OUR LABORATORY
The laboratory
The mission of the Research Laboratory of the IRCCS G.B. Bietti Foundation is to bring new knowledge in the field of ophthalmology with state-of-the-art technologies and to make them available to patients in order to improve their well-being and reduce the costs of the National Health Service.
Therefore, the horizon of the Laboratory is to understand how biological systems and ophthalmic diseases work and to give rise from here the ideas that can lead to a new cure or a new diagnostic tool.
Biologists, engineers, biotechnologists, doctors and pharmacists who gather in its 500 square meters study, through in vivo and in vitro models, the pathophysiological mechanisms in the development of eye diseases and the way through which cells interact during a disease.
The vision
All the activity of the laboratory is a support of the clinical activity because it has as its center the patient. Only by fully understanding the complex network of biochemical interactions and oscillations at the cellular level during a disease, tools and knowledge to monitor, prevent or evaluate the effectiveness of therapy can be developed. This knowledge is the basis of the most modern techniques of personalized and predictive medicine because they rely on the data of individual patients to understand how that individual patient is reacting to treatments or what is the risk that the patient develops a specific pathology.
Therefore, the Laboratory does not want to interfere with the classic screening surveys, but wants to offer alternative or integrative solutions, within the concept of prevention and personalized medicine. The tool used is the translational research – from benchtop to bedside and vice versa – a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary cross talk between basic and clinical research, with paths that interface directly with applied medicine.
Translational research
Many people, at first glance, think that this research immediately finds application in care, which, however, would be impossible and would not be deontological. It is not possible to experiment and treat at the same time, because the risk to people assisted would be unacceptable. What you can do, however, is study during care, analyze how the latter affects individual people, often focusing on molecules or groups of molecules.
Focusing on biological markers and understanding what they mean in relation to the development of a pathology or a therapy allows us to identify some reference parameters that bring us closer to the level of individual care. If it is shown that a certain number of parameters – proteins for example – always manifest in a certain way when faced with a particular pathological situation, then the doctor will be given a tool of great effectiveness and diagnostic timeliness.
Research Projects
Research of pathological mechanisms in vitro and in vivo
Precision, personalized and predictive medicine
Study of the ocular surface
Specific projects with international partners
COVID-19 Studies
Teamwork
The laboratory is, as mentioned, a crossroads where biologists, biotechnologists, pharmacists, engineers and, of course, ophthalmologists, work. This wealth of knowledge creates a common language and scientific community that supports the doctor’s mission: the treatment, but not only this. . In the laboratory we try to understand how and why things happen. This has, over time, a huge impact on the work of doctors and the health of patients.
Our tools
Cell culture chamber
Here you can simulate and simplify complex systems such as tissues
Real time Polymerase chain reaction (PCR)
Detects the presence of viral RNA and DNA in biological samples
High Performance Liquid Chromatograph (HPLC)
For the separation and analysis of proteins
Multiparametric fluorescence analysis
It reads the expression of some markers present on microscopic chips. It is used to understand whether certain clusters are expressed in a biological sample
Epifluorescence microscopy and confocal microscopy
It allows to literally look inside the cell, understanding the expression of specific genes, receptors or markers as well as the health status of the cells and their relationship with surrounding cells.
