A Professor of Genetics at the University of Calabria, Passarino has been working for fifteen years on different aspect of  aging and longevity. In particular he and his groups have focused upon genetic variation and its effect on longevity, the effect of aging on the methylation profile of the genome and of specific genes, the central role of mitochondrial biology with respect to aging, and, finally, the demographic imbalance between male and female centenarians. He has participated to different European Projects in the field of ageing and has coordinated National and International working groups on recruitment of long lived subjects and on the variability of mitochondrial DNA.