Profile

The establishment, in 2005, of the INTER-UNIVERSITY RESEARCH CENTRE ON THEMOLECULAR BASIS OF NEURODEGENERATIVE DISEASES has been promoted by researchers from five Departments of three Universities to push the progress of the scientific knowledge in the field of degenerative diseases of the Central and Peripheral Nervous System. The most important aims of the Centre are to promote, to coordinate, to develop and to realize studies and researches concerning the structural and functional alterations, at a molecular level, underlying the pathogenetic mechanisms of neurodegenerative diseases.

The Centre proposes itself as a structure of biomedical research with interdisciplinary character connected to important international research laboratories. The research activity of the operative Units of the Centre is strongly addressed to the use of advanced techniques of biochemical, biophysical, biomolecular, cellular and genetic type.

In particular, the Centre will focus its activities on the following topics:

Scientific research:

Study of the biochemical and molecular alterations underlying neurodegenerative diseases, in order to find specific targets for therapeutic and diagnostic strategies.
Research, study and characterization of genetic alterations associated to neurodegenerative diseases.
Molecular characterization of the mechanisms of folding, misfolding and aggregation of proteins involved in neurodegenerative processes, with a particular attention for the forms characterized by deposition of aggregates of amyloid type.
Study of the molecular mechanisms of the cytotoxicity of protein aggregates and of the relationships between the structure of the aggregates and their toxic effects on biological models.
Research of molecules and chemico-physical conditions able to inhibit the aggregation process or to promote the aggregate dissolution, to interfere with the neurodegenerative process.
Study of the influence of environmental, genetic, and aging factors on the cellular and molecular mechanisms preventing the onset of neurodegenerative processes.

To achieve these aims, the Centre:

Promotes initiatives of interdisciplinary collaboration either at national and international level on the topics which characterize its scientific aims;
Organizes initiatives aimed to the scientific comparison and to the improvement of relationships and exchanges between italian and foreign researchers active in the scientific fields of the Centre;
Supports the exchange of informations and of instrumental resources between the arranged research Units, also in collaborations with other Institutes or University Departments or with other Centres of scientific research.