Dina Bellizzi is Associate Professor in Genetics at the University of Calabria. She holds a Degree in Biological Sciences, summa cum laude, and is PhD in Animal Biology. She is the author of 70 peer reviewed publications. She has collaborated in studies in model organisms and in the population in the field of genetics and epigenetics of aging. In this context, she coordinated a study aimed at correlating global DNA methylation levels with the frailty status of elderly subjects. Additionally, she contributed to demonstrate how mitochondrial DNA variants are able to modulate global DNA methylation levels. She coordinated studies demonstrating, for the first time, the methylation of cytosine residues located within the D-loop region of mitochondrial DNA and within the MT-RNR1 gene. She has collaborated on studies to investigate the epigenetic silencing of tumor suppressor genes and studied the involvement of miRNAs in the regulation of the epigenetic mechanism and their potential use as a therapy in multiple myeloma. Recently, she has published a work in which the epigenetic patterns and the relative expression levels of nuclear genes coding for factors involved in the mitochondrial quality regulation mechanism in individuals of different ages have been outlined, as well as the role of diet on global DNA methylation and on RNA methylation in rats fed specific nutritional regimes. She is currently investigating the involvement of epigenetic modifications in different cellular processes associated with antibiotic resistance in bacterial microorganisms, the antibacterial activity of natural molecules and the interactions between the gut microbiota and the host. Recently published, a series of works coordinated by her on the characterization in humans of the microbiota circulating in the blood in physiological and pathological conditions. She is the scientific referent for the authentication  of human cell lines and the determination of mycoplasma contamination services (DiBEST, Unical). She is a member of the Editorial Board of Nutrients journal and Associate Editor of Frontiers in Genetics journal.