Alexis Elias Malavazos

Dr. Alexis Elias Malavazos is the Head of the Department of Endocrinology and the Clinical Nutrition and Cardiovascular Prevention Service at the Policlinico San Donato Clinical Research Institute in Milan.

He graduated from the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery of the University of Milan in 1999, where he also completed his first specialization in Experimental Endocrinology (2002) and his second specialization in Food Science (2006). In 2016, he received his PhD in Molecular Medicine with a Biopathology profile from the University of Palermo.

In 2017, he passed the state certification for the position of a second-level Professor (endocrinology, nephrology and food and well-being sciences) and since 2021 he has been a type B Researcher in the field of scientific disciplines MED/49 (Applied Dietetic Engineering Sciences) in the Department of Biomedical, Surgical and Dental Sciences of the University of Milan, he is engaged in rehabilitation activities at the Clinical Research Institute Policlinico San Donato in Milan.

Clinical activity of Dr. Malavazos is focused mainly on the treatment of:

• obesity,
• type 2 diabetes mellitus,
• diseases associated with the thyroid gland,
• osteoporosis.

In addition, he is dedicated to the prevention and treatment of cardiometabolic complications associated with obesity, as well as new therapeutic strategies that are most effective in this disease.

Dr. Malavazos has been involved in scientific research in the field of obesity and related cardiometabolic complications for 20 years, namely:

• epicardial fat and its pro-inflammatory effect in patients with chronic non-infectious diseases, and its role as a new therapeutic target;
• incretin-mimetics: a study of the role of modulators of cardiovascular function, considering epicardial fat as a therapeutic target;
• relationship between the severity of Covid-19 disease and patients with the abdominal obesity phenotype, who are likely to have an increased risk of cardiovascular and pulmonary complications associated with the disease;
• physiopathological role of adipose tissue distribution;
• endocrine role of visceral adipose tissue and associated cardiovascular and metabolic complications;
• relationship between an increase in the amount of abdominal visceral adipose tissue and morphofunctional rearrangement of the left ventricle of the heart in the early subclinical stages;
• evaluation of circulating blood adipokines to understand their potential use as biomarkers of inflammation and cardiometabolic risk in overweight or obese people, with a more detailed study, in particular, of the pathological role of the abdominal obesity phenotype.

Dr. Malavazos is the co-founder of the EAT Educational (Adolescent Nutrition Education), a health promotion project that has been implemented from 2009 to 2020 in junior high schools in Milan and its suburbs and has so far reached more than 6,000 adolescents and their families. A study that has helped to highlight the importance of nutrition education as a tool to prevent obesity in young people in schools (the project was monitored by the School and Food Committee of the Ministry of Education, University and Research in collaboration with the Coldiretti-Agricoltura-Amica confederation). The health promotion work in schools was also focused on the importance of hydration with the launch of the Fluida-Mente (Smart H2O) project.

Dr. Malavazos is the author of over 71 indexed journal publications (Author ID: 6507375209 - Hirsch Index 21 - Total Citations: 1,441 - Total Impact Factor: 447.1 - Average Impact Factor: 6.3).