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Institute for Biomedical Technologies

The National Research Council (CNR) is the leading government agency tasked with promoting basic, biomedical and clinical research through its intramural and extramural programs. Within the CNR, the National Institute for Biomedical Technologies (ITB) derives from the union of several institutes and units of the CNR.

The ITB headquarters are located in Segrate, near Milan, at the Interdisciplinary Laboratory of Advanced Technology (LITA), a structure that houses various departments of the University of Milan. This headquarters has more than 2500 square meters of laboratories and offices and a staff of over 50 people. A growing list of institutions around the world collaborate with the ITB in the fields of research on omics technologies, bioinformatics, stem cells, oncology, neurodegenerative disorders, the human microbiome and bioethics

Strong pre-doctoral and post-doctoral programs are established at the ITB to create a lasting bridge between academia, medical research and industry with the aim of promoting future advances in new biomedical technologies. Examples of extramural collaborations with the ITB include European Community funded education, training and research projects, the Cariplo Foundation, the Telethon Committee, the Italy-USA Cancer Pharmacogenomics Initiative, the Italian Association for Cancer Research and the Foundation MJ Fox for Parkinson’s Research.

The ITB is the largest institute of its kind in Italy and was created to promote new types of interdisciplinary biomedical research by bringing together biology, engineering, medicine and basic sciences. This is possible thanks to collaborations between industry, scientists and doctors across a wide range of disciplines. One of the most important objectives of its research mission is the translation of fundamental discoveries into new technologies. In 1986 Renato Dulbecco proposed sequencing of the human genome to the scientific community. This initiative later became known as the Human Genome Project (HGP), where a large section of the Institute in collaboration with Renato Dulbecco worked on this project. Since 1986, enormous technological advances have been made since HGP that have important implications for future breakthroughs in the biological and clinical sciences

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