Prof. Dr. Med. Claudio Franceschi

 

Professor Emeritus at UNIBO, Associate Member of the Institute of Neurological Sciences of Bologna, Italy and Head of the Laboratory of Systems Medicine and Healthy Aging, Lobachevsky University of Nizhny Novgorod, Russia.

Journals

Editor-in-Chief of Ageing Research Review (IF 2018:10.390); member to the editorial boards of: Aging Clinical and Experimental Research; Experimental Gerontology; Mechanisms of Ageing and Development; AGING (USA); Aging Cell; Translational Medicine of Aging.

Career

MD cum laude (1967) at Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna (UNIBO), Italy. Full Professor of Immunology at the Universities of Padua (1980-86), Modena (1986-1998) and UNIBO (1998-2013). Founder/Director of the Interdepartmental Center for Studies on Bioinformatics and Biocomplexity “L. Galvani”, UNIBO (2001-2006; 2012). Director of the Department of Experimental Pathology, UNIBO (2010-2012). Scientific Director of Italian National Research Center for Aging (INRCA) a public national institution of the Italian Ministry of Health devoted to aging research and care of the elderly [1,500 total employees, 400 Researchers and MDs, 8 geriatric hospitals in Italy (Ancona, Milan, Florence, Rome, Fermo, Appignano, Cagliari, Cosenza and a Research Department of Gerontology in Ancona)] (1996-2005).

Major Research Achievements

  1. i) discovery of the most important characteristics of immunosenescence in humans;
  2. ii) proposal of the “remodelling” and “inflammaging” theories of aging, and of the conceptualization of the “liquid immune self” and “immunobiography”;

iii) pioneering studies on immune response and stress throughout evolution;

  1. iv) pioneering studies on genetics, epigenetics, proteomics, metabolomics, metagenomics, glycomics of human aging and longevity (centenarians);
  2. v) discovery of nuclear genes and mtDNA polymorphisms associated to human longevity, Alzheimer and T2D;
  3. vi) new biomarkers of aging (gut microbiome; N-glycans; DNA methylation; inflamma-miRs; metabolomic and lipidomic markers);

vii) identification of immunological, epigenetic and glycomic biomarkers of the Down Syndrome as a model of accelerating aging;

viii) mathematical modeling of the immune system and the proteasome.

 

Grants

Coordinator of European large collaborative projects: PROPAG-AGEING (Aging and Parkinson disease, 2015-2019; 6M€); ADAGE (Alzheimer disease; 2016-2019; 1.3M€); NU-AGE (Mediterranean Diet for the elderly, 2011-2016; 9M€); GEHA (GEnetics of Heathy Aging, 2004-2010; 7.2M€). PI OF THE MEGAGRANT “DPM-AGEING” Digital Personalized Medicine of Healthy Ageing (2018-2020) funded by Government of Russian Federation at State National Research University “Lobachevsky” of Nizhny Novgorod, Russia”. Partner/WP leader of the following EU projects: PROTEOMAGE; RISTOMED; MARK-AGE; MYOAGE; IDEAL; COBRA; MISSION-T2D; HUMAN; MYNEWGUT.

Awards

February 2005: Award for research on Human Longevity by Associazione PROFUTURA, Bologna; June 2006: Leadership and Excellence Award at the 4th International Bologna Meeting on Affective, Behavioural, and Cognitive Disorders in the Elderly; December 2007: Award from the Scandinavian Medical Association for the research into the genetics of aging and longevity; August 2008: Laurea Honoris causa in Medicine, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba (Argentina); March 2012: Annual Hayflick Lecturer 2012, University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Center for Aging; June 2012: The Oxygen Club of California Award: Aging Research Award; Member of the Academia Scientiarum Institutii Bononiensis, Bologna, Italy; August 2013: Honorary Professorship University of Nottingham, UK; April 2015 IAGG-ER Award of the International Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics of the European Region; September 2017: Schober Price, Martin Luther University, Halle, Germany; October 2017: Nencki Prize, Polish Academy of Sciences, Nencki Institute, Warsaw, Poland; March 2018: Laurea honoris causa, University of Bordeaux, France.