Twenty-four projects are the winners of the Joint Call for Applications launched in 2021by Fondazione Cariplo and Fondazione Telethon to support rare disease research.
A total budget of 5.7 million euro will fund 24 basic research projects carried out by 35 research groups from regions across Italy: Campania, Lazio, Liguria, Lombardy, Tuscany, Molise, Trentino-Alto Adige and Veneto. The selected projects cover 15 research fields and diseases,includingneurodevelopmental and growth disorders, rheumatic diseases, kidney diseases, neurological disorders, muscular dystrophy, Rett syndrome, Huntington’s disease, a rare genetic form of Alzheimer’s disease, blood disorders, and mitochondrial diseases.
Winners include Institutes of the National Research Council (CNR), such as the Institute of Neuroscience, the Institute for Genetic and Biomedical Research, the National Institute of Molecular Genetics, and the Institute of Biomedical Technologies. Many Universities are involved in the selected projects: University of Naples Federico II, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Rome, University of Insubria, University of Milan, University of Pavia, Vita Salute San Raffaele University, University of Milano-Bicocca, University of Pisa, University of Florence, University of Trento, University of Padova and University of Verona.
Approved projects and budgets are described on the Fondazione Telethon’s dedicated webpage.
The aim of the joint initiative is to contribute to the understanding of genetic aspects and molecular mechanisms that are still largely unknown or poorly understood but that are potentially useful for fostering the development of new therapies for rare diseases.
