Salute & sanità
When excellence comes home
Reblogged from Science on the Net
Two aspects remain etched firmly after a talk with Andrea Lunardi and Graziano Martello, two “made in Italy” brains that have decided to return to work in Italy after years of research abroad. First, go abroad tout courtis not an essential step; the difference is choosing centres of excellence abroad. Second: a PhD in Italy is a great resource, not to be missed, as long as you choose a good group to work with.
These two young men, 43 years old Lunardi and 34 years old Martello, are certainly not the rule in our country. Two researchers that decide to bring their skills in Italy thanks to two grants from a private foundation, the Armenise Foundation, plus a Telethon grant for Martello, after spending years in centers of excellence worldwide, Lunardi at Harvard Medical School and Martello at the University of Cambridge.
Let us start from the end. What is the focus of your researches and why did you decide to come back?
AL: I am a biologist and in recent years I was involved in research on cancer, particularly prostate cancer, under the lead of Pier Paolo Pandolfi, Director of the Cancer Research Institute at the Beth Israel deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School of Boston. Together with a team of American colleagues, I developed the Co-Clinical Trial Approach, a new translational platform based on the enrollment of faithful genetically engineered mouse models of human tumors in specific treatments that perfectly mirror the clinical trial in human patients. I worked in the United States for years, knowing that I would be back in Italy after a few years, and now I had the opportunity to do so, bringing in my country the skills acquired in a center of excellence like the Harvard Medical School. I then tried to obtain funding and I won the Armenise scholarship, which allowed me to come back. Trento seemed to be the best destination for me at the moment, since it is a dynamic reality that is recruiting many new resources focusing on quality.
GM: My research combines experimental and computational methods to understand what controls the behavior of embryonic stem cells. I decided to return to Italy after four years in Cambridge because it was my desire since I started my activity abroad, and I think that if you want to return, once arrived at a certain moment you should try. I was very lucky because I had the opportunity to go back to the University where I studied, which is an excellent research center at both Italian and international level. The funding I have obtained have been obviously fundamental: I got both the Armenise and the Telethon Scholarships, which will cover my project for five years.
Un “GPS” per ricostruire il nostro albero genealogico
Reblogged from PJ Magazine
“Ho trovato compagni trovando me stesso” scriveva Cesare Pavese nella poesia Antenati.
Probabilmente Pavese non avrebbe pensato che questo suo verso così evocativo potesse ottant’anni dopo rivelarsi così calzante per introdurre una nuova frontiera in campo scientifico.
Oggi invece nuovi risultati sembrano dimostrare che proprio guardando in quello che forse è l’antro più intimo e caratterizzante di noi stessi, cioè il nostro profilo genetico, l’uomo potrebbe riuscire a trovare le sue origini fino a oltre 1000 anni fa e in questo modo rintracciare i suoi compagni “biologici”.
La ricerca di un metodo che utilizzi informazioni biologiche per prevedere il luogo di origine di un essere umano ha occupato gli scienziati per secoli. In particolare dopo la scoperta del DNA, numerosi ricercatori hanno continuato a studiare il problema attraverso l’analisi dei dati genetici, anche se con scarso successo.
Oggi però uno studio pubblicato sulla prestigiosa rivista Nature Communication, sembra aprire la strada a nuove possibilità, grazie a un test in grado di analizzare il DNA degli individui di una popolazione e confrontarlo con le aree geografiche in cui questo popolo ha vissuto, fino a raggiungere, nella migliore delle ipotesi, addirittura il villaggio originario di provenienza.
Secondo lo studio la percentuale di successo si attesterebbe intorno all’80%, con picchi maggiori nel caso delle popolazioni del Sud Est Asiatico.
