Thanks to advanced tools, it will be possible at the new institute to apply the latest methods of analysis to the study of DNA, RNA, cells and the microbiome.
Pisa – no The Italian Foundation for Arthritis Research (FIRA) opened a A center dedicated to scientific research in rheumatology at the Pisana Foundation for Science Onels (FPS) in Pisa. Thanks to this collaboration, a national research support institute is now being opened where the most advanced tools are available to Italian scientists to carry out complex and in-depth studies.
the Rheumatic diseasesSuch as osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia, gout, systemic lupus erythematosus, systemic sclerosis, ankylosing spondylitis and connective tissue diseases, It includes 7 million people in Italy alone. These are diseases that have a strong impact on patients’ quality of life and require ongoing and advanced research to develop new therapies.
“In Italy it is needed Stimulating and supporting independent scientific researchTo make it competitive with what is done in the large laboratories of the pharmaceutical industries or in the Anglo-Saxon and German university centers. That is why we decided to implement an ambitious project with the opening of a national research center, thanks to the important cooperation with the Besana Science Foundation. the professor. Carlomaurizio Montecucco, President of FIRA Professor of Rheumatology, Director of the Department of Internal Medicine and Clinical Therapy at the University of Pavia, and Director of the Composite Structure of Rheumatology at the S. Matteo Polyclinic. The FIRA Research Center proposes itself as a real technology platform that provides support for projects that researchers wish to propose and develop using available tools and skills. We hope to provide a permanent service at the highest level of rheumatology research in Italy“.
The Fondazione Pisana per la Scienza declares its willingness to host and encourage its performance of high-level research activities with high translation potential that take advantage of its technological platform and its technical and scientific skills ” the professor. Fabio Beltrame, President of the Pisana Sciences Unis Foundation. “FPS therefore wishes to contribute to the strengthening of the competitiveness of Italian biomedical research and its territory, as well as to reinforce the important investments made thanks to the support of its founder, the Pisa Foundation.”
“We are satisfied with the collaboration initiated by the Pisana Science Foundation, a special purpose body active in the scientific and technological research sector, with the Italian Foundation for Arthritis Research, which aims to develop a body of research aimed at rheumatic diseases, which joins those already present in fields of oncology, cardiology, and neuroscience,” he comments Stefano del Corso, President of the Pisa Foundation. “The FPS/FIRA collaboration enhances the technological platform, advanced tools and specialized skills of the Pisana Science Foundation, to which the Pisa Foundation has directed and continues to channel huge economic resources annually.”
The FIRA Research Center is equipped with the latest tools for the study of DNA and the human microbiome, which allows complex research on the molecular mechanisms underlying various rheumatic diseases to be conducted rapidly, expanding research possibilities over time. Center will also Communication with other national and international research institutes and other experts in the field to increase the value of the research being conducted.
Scientific coordinator From the FIRA Research Center, identified through the FIRA-FPS joint tender, is doctor. Matthew VecellioHe returned to Italy after many years abroad thanks to this project. Her first research project concerns gender medicine: through Study of the human microbiome the womb in patients with rheumatoid arthritis We intend to determine the molecular mechanisms of the disease, its potential contribution to disease progression and to the increased incidence of the disease in the female population. The second research project will focus On the three-dimensional organization of DNA in rheumatic diseases To determine the mechanisms that underlie cell dysfunction and the genesis of pathology.
“These projects have huge potential: the effort required in terms of time, skills and technologies can only be addressed by a few laboratories in the world, and the efforts of the Besana Science Foundation can be counted among them.” Matthew VecellioScientific coordinator of the FIRA Research Center.
FIRA’s goal, in the coming years, is to welcome ideas and study projects from other Italian researchersand, after examining them, act as facilitator for funding, co-financing or finding funding for their implementation at the FIRA Research Center in Pisa.
“In the past few years Rheumatology research has made tremendous progress In identifying the causes of major rheumatic diseases with clinical implications critical in identifying new diagnostic markers and new therapeutic aids, such as smart drugs (monoclonal antibodies or pseudoreceptors), that have improved patients’ lives. But many phenomena still need to be explained. A more in-depth study of autoantibodies, that is, those directed against the structures of our own organism rather than pathogens, and the mechanisms of dysregulation of the immune system, for example, would allow to correct the imbalance and bring the system back to its normal state. Efficiency “, concludes Prof. Montecco.
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