Italy Milano

Ospedale San Raffaele (Infections and Cystic Fibrosis)

Infections and Cystic Fibrosis, Division of Immunology, Transplantation and Infectious Diseases

Brief Overview

Ospedale San Raffaele is one of the leading research institutes in Italy in terms of volume and quality of scientific output. San Raffaele is recognized by the Italian Ministry of Health as a research hospital with the speciality of Molecular Medicine. This highlights the multidisciplinary research performed at the institute, which aims both to understand the molecular processes underlying a large number of human diseases and to design new therapeutic approaches. Thanks to the integration of basic, translational and clinical research, Ospedale San Raffaele is at the forefront in many biomedical areas and provides the best assistance to its patients.

Research Areas

Cystic fibrosis\Genetics\Immunology\Infection\Microbiology

Host center eligibility

Global fellowships (return phase only)\ European fellowships

Research infrastructure/facilities

13 research facilities include proteomics, genomics, flow cytometry, conditional mutagenesis, histopathology, high field magnetic resonance, light/electron microscopy and statistics. The following facilities will be essential for the support of the proposed research.
1. A Mouse Facility with a capacity of up to 6,800 cages, 7 mouse procedure rooms and a BSL-2-3 stabulary where murine respiratory infection will be carried out.
2. Center for Omics Science with Next-generation sequencing based on the Illumina NovaSeq 6000 platform, and support equipment.
3. Cell Sorting Facility equipped with FACS Aria and MoFlo XDP stations for high-speed cell sorting, FACS Canto II, LSRFortessa, and Gallios.

Research funding/Resources

Over the past 5 years, OSR has received around €1M in peer-reviewed awards for respiratory research from a variety of public and private funders including the Italian Ministry of Health, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, Fondazione Ricerca Fibrosi Cistica Onlus, Agenzia Italiana del Farmaco, Fondazione Umberto Veronesi, Gilead and the Telethon Foundation.

Links to non-academic sector

The Infection and Cystic Fibrosis Unit has the major aim to favor the dissemination of critical knowhow and the design, testing and validation of novel therapies for Cystic Fibrosis. We worked together with several pharmaceutical companies with the aim to test pre-clinical efficacy of drugs in murine models of respiratory infection.
Our work provide answers to the scientific unknowns in this pathology and lead to valid and permanent solutions for the quality-of-life faced on a daily basis by Cystic Fibrosis patients and their support associations. In this context, we work with a direct link with Italian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

Experience hosting international researchers, career development & training programmes, outreach activities

OSR is an international research institute hosting many foreign researchers. The HR Office has a dedicated officer to assist for visa and relocation issues and English is the official language for scientific activities. Both career development and trainings are highly valued by the institution. Scientific training is delivered both formally and informally, and seminar series are planned at laboratory, divisional and plenary level with weekly frequency. Trainings are also proposed for non-scientific topics such as clinical trial activities, public speaking, bioethics and research integrity, intellectual property and biotechnology transfer and grant and scientific writing.

HR Excellence in Research – EU award

No