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INIZIO_TESTO_DA_INDICIZZARE

Academic Center of Excellence

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Keywords
IMMUNOBIOTECHNOLOGY; NEUROBIOLOGY; GENETICS; PEDIATRICS; MOLECULAR DIAGNOSTICS; CELLULAR THERAPY; GENE THERAPY; CYTOKINES;

Center for Innovative Diagnostics and Therapeutics (IDET)

Università degli Studi di Brescia
Abstract
The institution of the center called with the acronym IDET (italian based) intends to catalyze and promote efforts in the field of molecular medicine conducted at the University of Brescia, offering an appropriate high tech contest to groups with a strong background that operate there and catalyzing the aggregation of resources and know-how present within and outside this university. The activity of IDET will develop at three levels: IMMUNOBIOTECHNOLOGY, NEUROBIOLOGY and GENETICS. Molecular genetics represents the approach common to the groups that will be part of IDET. Immunobiotechnology and neuroscience are areas of research which are naturally prone to transdisciplinary efforts and these indeed are a cutting edge field in this two disciplines. The activity of IDET will be characterized by the opportunity of immediate transfer to a clinical context with a reciprocal CROSS-FERTILIZATION between BASIC RESEARCH and CLINICALLY ORIENTED RESEARCH. The activity of IDET will be founded on the previous experience of the applicants which offers a solid basis of new molecules, genes and original reagents, characterized and/or under study by using diverse approaches, including the transcriptosome and proteasome analysis under various physio-pathological conditions, which will be the object of the transfer activity from the beginning. The applicants have a tradition of collaborative efforts, as testified by shared publications. Special emphasis will be on INDUSTRIAL TRANSFER. The applicants have a well demonstrated capacity to interact with conventional pharmaceutical industry and with pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry, both italian and foreign, resulting in attraction of funding, filing of patents, and having reagents on the market. Special attention will be put on this aspect of IDET, which will hopefully act as an "INCUBATOR" of industrial activity. <<<
Principal Investigator
Alberto MANTOVANI Università degli Studi di BRESCIA
International Relationship
IDET activities will take advantage of well developed relationships with other industrial and academic institutions. In particular, a long lasting collaboration has been developed with the Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche "Mario Negri" and the Centro Interuniversitario per le Biotecnologie (CIB). This collaboration will provide expertise and qualified access to technological areas not well developed in IDET, such as the protein/peptide structural analysis (mass spectrometry) and advanced bioinformatics. The most relevant end-point of IDET is to act as an "incubator" for developing industrial partners. Along this line, ongoing cooperative projects with industrial partners will be included in IDET activities. <<<
Research Objectives
As outlined in the abstract, the objective of IDET is to catalize technological development and transfer in the areas of immunobiotechnology and neuroscience using as common approach molecular genetics and taking maximal advantage from a continuous cross fertilization between basic and clinical research. The activities of IDET will be organized and promoted by a coordinator and by a scientific council (the applicants). In addition, IDET will take advantage of critical monitoring by a small international Advisory Board made of three outstanding scientists (tentatively Charles A. Dinarello, Colorado, USA; Floyd Bloom, California, USA; Lucio Luzzatto, New York, USA) The small number of members of the Advisory Board will allow an actual monitoring function. The Advisory Board will visit the center at least twice in the first three years of the initial planned activity and will express its evaluation and criticism of the work conducted, programs and technology. IDET will be located at the Department of Biotechnology and Biomedical Sciences of this University, which has doubled its space in the last three months. The Centro Multisettoriale e Tecnologico, a new research center aimed at developing research and technology in the field of engineering, is being activated by this University and will provide a potential technological partner to IDET. We expect that this interaction may open new perspectives to technological development and industrial transfer, a crucial aspect in a geographical area such as Brescia.

As discussed above, the general objectives of IDET will be to develop new diagnostic technologies in the immunebiotechnology and neurosciences fields, as well as cellular and gene based therapeutics. This general objectives are coherent with the strong background in this field of the applicants. Examples of specific lines of work are discussed below (section 2.3). <<<