Professor of Plant Biology and Pathology at the Department of Agricultural end Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences, Milan State University. He has been studying bioactive phytochemicals relevant for human nutrition and health, including melatonin and polyphenols, focusing on their functional role in planta and in vitro/in vivo biological activities. Furthermore, he has been investigating the effects of elicitors on plant secondary metabolism, as an approach to obtain phytochemical-enriched plant foods. He is author of more than 100 publications.