Ricerca Gruppi di ricerca e contributi alla ricercaSection of Experimental Pathology and OncologyGruppo Monti

Gruppo Monti

Coordinator of Research Team

Name                   Daniela Monti

Position               Asssociate Professor

Name of Research Team/Laboratory      Aging, longevity and age-related diseases

e-mail                   daniela.monti@unifi.it

telephone number         055 2751301

           

Brief biographical sketch of the Coordinator

1984 degree in Biology, University of Bologna

1986-89 Fellowship from FONDAZIONE SIGMA TAU with a research project entitled "L-Acetylcarnitine and Aging", University of Modena

1993 PhD degree in General Pathology and Oncology with a thesis on "Apoptosis and Aging", University of Modena and University of Bologna

1993-1998 Assistant Professor of Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Modena, Italy.

1998- at present Associated Professor of General Pathology and Immunology, School of Medicine, Department of Clinical, Experimental and Biomedical Science "M. Serio", University of Florence, Italy

 

Member of the scientific board of the Doctorate/PhD Program in

Member of the Board of the PhD School on Biomedical Sciences coordinated by Prof. Massimo Stefani.

Responsible for General Pathology curriculum

 

Member of the following Scientific Societies

1)      1991- Member of the Cooperation Group on Immunology become Italian Society of Immunology, Clinical Immunology and Allergy (SIICA).

2)      1995- Member of Italian Study Group on Centenarians (IMUSCE)

3)      1997- Appointed responsible for the topic "Immunology" during the meeting of the Italian Group for the Study of the Genetics of Longevity

4)      1987-2000. Italian Group of ADP-ribosylation

5)      2016- Member of group “Top Italian Women Scientists”

 

Member of the editorial board of the following Journals

1) Guest Editor of Special issue entitled: Why centenarians are centenarians? In Mechanisms of Ageing and Development

2) Guest Editor of Special Issue entitled: Inflammaging and Oxidative Stress in Aging and Age-Related Disorders, in International Journal of Molecular Sciences, section: Molecular Pathology

 

Research Team

                1) Elisabetta Tanganelli, Medicine and Surgery, technician, University of Florence

                2) Rita Ostan, Biology, research associate, University of Bologna

 

Current research interests  

• Biological basis of Aging and Longevity
• Immunology of centenarians and their offsprings (Immunosenescence)
• Inflammaging in aging/longevity and age-related diseases

 

Current / recent sources of funding

1)      Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Pistoia e Pescia, Italy,

Ruolo dei pesticidi nelle malattie neurodegenerative: identificazione in cellule staminali neuronali umane di marcatori biologici di danno precoce

Position in projects: collaborator, Fund Grant 40.000 €

2)      Fondi di Ateneo (2012-2016)

Position in projects: principal investigator, Fund Grant € 9.390

 

