Marco Sandri

At a glance

• Physician and professor at the Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Padua, and researcher at the Veneto Institute of Molecular Medicine.
• Known for a key 2004 Cell study showing how FoxO proteins switch on the breakdown programme in muscle — a foundation for understanding muscle loss in disease and old age.
• Later showed that autophagy, the cell’s ‘clean-up system’, is needed to keep muscle healthy: both too much and too little cause harm.
• His team discovered the protein MYTHO, which regulates autophagy, promotes healthy ageing in animal models and counters cellular senescence.
• Co-authored ‘The hallmarks of skeletal muscle health’ in Nature Metabolism (2026), a framework for what biologically defines healthy muscle.
• Relevant because muscle loss (sarcopenia) is one of the big drivers of frailty; his work explains why exercise and adequate protein remain so important.