INFN Italian National Institute for Nuclear Physics

In Italy, basic research in the field of the fundamental constituents of matter and the interactions that regulate their behaviour is conducted by INFN, the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (National Institute for Nuclear Physics). INFN is a community of over 6.000 people committed to ensuring that fundamental research provides its best results.

Examples of this are the historical achievements of recent years with the Nobel Prize winning discoveries of the Higgs boson and gravitational waves and with the Nobel Prize awarded to Giorgio Parise for his studies on complex systems. In short, INFN is a community that makes the so-called curiosity-driven research a national excellence.

The INFN is present throughout the country. It works in close cooperation with the university world: it is, in fact, historically organised into linked Divisions and Groups, which are based in the physics departments of the main Italian universities, in national laboratories and centres. At the same time, the Institute also has a significant international dimension, dictated by the global nature of scientific research in particle physics. So much so that INFN carries out a large part of its research activities within the framework of international cooperation initiatives: it participates in experiments in the most prestigious laboratories and research centres abroad and has collaborations in dozens of countries.

INFN carries out both theoretical and experimental research in the field of fundamental physics. In particular, there are five main research areas: subnuclear physics, astroparticle physics, nuclear physics, theoretical physics and technological and interdisciplinary research. In order to conduct the experiments, the Institute designs and produces, in its own laboratories and in collaboration with industry, cutting-edge technologies. Technologies which, although designed and developed for fundamental research, often lead to useful spin-offs for society, in the medical and the cultural heritage sectors or for the environment, to mention just a few examples.

As an institution working on cutting-edge scientific issues, INFN has a significant impact on the progress of knowledge, on technological development and on the economy of the country. Aware of this role, and of the fact that it is the duty of a public body to share its activities and the results that derive from them with society, the Institute is strongly committed to what today is called the third mission: i.e. to technology transfer, advanced training and the dissemination of the scientific culture.

IRCCS Azienda Ospedaliero Universitaria di Bologna

The University Hospital of Bologna IRCCS, Sant’ Orsola Polyclinic, is an integrated organization in the national, regional and local system for health and scientific research, with the main aim of guaranteeing a response to health needs through the provision of highly specialized inpatient and outpatient services and the development of clinical and translational research projects aimed at improving the health of the population.

The IRCCS – AOU in Bologna is a Polyspecialist hospital with a high specialization that extends for 1.8 km with a total gross area of 386,982-metre squares. Currently, every activity develops in 32 pavilions, 23 of which are dedicated to assistance and research activities with a daily presence averaging 20,000 people between patients and operators; it has 1,430 beds and a staff of over 5,000 operators and professionals, including university staff with an agreement.

The Company has been recognized as a Scientific Institute for Research, Hospitalization and Healthcare (IRCCS) with national relevance, with Decree on 19 September 2020 and published in the Official Ministerial Gazette No. 266 of 26 October 2020 as one of the disciplines of “assistance and research in transplants and critical patients” and “integrated medical and surgical management of oncology diseases. “

Recently, the clinical and research activity in oncology and hematology within the Polyclinic has been characterized by a significant increase in the volumes of casuistry treated and the experimentation of highly innovative medical and surgical therapies. Over 500 clinical studies and creative and experimental phase I-II-III-IV diagnosis and therapy programmes are active for treating oncological and hematological diseases in adult and pediatric patients.

The institute is also a reference center for allogeneic transplants in adults and children, is the only regional hub for the administration of therapies with CAR-T cells and is a regional reference center for the treatment of ovarian cancer.

The oncology research within the IRCCS AOU in Bologna is aimed at investigating the most innovative therapeutic approaches in oncology and hematology, with explicit reference to medical, surgical, pharmacological, immunotherapy and radiotherapy treatments:

  • identifying criteria and tools for patient stratification to optimize diagnostic and therapeutic strategies;
  • developing innovative therapeutic approaches with particular reference to new drugs, combining drugs with different molecular targets and the immunotherapy approach with CAR-T cells.

