How many people over 65 are there in Italy? Over 14 million 356 thousand, according to the Istat census as of January 2024: more or less 5 cities like Rome, or 10 cities like Milan. Of these, as many as 21,200 are over 100 (the vast majority women: 17,600 compared with 3,600 men). And considering that in 2014 there were 17,252 in all, the growth in a single decade has been over 30%.
Numbers that alone are enough to understand why it is necessary to put longevity, and the challenges it poses, at the center of political, economic, social, scientific and urban planning agendas. To do so, the Milan Longevity Summit returns this year too: an event that in a single year has become an international point of reference for those who work on this topic.
March 27-28-29: see you at the Teatro Franco Parenti
The summit opens on March 21 and the last three days — March 27, 28 and 29 — are entirely organized by the SoLongevity Foundation at the Teatro Franco Parenti. There will be a great many events with important Italian and international guests and over 40 Longevity Labs that can be attended free of charge (by registering here). Goal: to involve citizens in reflecting on and adopting the practices that make it possible to live well for longer.
The three days are centered on different focuses (to take part, it is necessary to register for the mornings and afternoons separately, at this link ).
Milan Longevity Summit 2025
Longevity and society
The day of Thursday, March 27 is entitled “Longevity changes society”, with a very broad program exploring the intersection of many different themes and their impact on society, opened by Alberto Beretta and Maria Pia Abbracchio, Full Professor of Precision Pharmacology and gender therapy at the University of Milan. The first part of the morning is moderated by Nicola Palmarini, Director of the National Innovation Centre for Ageing (NICA-UK). There will be discussion of “City of Longevity”, cities designed to support a long-lived population and, together with Valentina Meli — Gen Hub Lead at Kantar Media, of how Gen Z relates to health and how to redefine longevity with new parameters for a sustainable future. Also: Emanuela Notari and Isabella Pierantoni will address the topic “Longevity and Work”, while Alessandra Giordano of INTOO will moderate the round table with some company testimonials describing the evolution of products and services for longevity. On stage will be Guido Cornettone, CEO of SoLongevity, Emidio Croce, General Manager of Filorga Italia, Andrea Ghirardi, CEO of L-Nutra, Maurizio De Palma, CEO & Co-Founder of Cocooners, Marco Brugnoli, CEO of Cosmed, Elena Bianchi, Head of Product & Key Account Manager of Neosperience Health, Stefano Genco, Head of Nuance Audio, Alessandro Garibaldi, Head of Brand and Communications of Virgin Active Italia.
The program resumes in the early afternoon with a round table dedicated to FemGevity, the new perception of female aging. Guests include: the Honorable Martina Semenzato, gynecologist Cinzia Polo, science communicator Michela Taccola, Longevity Strategist Emanuela Notari, Ilaria Picazio — Marketing Director Filorga, Giuseppe Mazza — Founder & Creative Director Tita, Michele Superchi — Global Vice President BeautyStreams.
There will be many examples of applied innovation, such as the one presented by Momo Vuyisich, Co-founder, Chief Science Officer, and Head of Clinical Research Viome Life Sciences
On all three days there will be a young student, winner of the Longevitas Prize established by the Longevitas Foundation and presented by its president Eleonora Selvi.
Two major Italian research projects will also be presented:
- the AGE-IT Consortium, the largest Italian academic hub for longevity science (represented by Daniele Vignoli of the University of Florence, Vincenzo Galasso of Bocconi University, Cecilia Tomassini of the University of Molise and Fabrizio d’Adda di Fagagna, Director of IFOM);
- CVRisk-it, which aims to involve 30,000 healthy citizens for a cardiovascular risk assessment model (the panel will include Lorenzo Menicanti, President of the Italian IRCCS Cardiology Network, and Emanuele Di Angelantonio of Human Technopole).
Longevity and science
Friday, March 28 continues with the “ Journey into Longevity Science”: the focus will be on the relationship between inflammation and aging, nutrition and nutraceuticals, physical activity, with a focus on new anti-obesity drugs.
Of course, the topic of the new epigenetic clocks could not be missing, with a keynote lecture by Steve Horvath, biogerontologist and biostatistician, Professor at the University of California, Los Angeles and Principal investigator Altos Lab-Cambridge UK.
