Abstract. I’m Sara Lo Russo, a biologist and behavioural neuroscientist. I’ve spent a decade between the lab, clinical nutrition practice and science writing, and this site exists because I wanted an Italian voice on longevity, neuroscience and nutrition that stays anchored to the literature — not to marketing. Articles are structured the way a good study is: a plain-language introduction anyone can follow, then progressively more technical sections for readers who want the mechanisms and the citations.
Where I come from¶
Master’s degree in Evolutionary Biology from the University of Rome Tor Vergata, with a thesis in behavioural neuroscience on the role of genetic background in maternal behaviour and stress resilience. Co-author of five peer-reviewed publications in international journals — Biomedicines, Neuroscience, Developmental Psychobiology and two in Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience (one, the other) — on how genetics, epigenetics and maternal care shape behaviour and neuropsychiatric vulnerability in murine models (laboratory mice and rats).
Preclinical research at the Istituto Superiore di Sanità in Rome and at the FutureNeuro Centre of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland in Dublin. Years of clinical nutrition consulting with adult patients, including complex contexts: chronic disease, eating disorders, ketogenic diet therapy for epilepsy. Italian secondary-school teaching qualification in Mathematics and Science.
The full picture — publications, roles, training — lives in my curriculum.
What I want to do here¶
I want an integrated, honest medicine, grounded in research rather than in marketing. That means writing about longevity, neuroscience, nutrition and brain health while taking the time to cite the studies, to separate what we know from what we tell ourselves, and to openly state what we don’t yet know.
It also means saying “no” — to miracle supplements, to ten-thousand-euro protocols, to easy promises — when the data don’t support them. Not because caution looks elegant, but because the history of medicine is full of interventions that seemed promising and turned out to be useless or harmful once we finally tested them properly.
Why it matters¶
The wellness industry has learned to speak the language of science without doing the work. It cites studies it hasn’t read, summarises meta-analyses it misunderstands, sells certainties where the literature offers well-characterised uncertainties. We need voices that can stay inside the rigour of the literature and the clarity of plain language — voices that can explain a molecular mechanism to a layperson and dismantle a piece of pseudoscience with the data in hand.
I’m trying to be one of those voices. I’m ambitious, tenacious, with the curiosity of someone who loves to study and to question her own assumptions. Sometimes I’m uncomfortable to hear, and that’s fine: I think it’s precisely what is needed.
The clinic I want to build¶
This site is one piece of a larger project. I want to open a serious clinic practising integrated medicine and research grounded in real-world data — and kept as accessible as possible to every budget.
Integrated means holding together what today too often sits in separate rooms: nutrition, neuroscience, lifestyle, pharmacology when it’s called for, with protocols built on the literature and verified in patients. Grounded in real data means collecting, measuring, publishing — not selling promises.
Accessible to every budget is the hardest part, and to me the most important: longevity medicine today is mostly a market for people who can afford tens of thousands of euros a year. I believe the science, where it is solid, is mature enough to be offered honestly to people on ordinary incomes too.
The articles you read here are the first public step of that project.
Where to start¶
If you’re new here, Living forever is a good entry point. It’s a critical overview of the science and the industry of longevity, and it captures well the angle of this site: seriousness about data, scepticism about protocols, respect for the complexity of biological systems.
Enjoy the read.