IRCCS Sacred Heart Don Calabria

IRCCS Sacro Cuore Don Calabria in Negrar of Valpolicella Public entity with a private administration, non-profit, Accredited by the Regional Health System (Veneto Region). In 2018 it obtained recognition as Scientific Institute for Research, Hospitalization and Healthcare.

According to the words of Saint Giovanni Calabria, founder of the Hospital: “The sick is our true master after God” the mission of the IRCCS is to place the sick person at the center of every attention. Assistance, education, research, and technological progress aim at a single final objective: to provide the best care for the patient.

The IRCCS has a total of 549 beds for acute and post-acute care and has over 2,200 employees.  The activity has a solid surgical component of high complexity: 33,000 hospitalizations, 22,000 surgeries, and 1,450,000 outpatient services are carried out every year.

There are specialized medical professionals dedicated to oncology and diagnostic and therapeutic technologies of the latest generation. The organizational structure enables the multidisciplinary care of oncological patients and the use of innovative antineoplastic treatments. The IRCCS is a full member of OECI (Organisation of European Cancer Institute) and is in the Accreditation Process as a Cancer Center.

In 2021, more than 16,600 cancer patients turned to the IRCCS, a number that has been steadily increasing over the years.

Clinical research activity has grown over the years: in 2021, 88 clinical studies, observational and experimental, were presented to the Ethics Committee.

The clinical unit “Medical Oncology” and the Analysis Laboratory are certified at AIFA for conducting Phase-I trials.

The entire IRCCS is engaged in scientific production: 322 articles were published last year for a global impact factor of 1774 points. In the same year the oncology publications were 130 for an impact factor of 764.

Intense and continuous is the activity of updating and education in oncology, which has seen over the years the contribution of hundreds of specialists of national relevance.

Besides this, the IRCCS collaborates with several universities in education, training and research.

In addition to the hospital, there are 365 beds in the social-health area that allow to devote significant attention to patients in all stages of illness. The building of an oncology hospice is imminent.

Institute of Pharmacological Research Mario Negri IRCCS

The Institute of Pharmacological Research Mario Negris is a private non-profit organization operating in the biomedical research field. It was legally established in 1961 and began its activity at the Milan office on February 1, 1963.

Today the Institute has about 700 researchers in three locations, one in Milan and two in Bergamo (at the Scientific and Technological Park of Kilometro Rosso and Ranica, where the Clinical Research Center for Rare Diseases Aldo and Cele D’Acco resides).

The fundamental aim of the Institute is to contribute to the protection of human health and life. To achieve this objective, it is necessary first to deepen our understanding of the operating mechanisms of living organisms, identify why diseases arise and know the processes that develop in the organisms following the introduction of foreign substances. In this way, the Institute’s research is generated from the molecular level down to the individual and populations.

The results are used to generate new drugs and increase the effectiveness of those already in use.

The Institute does not patent its findings and has always maintained its independence from industry, the Government, and the University, taking the suffering side. In this way, the efficiency typical of private organizations is for the service of the public interest.

Research areas

The research of the Institute is performed by ten research departments and focuses mainly on cancer, cardiovascular diseases, neurodegenerative diseases, kidney diseases, organ transplantation, public health, and environmental pollution. The study of rare diseases is another critical area of the foundation work, making the Institute of Pharmacological Research Mario Negris a national and international reference point.

Concerning the fight against cancer, the Department of Oncology has, over the years, been engaged in the discovery and pre-clinical and clinical development of therapies for the treatment of tumours through studies investigating molecular, biological, and pharmacological aspects. The final goal is to achieve clinical applications that improve the survival and life quality of cancer patients.

The projects followed by the Department concern different types of neoplasms; however, the majority of pre-clinical and clinical studies focus on gynecological tumours, sarcomas, thoracic tumours (lung, mesothelioma and thymus) and pancreatic tumours.