12 best publications of the last 5 years

1. Biagi, E., Franceschi, C., Rampelli, S., Severgnini, M., Ostan, R., Turroni, S., Consolandi, C., Quercia, S., Scurti, M., Monti, D., Capri, M., Brigidi, P., Candela, M. Gut Microbiota and Extreme Longevity (2016) Current Biology, 26 (11), pp. 1480-1485. DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2016.04.016. Cited 5 times. IF 8.983
2. Fortney, K., Dobriban, E., Garagnani, P., Pirazzini, C., Monti, D., Mari, D., Atzmon, G., Barzilai, N., Franceschi, C., Owen, A.B., Kim, S.K.Genome-Wide Scan Informed by Age-Related Disease Identifies Loci for Exceptional Human Longevity (2015) PLoS Genetics, 11 (12), art. no. e1005728, 23 p. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1005728. Cited 3 times. IF 6.661
3. 3.       Horvath, S., Pirazzini, C., Bacalini, M.G., Gentilini, D., Di Blasio, A.M., Delledonne, M., Mari, D., Arosio, B., Monti, D., Passarino, G., De Rango, F., D'Aquila, P., Giuliani, C., Marasco, E., Collino, S., Descombes, P., Garagnani, P., Franceschi, C. Decreased epigenetic age of PBMCs from Italian semi-supercentenarians and their offspring (2015) Aging, 7 (12), pp. 1159-1170. Cited 18 times. IF 6.432 
4. Giuliani, C., Barbieri, C., Li, M., Bucci, L., Monti, D., Passarino, G., Luiselli, D., Franceschi, C., Stoneking, M., Garagnani, P. Transmission from centenarians to their offspring of mtDNA heteroplasmy revealed by ultra-deep sequencing (2014) Aging, 6 (6), pp. 454-467. Cited 5 times. . IF 6.432
5. 5.       Mocchegiani, E., Costarelli, L., Giacconi, R., Malavolta, M., Basso, A., Piacenza, F., Ostan, R., Cevenini, E., Gonos, E.S., Franceschi, C., Monti, D. Vitamin E-gene interactions in aging and inflammatory age-related diseases: Implications for treatment. A systematic review (2014) Ageing Research Reviews, 14 (1), pp. 81-101. DOI: 10.1016/j.arr.2014.01.001. Cited 29 times. IF 7.526
6. 6.      Pinti, M., Cevenini, E., Nasi, M., De Biasi, S., Salvioli, S., Monti, D., Benatti, S., Gibellini, L., Cotichini, R., Stazi, M.A., Trenti, T., Franceschi, C., Cossarizza, A. Circulating mitochondrial DNA increases with age and is a familiar trait: Implications for "inflamm-aging"(2014) European Journal of Immunology, 44 (5), pp. 1552-1562. DOI: 10.1002/eji.201343921. Cited 34 times. IF 4.179
7. Montoliu, I., Scherer, M., Beguelin, F., DaSilva, L., Mari, D., Salvioli, S., Martin, F.-P.J., Capri, M., Bucci, L., Ostan, R., Garagnani, P., Monti, D., Biagi, E., Brigidi, P., Kussmann, M., Rezzi, S., Franceschi, C., Collino, S. Serum profiling of healthy aging identifies phospho- and sphingolipid species as markers of human longevity(2014) Aging, 6 (1), pp. 9-25. Cited 15 times. . IF 6.432
8. Bucci, L., Ostan, R., Giampieri, E., Cevenini, E., Pini, E., Scurti, M., Vescovini, R., Sansoni, P., Caruso, C., Mari, D., Ronchetti, F., Borghi, M.O., Ogliari, G., Grossi, C., Capri, M., Salvioli, S., Castellani, G., Franceschi, C., Monti, D. Immune parameters identify Italian centenarians with a longer five-year survival independent of their health and functional status (2014) Experimental Gerontology, 54, pp. 14-20. DOI: 10.1016/j.exger.2014.01.023. Cited 2 times. IF 3.529
9. Gentilini, D., Mari, D., Castaldi, D., Remondini, D., Ogliari, G., Ostan, R., Bucci, L., Sirchia, S.M., Tabano, S., Cavagnini, F., Monti, D., Franceschi, C., Di Blasio, A.M., Vitale, G. Role of epigenetics in human aging and longevity: Genome-wide DNA methylation profile in centenarians and centenarians' offspring (2013) Age, 35 (5), pp. 1961-1973. DOI: 10.1007/s11357-012-9463-1 Cited 57 times.IF 4.084
10. Ostan, R., Bucci, L., Cevenini, E., Palmas, M.G., Pini, E., Scurti, M., Vescovini, R., Caruso, C., Mari, D., Vitale, G., Franceschi, C., Monti, D. Metabolic syndrome in the offspring of centenarians: Focus on prevalence, components, and adipokines(2013) Age, 35 (5), pp. 1995-2007. DOI: 10.1007/s11357-012-9483-x. Cited 7 times. IF 4.084
11. Collino, S., Montoliu, I., Martin, F.-P., Scherer, M., Mari, D., Salvioli, S., Bucci, L., Ostan, R., Monti, D., Biagi, E., Brigidi, P., Franceschi, C., Rezzi, S. Metabolic Signatures of Extreme Longevity in Northern Italian Centenarians Reveal a Complex Remodeling of Lipids, Amino Acids, and Gut Microbiota Metabolism (2013) PLoS ONE, 8 (3), art. no. e56564,DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0056564. Cited 54 times. IF 3.534
12. Cevenini, E., Monti, D., Franceschi, C. Inflamm-ageing (2013) Current Opinion in Clinical Nutrition and Metabolic Care, 16 (1), pp. 14-20. DOI: 10.1097/MCO.0b013e32835ada13. Cited 67 times. IF 3.972

