Updated: March 2023
Enzo Spisni is associate professor and head of the Laboratory of Translational Physiology and Nutrition of the Department of Biological, Geological and Environmental Sciences of the University of Bologna. He is a member of the scientific committee of the Master (II level) in Nutrition and Education to Health, University of Bologna and lecturer in the Master in Organic Production of the same University.
He teaches the course of Nutrition Physiology, Degree Course in Biology of Health, the courses of Nutrition and Environmental Sustainability and General Physiology, Degree Course in Biological Sciences, and various modules within the Master's Degree in Nutrition and Education to Health. Since 2008 he has been collaborating with specialist of the gastrointestinal tract, on various projects aimed at understanding the alteration of the physiological mechanisms involved in the onset of intestinal and systemic pathologies, through the study of translational physiology. The research that arises and develops in these collaborative projects are directed towards understanding the complex interactions between nutrients and human physiology. These mechanisms primarily involve immunity, but also the enteric nervous system and the intestinal microbiome, a fundamental element of integration between nutrients and the host physiology. Among the collaborations, still ongoing, of particularly importance are the one with the Regional Reference Center for Chronic Intestinal Inflammatory Diseases of the Sant'Orsola-Malpighi University Hospital of Bologna, directed by prof. Paolo Gionchetti and the one with the Department of Agro-Food Sciences and Technologies (Prof. Giovanni Dinelli). In the context of these numerous and fruitful collaborations, prof. Spisni has strongly contributed to bringing the Physiological and Nutritional vision within the more purely clinical vision of medical collaborators. It is precisely from this integration that pre-clinical and clinical studies are born and developed aimed at evaluating the effect of nutrition on the regulation of the physiology of the gastro-intestinal tract, through mechanisms of nutrient signaling and modulation of the microbiota. These studies have been performed in both animal models and patients, in the form of pilot or randomized placebo-controlled clinical trials.
An all-round expert in nutrition, he collaborates with magazines and websites (for example Focus, Il Fatto Alimentare, Focus, Life, etc ...) in order to disseminate correct information on nutrition and the environmental sustainability of diets. He is a guest of some television broadcasts as a nutrition expert (Report, Patti Chiari, Mi Manda RAI 3, Elisir, Piazza Pulita, etc...). He is the author of over 100 publications (Scopus, H index 29) in important international scientific journals and of the university textbook: De Bellis, Alimentation, Nutrition and Health (EdiSES). He is the author of the popular book "The magnificent 20 for your defenses" published by Sonzogno, to date with over 5,000 copies sold.
He received the National Qualification for the full professor on 8/3/2018.
He collaborates with various companies in the food sector and in the food supplement sector. From 2015 to 2021 he was CEO of the Spin-off Targeting Gut Disease Srl, which deals with the study and formulation of innovative food supplements aimed at modulating intestinal and systemic physiology. In July 2020 Targeting Gut Disease won a European project for the production of a food supplement capable of improving immune responses against Sars-Cov-2.
Since 2019 he has been a member of the scientific committee of Good Land, a multidisciplinary collective aimed at experimenting with new models of agri-food regeneration.