Training and scientific culture dissemination

The Institute has always been aimed at patients and the public, and health professionals, helping spread scientific culture in the biomedical field, improving health practice and the more appropriate use of medicines.

Alongside research activities, one of the missions is the training of young people. There are specific training programmes for graduates and diploma holders, through Ph.D. courses and specialization courses for the professional training of laboratory technicians and graduate researchers, awarding certificates of professional qualification and Ph.D. diplomas in collaboration with the MIUR.

Since 1963, the Institute has awarded 8,300 grants (of which 850 were given to foreign researchers)

IRCCS Policlinico San Matteo Foundation

The San Matteo Hospital in Pavia has a significant history: it is rooted in the glorious medical tradition of the University of Pavia, which includes Camillo Golgi, the Nobel Prize winner for Medicine, and is projected into research and advanced innovation.

The hospital was founded in 1449 by the Frate Domenico da Catalogna, and the first transformation took place in 1932, with the inauguration of the Polyclinic built by Nobel prize winner Camillo Golgi.

In 2013 the new pavilion called “DEA” was inaugurated: a structure of 65 thousand square meters consisting of a plate that configures an EAS (First Aid of High Specialty) of 6 thousand square meters able to handle any emergency, having available a diagnostic facility and digital radiology of the latest generation, with an entire plan dedicated to intensive care.

In 1982, San Matteo was formally recognized as a Scientific Institute for Research, Hospitalization and Healthcare and had always been reconfirmed in this role, becoming a reference point of national and international biomedical research in the world.

The mission of the Scientific Institute for Research, Hospitalization and Healthcare (IRCCS) is carried out in the care and research of the transplantology field, regenerative medicine, and diseases of high complexity and, in particular, in specific areas such as hematology of children and adults, cardiology, infectiousness, oncology, rheumatology, gastroenterology, rare diseases and advanced surgery.

The polyclinic San Matteo combines all three fundamental aspects of healthcare: assistance, affirming its role as a reference hospital (HUB) and centre of the organizational and pathology networks; research, being an IRCCS and playing a leading national and international role in clinical and translational research; basic and specialist university training, being a polyclinic of the University of Pavia, the seat of the degree course in Medicine and Surgery, which boasts a centuries-old school, and of the three-year and master’s degree courses in the health professions.

Today, IRCCS Polyclinic San Matteo, with more than 3,600 employees, 1,024 accredited beds, 36,700 admissions, 99,600 emergency room admissions, 2.5 million outpatient services, and an operating budget of more than 412 million euros, is one of the five largest public hospitals in Lombardy and one of the largest IRCCSs in Italy.

IRCCS Saverio De Bellis

Ente Ospedaliero Specializzato in Gastroenterologia “Saverio de Bellis” is a hospital with a specialized gastroenterological, medical and surgical focus, which operates as a Scientific Institute for Research, Hospitalization and Healthcare under public law.

The IRCCS “Saverio de Bellis” is an integral part of the Health Service of the Puglia Region, in which it performs highly qualified purposes in care activities, research and training.

The IRCCS “Saverio de Bellis” role in the regional network represents a vital commitment mainly oriented to innovative gastroenterological surgery, endoscopy and hepatology. Furthermore, the IRCCS has a critical responsibility mainly oriented to excellence activities and experimentation in the hepato-gastroenterological and nutritional sectors. Thus, it has become a regional reference centre for acute, chronic, and neoplastic diseases of the digestive system and, more recently, for metabolic and dietary disorders.

The numbers of healthcare services are constantly increasing, and last year 10,000 endoscopies, 3,000 of which were interventional, and more than 1,200 gastroenteric surgeries were recorded. The following year 2,000 new patients were healed at the clinical nutrition clinic. Even more significant is the healthcare model proposed, where the approach to the patient is multidisciplinary, being accomplished by a complete and all-around team, consisting of a gastroenterologist, surgeon, endoscopist, nutritionist and pathophysiology of nutrition, oncologist, radiologist, pathologist, geneticist, pharmacologist, and epidemiologist. All these medical specialists enable a unique diagnostic and therapeutic pathway in gastroenterology, supported by transversal platforms that guarantee high added value, such as the nutraceutical and personalized medicine laboratories, but also telemedicine, currently being implemented, which allows home telemonitoring to promote patient and family empowerment and improve quality of life.

