“Translating Basic Findings on Sarcopenia into Treatments For Functional Recovery in Older Adults”

Speaker:

Elena Volpi, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor of Medicine
Division of Geriatrics, Gerontology & Palliative Medicine
UT Health San Antonio

About Elena Volpi:

Originally from Perugia, Italy, Dr. Volpi earned her medical degree and a doctorate in applied pathophysiology from the Università degli Studi di Perugia, where she also completed residency training in endocrinology and fellowship training in diabetes and metabolism. She then received additional training at The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB) through a fellowship in gerontology and metabolism.

Dr. Volpi has served as as a faculty member at the University of Southern California, and at UTMB, where she held the position of tenured professor within the departments of internal medicine, neurobiology, neurology, and nutrition and metabolism. At UTMB, she was Director of the Sealy Center on Aging and Associate Director of the Institute for Translational Sciences.

In May 2023, she was appointed a Professor of Medicine and Director of the Sam and Ann Barshop Institute for Longevity and Aging Studies at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.

Dr. Volpi’s research focuses on discovering the mechanisms that lead to sarcopenia, the involuntary loss of muscle mass and function with aging, and identifying and testing innovative nutritional, exercise, and pharmacological treatments to improve muscle anabolism and functional recovery in older adults. She also leads clinical trials of interventions to improve recovery from hospitalization in geriatric patients, and has been leading clinical sites of large trials to test new interventions for dementia care, fall prevention, recovery from heart failure, and prevention of disability.

Dr. Volpi is a member of the Gerontological Society of America and the European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism.