International Advisory Board

Mario Umberto Dianzani

Born in Grosseto (Italy) on 13/06/1925. MD, PhD in Pharmacy. He served the University of Turin first as Dean of the Faculty of Medicine (1971-1984), then as Magnificus Rector 1984-1996. Gold Medal of the Italian Ministry of Instruction, first recipient of the Trevor Slater Award. Other awards were the Feltrinelli Price of the Accademia dei Lincei, the Invernizzi Price and the Esculapio Price. Doctor honoris causa at Brunel University of West London (1978) and at the University of Buenos Aires (1996). Honorary PhD in Organic Chemistry at the University of Genoa (1995). His first research studies dealt with the pathological changes occurring in mitochondria from fatty liver (swelling, uncoupling of oxidative phosphorylation, loss of cofactors from swollen mitochondria) and in lysosomes in the same pathological condition. With his scholar Comporti he first demonstrated a strong increase of lipid peroxidation in rat liver after CCl4 poisoning. Since 1975, he established an European network with Trevor Slater, devoted to the identification of free radicals production in a variety of pathological conditions, and, together with Hermann Esterbauer, to the characterization of the role of aldehydic end-products of lipid peroxidation in pathophysiology. More recently, he focused his research investigation on biological activities of 4-hydroxynonenal, with special regard to the aldehyde’s implication in modulating cell proliferation in normal and tumour cells.

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