process and links aging with the main age-related disease;
2) the theory of “remodeling”, which suggests that the phenotype of old organs is the result of their ability to respond and adapt to macromolecular damage;

Claudio Franceschi is a pioneer in research
– long-livers as a model of healthy aging, including studies of hematopoietic stem cells, channel K +, p53;
– relationship of demography and genetics with aging and longevity in humans;
– identifying polymorphisms of nuclear genes and chromosomal regions associated with a person’s lifespan;
– identifying mtDNA polymorphisms and mutations associated with human longevity, Alzheimer’s disease and complications of diabetes;
– mathematical modeling in immunology (immunological memory, the immune system as a network; Mathematical model of the proteasome);
– use of OMICS in research on human aging and longevity,
– glycomics and gut microbiomes, metabolomics and epigenetics in the process of human aging and longevity;
– identifying of biomarkers that can distinguish chronological from biological age and physiological from pathological age (agalactosylated N-glycans and methylation of ELOVL2, FHL2 genes),
– role of immunoproteasome in neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration.

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