 

Previous research experiences

• Cell and molecular mechanisms of apopotosis
• Oxidative stress and aging
• Stress and immune responses in an evolutionary perspective

 

Main scientific contributions

Author of more than 210 papers, 195 of which published in peer reviewed journals, which received a total of 10942 citations (February 2017); h-Index: 57, Scopus (February 2017). Participant to the EU project ZINCAGE (FP6,2004-2007); Nutritional zinc, oxidative stress and immunosenescence: biochemical, genetic and lifestyle implications for healthy ageing). She has been recipient of grants from Italian Ministry of Education, Universities and Research (Miur), Italian Ministry of Health and European Union, for research on immunology, biology and genetics of human aging and longevity.

Prof. Monti is co-author of several papers where, for the first time, centenarians were proposed as the best model to study the biological basis of healthy aging and longevity in humans. This model and an original approach allowed Prof. Daniela Monti to identify some of the most important characteristics of human immunosenescence (Immunol. Today (1995), 421 citations) such as the accumulation of memory T cells (Mech. Ageing Dev. (1996), 168 citations), the preserved NK activity (Blood (1993), 327 citations), the role of CMV infection (J. Immunol. (2007) 95 citations) and the increase of inflammatory status (Eur. J. Immunol. (1993), 430 citations), subsequently conceptualized as "inflammaging” (FEBS lett. (2005), 230 citations, Mech. Ageing Dev. (2007), 715 citations, Curr. Opin. Clin. Nutr. Metab. Care (2013), 66 citations, etc.).

Prof. Monti co-authored the papers that showed for the first time that a subtle hypothyroidism is a major characteristic of centenarians and human longevity (The Lancet (1992), 198 citations; J. Clin. Endocr. Metab. (1993), 153 citations). Moreover, she participated to paper that demonstrated an association between longevity and circulating IGF-1 bioactivity (Aging US (2012), 39 citations). She also co-authored the first studies on the genetics of centenarians (such as on IL-6 gene: Eur. J. Immunol. (2001), 215 citations) and this research continued until recently on nuclear (PLoS Genetics (2015), 3 citations) and mitochondrial genome (Aging US (2014), 5 citations) by applying the most advanced technology (GWAS and ultra-deep sequencing). She also co-authored the first paper on the epigenetics of longevity (Age (2013), 56 citations) and recently showed that centenarians and their offspring show a lower DNA methylation age. In 2010 Prof. Monti participated to the study that showed for the first time that the gut microbiota undergoes profound changes in centenarians (Plos One (2010), 317 citations) and these changes contribute to inflammaging as well as the presence of circulating mtDNA as demonstrated in Pinti et al. (Eur. J. Immunol. (2014), 33 citations) Finally, Prof. Monti pioneered the study of metabolomics in the aging field (NMR and Mass Spectrometry in plasma and urine) showing that centenarians and their offsprings have a specific metabolomics signature (PlosOne (2013), 54 citations; Aging US (2014), 14 citations).

 

Collaborations

Prof. Claudio Franceschi, Department of Experimental, Diagnostic and Specialty Medicine, University of Bologna, IRCCS Institute of Neurological Sciences Bologna, Italy.

Prof. Giuseppe Passarino, Dipartimento di Biologia, Ecologia e Scienze della Terra, Università della Calabria

Prof. Daniela Mari, Dipartimento di Fisiopatologia Medico-Chirurgica e dei Trapianti University of Milan

Prof. Giovanni Vitale, Dipartimento di Scienze Cliniche e di Comunità, Endocrinologia, University of Milan

Dr. Ivan Montoliu, Nestle Institute of Health Sciences, Lausanne, Svizzera 

Dr. Alessio Palini¸ Nestle Institute of Health Sciences, Lausanne, Svizzera 

Dr. Nicola Neretti, Dept. of Molecular Biology, Cell Biology and Biochemistry, Brown University, Providence USA

 

Other relevant information

Top Italian Woman Scientist 2016 for high number of citations in the biomedical research, Milan May 25, 2016

 

Links

http://www.unifi.it/p-doc2-2016-200009-M-3f2a3d30373028-0.html

http://www.zincage.org/monti_unifi_new.htm

http://www.ondaosservatorio.it/cerimonia-top-italian-women-scientists-2016/