THIS BOOK SUMS UP THIRTY YEARS of my journey in search of the secrets of longevity, during which I was accompanied by great pioneers, and also by young and very good researchers. I thank Professor Scott Norton and Robert Gracy in Texas for giving me the opportunity to learn biochemistry and begin my studies in the aging field. I thank Professor Roy Walford of UCLA for teaching me to challenge the rules and think about aging in an innovative way. I thank Professor Joan Valentine and Edith Gralla at UCLA for giving me the solid genetic and molecular basis on which I have built my research. I thank Professor Caleb Finch at USC for introducing me to neurobiology and theories of aging, and for being a great mentor from the time I finished my doctoral studies to the present. I thank Professor Pinchas Cohen for a long series of fruitful collaborations, and for his support as Dean of the School of Gerontology at USC. I thank Professor Marco Foiani, the director of the IFOM Institute, for giving me the opportunity to lead an oncology research group in Italy. I thank a group of pioneer geneticists for twenty-five years of endless arguments, discussions, and discoveries that have enabled us all to contribute to an extraordinary revolution in the field of aging and longevity. I am infinitely grateful to my students, researchers, and medical colleagues, without whom I would only have discovered a small fraction of what we have discovered together. Special thanks to Dr. Paola Fabrizio for her essential role in my USC laboratory findings shortly after my appointment, and Professor Min Wei for many years of leadership in the lab.
I thank all the colleagues who offered me valuable expertise from their specialized fields:
For his advice on chapter 7 I thank Professor Alessio Nencioni, a specialist of internal medicine at the Hospital San Martino, University of Genoa. Professor Nencioni is responsible for the study funded by the Umberto Foundation Veronesi on the fasting-mimicking diet and chemotherapy in breast cancer patients.
Tanya Dorff, oncologist and associate professor of clinical medicine, USC Norris Cancer Hospital, who is in charge of clinical trials on the fasting-mimicking diet and chemotherapy at USC, and Alessandro Laviano, professor of clinical medicine, University La Sapienza, Rome.
For valuable help with chapter 8 I thank Professor Hanno Pijl, endocrinologist and diabetologist, director of the Endocrinology and Metabolic Diseases Clinic of Leiden University, Holland, and Clayton Frenzel, a leading bariatric surgeon at Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital.
Professor Andreas Michalsen, chief of complementary medicine in the Department of Integrative Medicine at the Hospital Charité in Berlin, who advised me for chapter 9. Dr. Michalsen is one of the leading experts on clinical aspects of fasting therapies, and has directed clinical trials on fasting or fasting diets and risk factors for cardiovascular disease.
Kurt Hong, MD, PhD, associate professor and director of the USC Center for Clinical Nutrition, Los Angeles. An MD/PhD from Harvard Medical School and former clinician at the UCLA Center for Human Nutrition, Dr. Hong is a leading expert in the field of clinical nutrition.
For chapter 10 I thank Dr. Markus Bock, a neurologist who is experienced in the use of ketogenic diets and fasting-mimicking diets at the Complementary Medical Center of the Charité Hospital in Berlin. Dr. Bock has conducted clinical trials on the fasting-mimicking diet and neurodegenerative diseases in collaboration with Dr. Michalsen.
Thank you to Patrizio Odetti, chief of geriatrics at the University of Genova San Martino Hospital, one of the leading geriatric programs in Italy with a large number of dementia patients.
For chapter 11 I also thank Dr. Markus Bock, Professor Andreas Michalsen, and Professor Kurt Hong, MD, PhD.
Finally, the Two-Week Meal Plan was written with the help of nutritionist Noemi Renzetti and dietitians Mahshid Shelechi and Susan Kim, to whom I owe all my gratitude.
I thank Diane Krieger and Emily H. Jackson for the initial editing of the English version of the book.
A special thank-you to Claudia Herr, for extensive editing of the English text and valuable advice.
I thank Laurie Liss at Sterling Lord Literistic for her wisdom and guidance.
I thank the whole Avery Books team at Penguin Random House: publisher Megan Newman; her assistant, Hannah Steigmeyer; Justin Thrift; Andrea Ho; and Lindsay Gordon.