The University of Pavia (IT)
The University of Pavia (https://web.unipv.it/) is among the oldest and most famous Italian universities. It was founded in the XIV century and the Faculty of Medicine rose in the same period. Its researches and teaching programmes are acknowledged at the national and international level. Eighteen courses in the fields of Life sciences, Medicine, Economics, Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, Psychology and History, Arts and Archaeology are entirely thought in English and they are attended by students from EU and extra EU countries. The academic staff counts over 1000 professors and researchers. 24,000 students, from both Italy and overseas, study at the University of Pavia. Pavia has been a city-campus since its foundation and even today, it offers students a unique experience in Italy and rare in Europe: to study at one of 20 University colleges that are largely independent from the administrative structure of the University. The University of Pavia participates in more than 400 international agreements with Universities all over the world, and especially it collaborates in research projects with the most advanced international laboratories and organizes Masters and PhD research programs. UNIPV is also actively involved in European projects (Erasmus+ and Horizon 2020 above all) and national cooperation activities. In particular, UNIPV has a good experience in managing capacity building projects, both as coordinator and as a partner. UNIPV is also an active member of several networks, among them: Coimbra Group of Universities, EUA, UNIMED, CUIA, Scholars at Risk. Moreover, since 2020 the University of Pavia is one of the seven members of the EC2U European Alliance, within a joint Master degree in LIFELONG WELL-BEING AND HEALTHY AGEING starting in 2022/23.
The CHANGE research teams are based at the Department of Molecular Medicine (Head of the Department: Prof. R. Bottinelli), Unit of Biochemistry within the Faculty of Medicine in the University of Pavia. In this Department several research groups have a long standing interest and International and National recognition in the fields of biology and pathology of extracellular matrices. The Department has been granted by MIUR as department of excellence in 2018 and renew in 2023 and the investigation of skeletal diseases has been and it is one of the work package of the proposal. The groups have a long standing interest in the biochemical characterization of patients with cartilage and bone disorders and in particular in the generation and characterization at the morphological, histological and molecular level of animal models of genetic skeletal diseases in order to elucidate the molecular basis of the disorders and to identify innovative therapeutic approaches.
Prof Antonella Forlino
Supervisor of DC1.
Prof Forlino is a well-recognized international scientist in the area of heritable skeletal disorders, She is an expert on osteogenesis imperfecta (OI). She has contributed to the development of cell and gene therapy using the murine model for OI Brtl. More recently, she identified the modulator effect of the mutant collagen intracellular retention on the OI bone phenotype using in vitro and in vivo OI models. This discovery allowed to identify in altered cell homeostasis a new target for OI pharmacological approaches.
Prof Antonio Rossi
Supervisor of DC2.
Prof Rossi's research is focused on biochemical and molecular studies of genetic skeletal disorders caused by defects in proteoglycan metabolism with major interests on heritable diseases linked to GAG synthesis and sulfation using in vitro and in vivo models. The final objective is to elucidate the molecular basis of skeletal disorders in order to develop therapeutical approaches and get insight on structure-function relationships of ECM components.
Prof Roberta Besio
Prof Besio has a strong background in rare skin and bone disorders. Her research is focused on the characterization and dissection of the intracellular molecular pathways associated to altered cell homeostasis in the murine models of OI and other skeletal dysplasias. She will be involved in daily supervision of DC1.