Human Technopole

A study by Human Technopole, the Institute of Cancer Research and the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust in London has shown that in prostate cancer the presence in the same tumour of cells with large differences in shape and genetic composition indicates an increased risk of relapse, including after a decade. The study may help doctors better tailor treatment for this disease, adopting more aggressive therapies in cases where these parameters indicate a higher risk of disease recurrence.

Human Technopole is opening its National Facilities, providing advanced equipment and technologies accessible through calls for proposals open to the Italian scientific community. Projects will be selected by a commission of international experts. Scientists will have access to five new dedicated facilities, which act as catalysts for open innovation in the life sciences sector, crucial for research and the health of Italians.

Five years since its inception, Human Technopole is now a dynamic institute where researchers from around the world have laid the foundations for unravelling the fundamental mechanisms of life across multiple biological scales – molecules, cells, tissues, organs, organisms, populations – in space and time.

Meet Giovanni Fagà, Head of the National Facility for Genome Engineering & Disease Modelling. The core mission of the National Facility for Genome Engineering and Disease Modelling is to provide access to cutting-edge technologies in pluripotent stem cells, cell model generation, and genomic engineering.

An international team of scientists led by HT researchers Magda Bienko and Nicola Crosetto developed an open-source software for deconvolution of widefield fluorescence microscopy image stacks and large tissue scans. This new tool increases the information obtained with fluorescence microscopy-based spatial omic methods.

The German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina has elected the Dresden and Italian cell biologist Marino Zerial as one of its members. Currently Director of Human Technopole, he is also one of the founding directors of the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (MPI-CBG).