Universita degli Studi di Trieste (UniTs)

 The University of Trieste (UniTs) comprises 12 faculties and 23 research departments involved in a broad variety of research fields. The Department of Medical, Technological and Translational Sciences (DMTTS) consists of 34 researchers and is involved in human translational research, as well as in basic biomedical science. Within the DMTTS and in relation to the present project, prof. Biolo’s scientific group published several studies (see below) regarding metabolic control of inflammation and oxidative stress as factors involved in insulin resistance and muscle atrophy following inactivity in humans. In tight collaboration with JSI, leading member of the present project, the group participated as research unit and coordinated logistics and scientific contribution of Italian groups to three bed rest campaigns (from 2006 to 2008) performed at the Orthopaedic Hospital of Valdoltra in Ankaran (Koper - SLO). As division of Internal Medicine, the DMTTS used to provide medical supervision for scientific tests performed within integrated international studies on human subjects.

Professor Gianni Biolo is an Associate Professor of Internal Medicine since 2002. He has been employed as, Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Texas (1995-2002). He has participated in the Working Group on Space Nutrition of the European Space Agency (ESA) from 2006 and with the Working Group on Nutrition and Metabolism of the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine (ESICM) from 1997. He is Associate Editor of Clinical Nutrition (from 2006) and past-Scientific Committee Chairman of the European Society of Metabolism and Clinical Nutrition (ESPEN) (2004-2008). Prof. Biolo participated in several clinical research studies financed by different entities including the European Space Agency. The main focus was the metabolic (glycemia control) and nutritional (protein and energy intake, antioxidant supplementation) regulation of cardiovascular risk, insulin sensitivity and muscle mass changes occurring during or after stress conditions such as experimental bed rest in healthy volunteers or major surgery in severely ill patients. The most frequently applied method for metabolic investigations is the coupling of Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry analysis to stable isotopic tracer infusions in human subjects: a new method involving a single biopsy and a double isotopic infusion was recently validated and published (see below). Prof. Biolo collaborated with prof. Mekjavic for the coordination of the Valdoltra 2006-8 bed rest studies at the Orthopaedic Hospital of Valdoltra in Ankaran (Koper - SLO). Prof Biolo has 108 publications in PubMed indexed journals and several reports and contribution to scientific books and to conferences. Prof. Biolo is a member of the European Space Agency Topical Team on Lunar Habitat Simulations (established in 2009).