The “Saverio de Bellis” IRCCS has a substantial and advanced research facility, covering about 1,200 square metres of laboratories specifically dedicated to research, 570 square metres of dedicated services and an enclosure of 220 square metres.

The research lines follow the 3P model: precision, preventive/predictive, participatory.

Research at the ‘Saverio de Bellis’ IRCCS is translational and achieves direct and positive repercussions on healthcare assistance and citizens. Indeed, a series of innovative genetic tests are available to the local community to identify the most suitable biological therapy to combat already diagnosed tumours (the so-called “target therapy”) or investigate the predisposition of family members of the affected person to contract new ones.

IRCCS Fondazione Policlinico Universitario Agostino Gemelli

The Gemelli University Hospital (Italian: Foundation Policlinico Universitario Agostino Gemelli) IRCCS is where scientific and technical expertise, human sensitivity, ethics, and Catholic values become a motivating commitment serving all citizens ensuring excellent care accessible to the entire community.

The centrality of the patient as a person, use of expertise, technology and state-of-the-art know-how, and ability to respond to complex care needs through increasingly personalized (therefore effective) responses are the hallmarks of clinical and healthcare activities fulfilled every day, 24 hours a day, by the Gemelli University Hospital. Eight clinical and research departments involve113 medical care units, including 86 complex operating units, 27 simple operating areas, and 1536 beds. In one year, 215 organ transplantations were performed, 94,509 patients were discharged, and 83,419 people accessed the emergency room.

The Gemelli University Hospital is a reference point at the national level for an increasing number of disciplines and specializations with international excellence. With more than 5000 employees and daily relationships with thousands of stakeholders, the Gemelli University Hospital IRCCS is a national fundamental institution, which operates in an economically sustainable way in the complex context of Health Care.

Working successfully in this delicate balance depends on the dedication and skill of all collaborators.

Every day, people embrace the Foundation’s mission with motivation and commitment, guaranteeing excellent healthcare with professionalism and humanity, available to the entire community. Recoginzed as a Scientific Institute for Research, Hospitalization and Healthcare (IRCCS) for the disciplines of Personalized Medicine and Innovative Biotechnology in 2018, Gemelli is committed to clinical and scientific research.

In 2017, the Foundation distinguished itself in areas of prestigious university research, obtained through competitive tenders. Projects are in scientific areas such as oncology, which has always been one of the pillars of the Foundation’s research, as well as metabolic diseases, chronic diseases, genetic and autoimmune diseases (Amyotrophic Muscular Syndrome, Multiple Sclerosis and Myasthenia Gravis), infectious diseases and new diagnostic systems. The second pillar of the Foundation is the expertise demonstrated in profit research, which with the launch in 2017 of the Clinical Trial Center as an independent company, confirms Gemelli as one of the few Italian facilities at the service of global clinical research, setting a new industry standard of excellence.

In 2017, as a result of collaboration with the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery of the Catholic University th foundation achieved the following: 291 research projects developed, 33 structures of the Foundation entirely or partially dedicated to research projects, over 1500 scientific publications, 142 profit studies activated in the Clinical Trial Center, all with a value of 10.5 million euros.

IRCCS SDN – Research Institute

The SDN Institute is a multi-specialized structure operating for over 40 years in laboratory and image diagnostics, nationally accredited for the provision of health services such as Laboratory testing, Diagnostics for Images and Nuclear Medicine / PET.

The primary objective of the IRCCS SDN is to meet, with professionalism and highly qualified service, the entire diagnostic process of the patient, ensuring constant but discreet assistance and providing a technologically advanced environment, constantly integrated and updated.

