Claudio Franceschi

USERN Advisory Board

Claudio Franceschi has been Professor emeritus at the University of Bologna in Italy since 2016. After his initial medical training, he devoted himself to the study of human immunology and has held numerous positions including scientific director of the Italian National Research Center for Aging, as well as founding and directing the “Luigi Galvani” Center for Integrated Studies of Bioinformatics, Biophysics and Biocomplexity at the University of Bologna.

Research, collaboration, distinctions
In the late 1980s, at a time when experiments tended to study mice more than humans, Claudio Franceschi was one of the first to become interested in the issue of aging in humans and went on to become one of the most renowned international experts in this area. In the 1990s, he published research on anomalies of cellular immunity and the presence of a state of chronic infammation (referred to as "inflammaging" by Prof. Franceschi). A completely new concept at the time, it is now studied under the title immunosenescence.

Since 2010, he has published a number of pioneering studies on human aging based on a cohort of centenarians and their offspring or spouses. Primarily, he noted that centenarians or those over a hundred years old are a model for successful aging without comorbid conditions (illnesses or disorders linked to age), which paved the way to understanding the mechanims of these comorbid conditions (cancer, neurodegeneration, cardiovascular, metabolic and auto-immune disorders, etc.), which are so prevalent in today’s so-called “developed” societies. The variety of approaches he has employed, the quantity and quality of his often-pioneering work, and the insatiable curiosity that has pervaded his work throughout his career together have made him a significant contributor to this still mysterious field of knowledge.

Education:

1967/07, MD, Pathology /Immunology, University of Bologna, Italy

Positions and Employment:

• 2018 to present Editor-in-Chief of Ageing Research Reviews, the journal with the highest impact factor (IF: 8.973) in Gerontology and Geriatrics
• 2016 Professor Emeritus of Immunology, University of Bologna, Italy
• 1998-2013 Full Professor of Immunology, University of Bologna, Italy
• 2010-2012 Director of the Department of Experimental Pathology, University of Bologna
• 2001-2006; 2012 Director of the Interdepartmental Center for Studies on Bioinformatics and Biocomplexity "Luigi Galvani", University of Bologna
• 1986-1998 Full Professor of Immunology, University of Modena, Italy
• S1996-2005 Scientific Director of Italian National Research Center for Aging (INRCA, IRCCS), the public national institution of the Italian Ministry of Health devoted to aging research and care of elderly (7 geriatric hospitals in Italy, 1500 total employees, 400 researchers and MDs and a research Department of Gerontology in Ancona, Italy).
• 1980-1986 Full Professor of Immunology, University of Padova, Italy

Selected Honors:

•March 2018: Laurea Honoris Causa Université de Bordeaux, France.

• December 2017 Nencky Award, Nencky Institute of the Polish Academy of Science, Warsaw, Poland.

• September 2017 Schober Award, Martin-Luther-Universität Halle, Germany;

• April 2015 IAGG-ER Award of the International Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics of the European Region;

• August 2013: Honorary Professorship in Immunology, University of Nottingham, UK;

• June 2012: The Oxygen Club of California Award: Aging Research Award;

• June 2012: Member of the Academia Scientiarum Institutii Bononiensis.

• March 2012: Annual Hayflick Lecturer 2012, University of Alabama at Birmingham's Center for Aging;

• August 2008: Laurea Honoris Causa in Medicine, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba (Argentina);

• June 2006: Leadership and Excellence Award at the 4th International Bologna Meeting on Affective, Behavioural, and Cognitive Disorders in the Elderly;

• February 2005: Award for research on Human Longevity by Associazione PROFUTURA, Bologna;

Major research achievements:

About 800 papers published in peer-reviewed journals which received a total of 57253 citations and an H-index of 115 (Google Scholar April 2019).
Editor, together with T Fulop, K Hirokawa and G Pawelec of the HANDBOOK ON IMMUNOSENESCENCE: basic understanding and clinical applications. Springer 2009, a 1,650-page 2-volume encyclopedia on aging research with 78 articles and 94292 downloads, ISBN 978-1-4020-9063-1. The second edition 2019 is in press.

• discovery of the most important characteristics of immunosenescence in humans (accumulation of memory T cells, shortage of naive T cells, shrinkage of T cell repertoire, activation of innate immunity, role of CMV infection);

• conceptualization of the "remodelling” and “inflammaging” theories of aging, and of the "liquid immune self" and “immunobiography”;

• pioneering studies on immune response and stress throughout evolution, from invertebrates to humans as the evolutionary basis of “inflammaging”;

• pioneering studies on mathematical models of the immune system and proteasome/immunoproteasome;

• pioneering studies on centenarians (100+), semi-supercentenarians (105+) and their offspring as a model of successful aging and longevity, by performing omics integrated studies (endocrinology, genetics, transcriptomics, epigenetics, proteomics, metabolomics, metagenomics and glycomics) of human longevity;

• identification of the first “blue zone” in Sardinia, during studies of the centenarians of the entire island;

• identification of new polymorphisms of nuclear genes and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) associated to human aging and longevity (centenarians and elderly), Alzheimer disease and type 2 diabetes (T2D);

• pioneering studies on the role of mitochondria in human aging and longevity (centenarians and elderly);

• pioneering studies on the changes/remodelling of the gut microbiota in human aging and longevity (centenarians and elderly);

• identification of new biomarkers of aging (immunosenescence; N-glycans; DNA methylation of ELOVL2 gene; inflamma-miRs; metabolomic and lipidomic markers; circulating cell-free DNA);

• molecular characterization of the accelerated aging in Down syndrome subjects

Most Cited Publications:

Inflamm‐aging: an evolutionary perspective on immunosenescence

C Franceschi, M Bonafè, S Valensin, F Olivieri, M De Luca, E Ottaviani, ...

Annals of the new York Academy of Sciences 908 (1), 244-254 2000

Chronic Inflammation (Inflammaging) and Its Potential Contribution to Age-Associated Diseases

C Franceschi, J Campisi

The Journals of Gerontology: Series A 69 (Suppl_1), S4–S9 2014

Inflammaging and anti-inflammaging: a systemic perspective on aging and longevity emerged from studies in humans

C Franceschi, M Capri, D Monti, S Giunta, F Olivieri, F Sevini, ...

Mechanisms of ageing and development 128 (1), 92-105 2007

Through ageing, and beyond: gut microbiota and inflammatory status in seniors and centenarians

E Biagi, L Nylund, M Candela, R Ostan, L Bucci, E Pini, J Nikkïla, D Monti, ...

PloS one 5 (5), e10667 2010

A new method for the cytofluorometric analysis of mitochondrial membrane potential using the J-aggregate forming lipophilic cation 5, 5′, 6, 6′-tetrachloro-1, 1′, 3, 3 …

A Cossarizza, M Baccaranicontri, G Kalashnikova, C Franceschi

Biochemical and biophysical research communications 197 (1), 40-45 1993

JC-1, but not DiOC6 (3) or rhodamine 123, is a reliable fluorescent probe to assess ΔΨ changes in intact cells: implications for studies on mitochondrial functionality during …

S Salvioli, A Ardizzoni, C Franceschi, A Cossarizza

FEBS letters 411 (1), 77-82 1997

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