Humanitas’ scientific and research activity has always been noted for being geared to translation from bench to bedside, entailing a close integration – with a continuous exchange of information – between the laboratory and clinical activity. The goal is to guarantee the transfer of results, within a short time, from the lab to the patient – a fundamental need in medical practice. There are close to 100 researchers working at the Humanitas University Research and Teaching Center, with cutting-edge technology such as the two-photon microscope. The group operates in close collaboration with the hospital’s 450 physicians on the identification of inflammation mechanisms at the outset of the processes and in the area of the development of diverse pathologies that range from tumors, through disorders of the gastrointestinal tract, to cardiovascular ailments such as heart attacks or strokes. The mission of the Research Center led by Prof. Alberto Mantovani turns it into something unique in Italy, networking with centers of excellence such as the Universities of Leuven and New York; the biotechnology center of Madrid; Britain’s Queen Mary medical school, and the Pasteur Institute in Paris. Since 2006 Humanitas forms part of the European working network of immunological institutes.

 

“To carry out research is the best path to offering the patient the most innovative and efficient solutions available today to handle the diagnosis and the cure,” explains Prof. Mantovani, Humanitas’ scientific director and president of the Humanitas Foundation for research.

 

“For this reason, the Humanitas Foundation for research arose in 2005, and it is devoted to clinical research in the field of immunology and in the study of possible clinical applications for chronic and autoimmune inflammatory diseases, particularly in the cancer and gastroenterology fields,” he adds. To underpin its projects, the foundation has the support of national and international entities such as the European Commission, AIRC, Telethon and Cariplo Foundation.

 

The research work carried out by Humanitas is constantly monitored by an Advisory Board guided by the Nobel Prize winner in Medicine Rolf Zinkernagel and constituted by scientists of international renown such as Charles Dinarello, professor of Medicine at the University of Colorado in Denver, Fabio Cominelli, professor of Internal Medicine and Microbiology and director of the Digestive Health Center of the University of Virginia, and Lorenzo Moretta, scientific director of the Gaslini in Genoa. The Advisory Board carries out periodic visits with the twofold purpose of evaluating the results of the scientific activity and channeling them toward other, future programs. “For us, the extremely positive evaluation made of the scientific activity carried out at Humanitas, over the last three years, has been a source of pride,” Mantovani says in relation to the overview in 2009.

 

“The Advisory Board has especially appreciated the effort made by Humanitas to strengthen the link between pre-clinical research and clinical work. On the basis of the recommendations made, we will continue on the path of research for a strong, two-way link between the patient’s bed and the lab, and to assist in the setting up of a specific mechanism for the creation of the bridge figure between doctors and researchers,” he states.

 

In recent years there has been an acceleration in the process of approximation in the world of research based on clinical activity, i.e. on daily outpatient or consulting room practice. There has been a substantial reduction in the timespan between a scientific discovery and its proper clinical application. Nowadays, the development and launching of ever more sophisticated technologies in the realm of research poses a new and major challenge: guaranteeing the presence of physician-researchers, in a way that ensures a continuous link between the clinic and the lab. Professionals who, through the practice of research, have acquired the methodology and rigorousness it imposes, but who at the same time keep close to the patient so as not to lose sight of the relationship with the latter, which continues to be one of the foundations of medicine. With this aim, in 2008 Humanitas carried out a major recruitment operation of professional figures to achieve a convergence of clinical activity and research, especially in the areas of intestinal inflammations, rheumatic and liver autoimmune pathologies, and cell therapies.

 

For the rest, hospitals are today, alongside universities, the places chosen for medical training and research: a stimulating environment in which the physicians and the researchers of the future can grow. In particular, those hospitals that bring together scientific research and clinical activity, like the association between Humanitas, as a scientific research and cure institute, and the University of Milan.