Other talks include those by: Mario Clerici, Professor of Immunology at the University of Milan, Camillo Ricordi, Director Emeritus of the Diabetes Research Institute of the University of Miami, Silvano Zanuso, Director of the Medical Scientific Department of Technogym and Adjunct Associate Professor at Edith Cowan University (Perth – AU), Arrigo Cicero of the University of Bologna and President of SINut, Nicola Giacché, Project Leader at Tes Pharma, Francesco Landi of the Policlinico Gemelli, Giuseppe Iannoccari of the Policlinico Gemelli and Assomensana, Giuseppe Banderali of the San Paolo Hospital in Milan.
Longevity and medicine
Finally, Saturday 29 is dedicated to “ Longevity Medicine for all” and in particular for women: there will also be talk of female longevity thanks to the FemGevity project, of menopause and sexuality together with professors Hellas Cena, Rossella Nappi and Roberta Rossi. Another topic of the day will be neurocognitive health, which will be addressed, among others, by Francesca Baglio, neurologist at the IRCCS S. Maria Nascente – Fondazione Don Carlo Gnocchi in Milan. The morning will also be an opportunity to talk about omics sciences, with several talks, including that of Alberto Cerasari, Medical Director of the SoLongevity Clinic in Milan. Joining him on the stage of the Franco Parenti will be Matteo Ceroboneschi of Next Genomics, Stephanie Tuminello of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Francesco Chiara of CrescendoCare srl, Joanna Bensz of the Longevity Center in Warsaw (Poland), cardiologist Nicola Triglione and Ilaria Bertini, SoLongevity Dietitian.
The afternoon, the closing moment of the whole Summit, will focus on regenerative medicine. Guests will include Carlo Tremolada of Istituto Image srl in Milan, Thomas Michaelsen of the Mediana Clinic in Berlin, Claudio Tavera of the Centro Medico Potenziativa in Como. Roberta Costanzo (SoLongevity) will talk about infusion therapies and enhancement medicine, while Valerio Solari (SoLongevity) will address the topic of new nutraceuticals for longevity.
There will also be a space dedicated to skin longevity: SoLongevity, together with Laboratoires Filorga Cosmétiques, will present a session dedicated to SkinLongevity with the participation of aesthetic medicine professionals (together with Rosanna Catizzone, Aesthetic Physician, National Secretary of SIME, Marco Papagni, Member of the Scientific and Executive Committee of Agorà, Cristina Cassese, cultural anthropologist, and Carmela Boccomino, Scientific Relations & Corporate Communication Manager Filorga Italia).
It will close with a session dedicated to the role of sport and physical exercise for the over-60s, together with Roberto Pusinelli, athlete and coach at Undertraining (Como)
The full program at this link.
Charting the path of longevity
“The Milan Longevity Summit 2025 aims to be the crossroads of all the scientific and social disciplines involved in the study of longevity and its impacts on the society of the future — explains Alberto Beretta, Chair of the Scientific Committee of the Milan Longevity Summit and Scientific Director of SoLongevity — For this reason the scientific committee has called to Milan colleagues from all over the world who have been studying longevity for years from different and complementary perspectives. We will see presentations on the molecular and cellular aspects of an organism that ages or rejuvenates, on the diagnostic technologies that make it possible to assess a person’s health with incredible precision, on strategies for the epigenetic reprogramming of cells and their future applications in the treatment of age-related diseases. But we will also have presentations of studies on active aging, on nutrition and physical exercise as the basis of all preventive interventions. We will discover that it is possible to track biological rejuvenation processes with simple blood tests, or to detect neurodegenerative processes early with new-generation molecular imaging. The final goal of the 2025 Summit — Beretta continues — will be to chart the path toward healthy longevity accessible to all, fostering technology transfer processes from research laboratories to the clinic and suggesting development directions to the legislator for a policy supporting the scientific, social and entrepreneurial initiatives involved in the change”.
The meeting with two Nobel laureates
The official presentation of the Milan Longevity Summit takes place on March 14 at Palazzo Marino in the presence of Mayor Giuseppe Sala, with the award ceremony of the “Una grande Vita” (“A Great Life”) Prize dedicated to personalities who represent longevity as the ability to renew oneself and dream at every stage of life.
The first day will be Friday, March 21 at the University of Milan with the Lectio Magistralis of the Nobel Prize winner in Physiology or Medicine Shinya Yamanaka. On March 22 the Triennale di Milano will host the second day, with the Lectio Magistralis of the Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, introduced by Alberto Beretta.
