Istituto di ricerche farmacologiche "Mario Negri" (IRFMN)

It was established in Milan in 1961 and later (1984) opened research units in Bergamo. The Institute is committed to health advocacy and human life. About 700 among the researchers and support staff are active at the Milan headquarters, in Bergamo (Centro Anna Maria Astori, located in the Kilometro Rosso Science and Technology Park), and in Ranica (Centro Aldo e Cele Daccò). IRFMN's research programs, distributed among 11 departments and more than 50 laboratories, span from the molecular level to the whole human being, with the aim to prompt research from bench to bed and back in order to improve human and public health. The main research headings are the fight against cancer, nervous system and mental illnesses, cardiovascular and kidney diseases, rare diseases, toxic effects of environmental contaminants, food safety, mother and child’s health.

Within the conceptual and research framework of this proposal, and with a particular focus on the themes dealt with the spokes where IRFMN is actively involved, our institute will contribute with different but complementary expertise in the field of food science, ranging from preclinical to clinical skills. In particular, researchers with proven experience in innovative in silico tools, advanced analytical methods, molecular, biological and omics approaches will be involved. In addition, the project will also benefit from IRFMN 'experts in the development of clinical (including educational) and observational studies.

The IRFMN laboratories brings together a strong interdisciplinary team involving researchers from several different and complementary areas of food research (physicians, pharmacologists, epidemiologists, biologists, nutritionists, chemists, toxicologists, biostatisticians, bioinformaticians, bioengineers, physicists and clinical research assistants) with multi-year knowledge and skills for the planning, design, coordination and analysis of national and international multicentre experimental and clinical projects. The wide number of competitive projects completed and of those successfully applied for competitive grants confirm the capacity of the team to conduct them with an interdisciplinary, holistic and problem-solving approach. The problem-solving attitudes have been established in several research activities with private companies, where the skills required spanned from chemical, technological, biological, epidemiological, clinical issues.

Furthermore, IRFMN developed many research collaborations with relevant national and international universities building an important network of academic institutes to study food science. One of the most prominent collaboration with private company is that with the R&D of Bolton Food SpA, whose research goals are to demonstrate that canned fish could be a component of a healthy and sustainable diet, by assessing the benefit of canned fish consumption on human health and by working on the identification of strategies aimed at decreasing the fish waste along the production process. Another long-lasting collaboration with private company is that with Perfetti Van Melle SPA, in which the role of IRFMN was to scientifically support: 1) the design and development of new functional candies/chewing gums; 2) the safety evaluation of ingredients and additives, with particular attention to nanoparticle and nanoplastics contamination, 3) the improvement of the quality of the products, reducing the sugar content and the risk of caries development.