Besides clinical-care activity, SDN carries out scientific divulgation and research in vivo and in vitro diagnostics focused on application and integrating preclinical and clinical diagnostic methodologies in oncological pathologies, cardiovascular, neurological, and metabolic-functional.

The Ministry of Health recognized SDN activity by decree of 11 January 2007, 2014, and then in 2016 reconfirmed the SDN Institute’s qualification as Scientific Institute for Research, Hospitalization and Healthcare (IRCCS) for the discipline of “Integrated Imaging and Laboratory Diagnostics.”

The IRCCS qualification provides that, in addition to excellence in clinical care, there is a solid commitment to translational research in all diagnostics areas. The aim is to provide the National Health Service with data and guidelines to make the equipment and methodologies for diagnosis and follow-up more effective and innovative.

All the facilities and related resources are at the service of both healthcare and scientific research activities. Their number and quality make it possible to test and conduct highly innovative research projects and to attract the interest of public and private entities.

The concentration of these technologies and skills enables the SDN Institute to excel in integrated diagnostics and attract many patients from central-southern Italy.

The SDN Institute is constantly striving to improve the quality of its procedures and therefore voluntarily submits to external audits of its standards by national (ISO 9001 certification) and international entities (Joint Commission International, European Union of Medical Specialists (UEMS) and European Board of Nuclear Medicine (EBNM)).

The research activities are supported by highly innovative core facilities, some of which are also open to external users:

  • Image Processing Centre NAPLAB;
  • Statistics and Bioinformatics Laboratory;
  • Radiopharmacy;
  • Laboratory of Nanotechnology;

Biobank included in the BBMRI (Biobanking and BioMolecular Resources Research Infrastructure) node to establish an Expert Centre, ATMA-CE, a technology hub focused on radiomics and validation of imaging biomarkers.

In carrying out its experimental and clinical research programmes, the SDN Institute has for many years developed formal and informal scientific collaboration agreements with Universities, IRCCS, Institutions and public and private, national, and international entities in the fields related to its research activities, with which researchers are interchanged, and research of common interest is shared.

It is also a member of infrastructure networks, such as EIBIR – European Institute for Biomedical Imaging Research, EuroBioImaging – large-scale pan-European research infrastructure project of ESFRI (European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructure), ADNI – Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative, KIC INNOSTAR, Knowledge and Innovation Community Italian node for “Healthy living and active ageing,” EATRIS – European Advanced Translational Research Infrastructure in Medicine, BBMRI – Biobanking and BioMolecular Resources Research Infrastructure, research infrastructure involving biobanks and biological resource centres – European Expert Center (ATMA) and Networks promoted by the Ministry of Health.

IRCCS Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza

Casa Sollievo Della Sofferenza is a highly specialized hospital established as a non-profit foundation, recognized by the Ministry of Health as a Scientific Institute for Research, Hospitalization and Healthcare (IRCCS) in the field of “Genetic diseases, innovative therapies and regenerative medicine.”

It is one of the largest hospitals in southern Italy, with an average of 57,000 patients per year. The hospital is organized in nine departments (40 clinical units): Cardiology/Vascular, Emergency Medicine, Developmental Age, Onco-Hematology, Laboratory Diagnosis, Surgical Sciences, Medical Sciences, Radiological Sciences, and Head and Neck. According to the best available scientific evidence, to guarantee the best multi-specialist healthcare to the patient, a healthcare organization has been established in UNIT: Lung Unit, Breast Unit and Head-Neck Unit.

It has 2500 employees, of which more than 150 (physicians, biologists and technicians) are regularly involved in scientific research. Researchers publish about 200 scientific articles in the most renowned journals (Science, New England Journal of Medicine, Nature Genetics) every year. They are engaged both as Principal Investigators and as partners in research projects in the biomedical field and ICT, obtaining funding from the EU (H2020 and FP7) and national or regional calls. The research laboratories of IRCCS Casa Sollievo Della Sofferenza are located over 8700 square meters and equipped for medical genetic studies, innovative therapies, and regenerative medicine.

