The Cilento Initiative on Aging Outcomes (CIAO) held its 11 th annual research symposium May 22 at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute, with more than a dozen scientists and physicians from Europe and the United States presenting new data and insights on human longevity and healthy aging.
The CIAO Study is international project to empirically identify key factors (biological, psychological and social) that promote healthy aging and extreme longevity. It is focused on the Natural Park of Cilento region in southern Italy, which is home to roughly 300 residents who are more than100 years old and in robust health.
(The broader region is notable for the long lives of its residents. It was the original source of research for Ancel Keys, the American physiologist who studied the influence of diet on health and first promoted the benefits of the Mediterranean diet.)
“Italy is among the longest-lived countries in the world. And nowhere is that more dramatically illustrated than in the Cilento region,” said Salvatore DI Somma, MD, CIAO Study co-principal investigator and founder of Great Health Science, a network of public and private research organizations based in Rome, Italy.
“But living a long time in good health is the result of many, many factors not easily parsed. There are, of course, the basic characteristics, such as a healthy diet, exercise, a lifestyle of low stress and contentment, social engagement and ample sleep. But beneath these behavioral aspects lie the cellular hallmarks of aging, which we are seeking to identify and, if possible, therapeutically address.”
Launched in 2015, the CIAO Study leverages the latest tools and technologies (genetics, epigenetics, transcriptomics, metabolomics, proteomics, stem cells, RNA biology and environmental analyses among them) to pinpoint why residents of Cilento live healthy lives decades past the global average life expectancy of 73.5 years.
Specifically, scientists from Sanford Burnham Prebys , an independent, nonprofit biomedical research institute in San Diego, the Sanford Stem Cell Institute at University of California San Diego, University La Sapienza in Rome and Great Health Science , have followed a distinct cohort of centenarians and controls living in and around the coastal town of Acciaroli, located in southern Italian approximately 85 miles south of Naples.
“Two major factors make the CIAO Study distinct and essential to better understanding human longevity and, more importantly, how we can all live longer, healthier lives,” said David A. Brenner, MD, co-principle investigator and president and CEO of Sanford Burnham Prebys.
“First is the concentration of centenarians living in the Cilento region, who provide unprecedented opportunities to really dig into the how’s and why’s of their long lives. And second, unlike much of the current research and knowledge about centenarians and longevity, our work is based and supported by rigorous, standardized scientific methodologies and accurate clinical information. It is not anecdotal or speculative. We can test our hypotheses generated by measurements.”
The CIAO Study is a cross-sectional, observational study consisting of two primary cohorts:
All study participants provide regular blood samples for study, a clinical history and psychosocial assessment, a record of their nutritional habits and dietary patterns and undergo cognitive evaluation using standardized testing.
The collected blood samples are shipped to U.S.-based scientists for deeper analyses, including metabolomics, cytokines, biomarkers, proteomics, single nuclear multiomics, genomics and other biomedical technologies.
“This is where the CIAO Study really stands apart,” said Tatiana Kisseleva, MD, PhD, a physician-scientist at UC San Diego School of Medicine and director of the Sanford Stem Cell Fitness and Space Medicine Center. “We are conducting the specific, targeted work necessary to inform and direct the next generation of studies and, ultimately, provide actionable answers, translating our findings into clinical solutions.
The May 22 symposium was a review and a preview, with CIAO Study researchers presenting early data and not-yet-published findings. Presentations were diverse. Among them:
Click here to see the full program for the May 22, 2026 CIAO 11 th Annual Research Symposium.
Select past published research from the CIAO Study
Media contacts and more information
Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute
sbpdiscovery.org
Scott LaFee
VP, Communications
slafee@sbpdiscovery.org
Great Health Science
greathealthscience.com
Liliana Roberti
External Communications
liliana.roberti@greathealthscience.com
Sanford Stem Cell Institute (UC San Diego)
stemcells.ucsd.edu
Charlie Baase
Director, Communications & Marketing
cbaase@health.ucsd.edu