Cardiovascular & Metabolic Diseases

This Programme focuses on three broad areas of metabolic dysregulation: cardiometabolic diseases, metabolic-associated liver diseases and hormonal metabolic regulation in the central nervous system.

Cardiometabolic diseases – encompassing conditions like heart disease, stroke, and diabetes – collectively represent the leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide.

The Cardiometabolic diseases part of the Programme relies on the hypothesis that integrating genomic data with specific characteristics (or traits) of an individual can reveal significant insights into cardiometabolic diseases. It will combine molecular assays with multi-omic analysis of the “expressed genome” (e.g. RNA, proteins and metabolites), electronic health records and population and patient cohort studies to identify causal pathways for cardiometabolic diseases. These analyses will be complemented by targeted deep phenotyping of smaller groups of individuals to identify and validate novel therapeutic targets. Finally, HT researchers will develop risk assessment tools, strategies, and interventions to improve the prevention and management of cardiometabolic diseases in Italy and globally.

The metabolic-associated liver diseases and hormonal metabolic regulation in the central nervous system parts aim to study the processes that drive cells into dysmetabolic states. Addressing this question requires the integration of molecular mechanisms with the regulation of metabolism across scales, from the molecular and subcellular (organelles) to the organ scale and organism physiology.

The metabolic-associated liver diseases part of the Programme will focus on the identification of molecular mechanisms leading to dysmetabolic regulation in various types of liver diseases (for example, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, primary biliary cholangitis, and ciliopathies). In addition, this Programme will also touch upon nutritional and other metabolic diseases (e.g. obesity) as well as the role of nutrition in disease aetiology.

The hormonal metabolic regulation in the central nervous system part of the Programme will investigate the impact of endocrine and metabolic disruption on brain development and health.

The Cardiovascular & Metabolic Diseases Programme will interface with Evolving diseases – Cancer Programme.