Each research laboratory has essential implements for extracting, quantifying, amplifying, and analyzing nucleic acids, such as sequencers and real-time PCR platforms, and devices for in vitro studies such as biological hoods for cell cultures and CO2 incubators. The main instruments are centralized in cross-research facilities: Illumina NextSeq 500, Illumina MiSeq and Thermo Fischer Scientific Ion S5 (sequencing), Leica TCS SP8 confocal microscope (confocal microscopy) and Beckman Astrios EQ cell sorter (cytofluorimetry).

The newly opened Institute for Rehabilitation Medicine (ISBReMIT) consists of several laboratories for clinical-grade neural stem cell production and biopolymer synthesis. There is an enclosure for in vivo studies (mouse and rat) equipped with Perkin Elmer IVIS Spectrum CT in the same institute.

To support researchers, a Grant Office, Clinical Trial Office, Bioinformatics Unit, Biostatistics Unit and Cellular Reprogramming Unit are operational to the Scientific Director. Today, the Institute has 47 active scientific research projects funded in response to competitive calls from the European Union, non-profit foundations, regional calls and the Ministry of Health.

The Institute maintains high levels of quality and is ISO 9001/2015 certified.

Bambino Gesù Children’s Hospital

The pediatric hospital Bambino Gesù (OPBG), Scientific Institute for Research and Treatment, is the largest pediatric hospital and research center in Europe.

With its organization, facilities, high-quality technology, and top health professionals, OPBG guarantees coverage for all care areas, including urgencies and emergencies.

The excellence of the OPBG was recognized in 2015 for the fourth time through accreditation by the prestigious Joint Commission International (JCI), the leading international accreditation institution in the health sector, which certified OPBG’s compliance with international standards of excellence, confirming commitment to ensuring safe and effective healthcare for young patients.

Public care is organized into 10 Clinical Departments: Surgical Department; Emergency Acceptance – Anesthesia Resuscitation and Operating Departments; Imaging; Immunology Laboratories and Diagnostics; Medical-Surgical Pediatric Cardiology; Medical and Surgical Neonatology; Neuroscience and Neurorehabilitation; Oncoematology and Transfusion Medicine; University Hospital Pediatric; and Pediatric Specialists.

In 2016, Healthcare activity was represented by 26,947 ordinary admissions, 12,161 day hospital and 2,095 day surgery admissions, 1,696,279 outpatient services, 80,015 emergency room admissions, and 27,058 surgeries.

Scientific research, an element of excellence of the Institute, includes basic, translational, and clinical research and is organized into six research areas: Genetic and Rare Diseases; Oncohaematology; Multifactorial Diseases and Complex Phenotypes; Immunology; Infectious Diseases and Pediatric Drug Development; and Clinical and Technological Innovations.

New research laboratories, inaugurated in 2015, cover an area of more than 5,000 square meters located in the new Research Pole of San Paolo Fuori le Mura and are provided with the most advanced equipment for genomic analysis, metagenomics, metabolomics, proteomics, microarray technology, cytogenetics, FISH applications, cytofluorimetry, and cell and molecular biology.

Scientific research simultaneously involves over 300 research projects, primarily national and international multicentric. In 2016, this intense activity resulted in the achievement of 2500 impact factors as the total value of scientific production and 600 international publications yielded by researchers from the Hospital.

The OPBG has a permanent structured staff of approximately 2,500, of whom 550 are physicians, as well as 45 biologists and pharmacists, active in clinical care and scientific research. It also has a contract staff of approximately 180 members. The OPBG is also a training center, with about 50 Specialist Physicians in Training and more than 100 students and trainees/attendants.

The clinical and scientific excellence of the OPBG is also evidenced through a relationship network with national and international institutes. Indeed, being part of fifteen networks in the European Reference Networks dedicated to rare diseases places the OPBG at the forefront of European and international pediatrics and testifies to its brilliance in healthcare and scientific research.