ProfessorLuigi Fontana

Professor Fontana's research interests lie in preventative medicine, and in the role of nutrition and physical exercise in retarding the aging process and in preventing the accumulation of metabolic and molecular damage leading to multiple age-associated chronic disease. His translational research focuses on improving our understanding of the mechanisms involved in promoting disease-free longevity and help identify potential novel biomarkers of health and biological age.

In particular, he is applying whole-body physiological and tissue-specific molecular approaches to investigate the effects of several clinical interventions, including calorie restriction, intermittent fasting, protein or amino acid restriction, phytochemical-rich plant-based diets and physical exercise, on outcomes such as cardiovascular function, glucose metabolism, inflammation, neuroendocrine and immune function, gut microbiome health and cancer biology.

The overall aim of Prof. Fontana's research program is to develop a new mechanism-based way of preventing and treating age-related diseases, while compressing the period of intense morbidity in later years through biomedical discovery and health service innovation. New scientific knowledge of the shared metabolic substrate amongst multiple common chronic diseases will be generated through the comprehensive investigation of how a combination of specific nutritional and lifestyle interventions influence their progression. In particular, there is a clear translational focus on nutrition- and exercise- related health outcomes, including obesity, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, fatty liver disease, cancer, and cognitive impairment. The phenotyping and multi-omics data will provide a platform for cybernetic/systems modelling and will underpin the development of precision nutrition tools, in collaboration with industry partners.

This Program aims to represent the single most detailed and integrated analysis of the effects of specific human nutritional and exercise interventions on highly prevalent age-associated chronic diseases that share a common metabolic substrate. It will provide a new framework for allowing clinicians and individuals to optimize nutrition and exercise for specific health outcomes and for the prevention and management of lifestyle-related diseases that are epidemic in modern society.