Marialaura Bonaccio

Marialaura Bonaccio, PhD, is a leading nutritional epidemiologist and Senior Researcher at the Department of Epidemiology and Prevention, IRCCS Neuromed in Pozzilli, Italy. She holds a degree in Philosophy (Italy), and earned her PhD in Epidemiology from Maastricht University, the Netherlands, in 2015.

Dr Bonaccio’s research explores the complex relationships between dietary patterns, food processing, and the onset of noncommunicable diseases, including cardiovascular disease and cancer. As a leading investigator in the Moli-sani Study, one of Europe’s largest population-based cohorts, she has made major contributions to understanding how diet quality, eating behaviour, and particularly the consumption of ultra-processed foods affect mortality, cardiovascular and neurological outcomes, and biological aging.

She has secured and led several research projects funded by public and private institutions, all aimed at investigating the impact of nutrition and food processing on long-term health outcomes. Her work has played a pivotal role in establishing ultra-processed foods as a critical focus in nutritional epidemiology, shifting attention beyond nutrient content toward the health implications of food processing itself.

In 2020, she was awarded the prestigious Fondazione Umberto Veronesi Award. Dr Bonaccio currently serves on the Executive Board of the Italian Society of Human Nutrition (SINU), helping shape national research and policy priorities in nutrition science.