ProfessorLuigi Fontana

MD, PhD, FRACP

Professor Luigi Fontana is an internationally recognized physician scientist and one of the world's leaders in the field of nutrition and healthy longevity in humans. His pioneering clinical studies on the effects of dietary restriction have opened a new area of nutrition-related research that holds tremendous promise for the prevention of age-related chronic diseases. His research has delivered a paradigm shift in the understanding of how dietary restriction and exercise training, by slowing the accumulation of metabolic and molecular damage, deeply influence human aging biology and the initiation, progression and prognosis of many clinical conditions, ranging from obesity to type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer and dementia.

Nowadays, the concept of "dietary restriction" as an important intervention to promote human health in multiple clinical conditions is well accepted scientifically (Fontana et al. JAMA 2007; Fontana et al., Science 2010; Fontana et al. Nature 2014; Fontana et al. Cell 2015; Fontana L. Nat Rev Cardiol 2018; Clifton et al. CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians 2021, Green et al. Nature Review Mol Cell Biol 2022; Wang et al. European Heart Journal 2023), but this was not the case back in 2001 when he began his translational research program addressing the complicated cross-talk between calorie intake, meal frequency, diet composition, exercise training and metabolic and molecular health in humans.

For this work, Prof. Fontana was awarded several prestigious awards: the 2009 American Federation Aging Research (AFAR) Breakthroughs in Gerontology Award; the 2011 Glenn Award for Research in Biological Mechanisms of Aging; the 2016 Vincent Cristofalo Award of the American Federation Aging Research; the 2021 Vice-Chancellor's Award for Research Excellence, University of Sydney; 2022 Elected Honorary Member of the Italian Association of Hospital Gastroenterologists; 2022 SUPRA Supervisor of the Year 2022 for Outstanding Knowledge, Commitment and Care, University of Sydney; 2022 Elected Member of the Italian Academy of Medical and Surgical Sciences of the National Society of Sciences, Letters and Arts in Naples; 2023 Elected Member of the Italian Pontanian Academy of Naples.. He was a scientific member of the Board of Directors of the American Aging Association (2014-2019), and since 2016, he is the Editor-in-Chief of 'Nutrition and Healthy Aging' and Associated Editor of 'Geroscience'.

Since July 2018, Professor Fontana is the Leonard P. Ullmann Chair of Translational Metabolic Health at the Charles Perkins Centre, where he directs the Charles Perkins Centre RPA Clinic and the 'Health for Life' Research, Educational and Clinical Program. He is also a Professor of Medicine and Nutrition in the Faculty of Medicine and Health at the University of Sydney and a Clinical Academic in the Department of Endocrinology at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital.

Before joining the University of Sydney, he was a Full Professor of Medicine and Nutritional Sciences at Washington University in St.Louis (USA) and Brescia (Italy) Schools of Medicine, and co-director of the Longevity Research Program at Washington University. Fontana graduated with highest honors from the Verona University Medical School (1994), where he completed his internship and residency in Internal Medicine (1999). He also received a Ph.D. in Metabolism and Clinical Pharmacology from the University of Padua Medical School (2004).

Professor Fontana has published over 200 highly-cited manuscripts in prestigious journals including Science, Nature, Cell, New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, British Medical Journal, Nature Reviews Mol Cell Biol, Cell Metabolism, Lancet Diabetes Endocrinology, Circulation, European Heart Journal, Journal American College of Cardiology, Diabetes, Aging Cell and PNAS, among others.

In the past 20 years, he has been invited to deliver 340 lectures at major international meetings and universities around the world, including Harvard University, Cambridge University, Yale University, Universitè Paris "Pierre et Marie Curie", Max Plank Institute of Aging, Baylor College of Medicine, Buck Institute for Research on Aging, Spanish National Cancer Research Centre, National University of Singapore, among many others. His program also had a profound effect in influencing and engaging the public to improve their nutrition and exercise patterns for better health in many countries - 250 broadcast interviews for major international newspapers and magazines, including the New York Times, Time, Newsweek, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Financial Times, and participation in >50 TV programs and documentaries, including BBC, CNN, CNBC, ABC, Nippon NHK, Globo TV, RAI, and many others.

Professor Fontana is also an environmentalist. In 2013, he wrote a perspective article with Daniel Kammen - coordinating lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize - on the beneficial role of efficient use of energy and food in promoting human, environmental, and planetary health, and sustainable economic development. Fontana and colleagues believe that it is possible to substantially enhance human and environmental health, societal wealth and well-being, but this requires a profound transformation in the way we live, and a new health- and environment-centered industrial and economic system. They argue that most of the knowledge and technology to transform the world and begin a new industrial revolution already exist today. We only need to relinquish the idea of producing more energy, food, and other products at lower cost in favor of a new paradigm that opts for less but high-quality energy, food and materials for a healthier life and environment.