IN SIGNO – IDENTIFICATION OF NOVEL MOLECULES SUPPORTING THE IMPACT OF BETA-LACTAMS AGAINST CLINICALLY-RELEVANT GRAM-NEGATIVE MULTIDRUG RESISTANT ORGANISMS
Project Leader FIIRV: Monica Abbondi
Start date: December 1, 2022
End date: November 30, 2025
Call: Unmet Medical Needs
Thematic area: Antimicrobial resistance
Funding institution: Regional Foundation for Biomedical Research
Project Coordinator: IRCCS San Raffaele Hospital
Partners: FIIRV; University of Insubria; ASST Sette Laghi, Circolo hospital and Macchi Foundation, Varese
The IN SIGNO project funded by the Regional Foundation for Biomedical Research against antibiotic resistance started the activities with the Kick off meeting on December 15th, 2022.
In recent years, the phenomenon of antibiotic resistance has increased significantly, becoming today one of the main public health problems worldwide. In Europe every year 4 million infections with antibiotic-resistant bacteria cause over 37,000 deaths and in Italy antibiotic resistance remains among the highest in Europe. According to the World Health Organization the current development of new antibacterial treatments is inadequate to address the growing threat of antibiotic resistance.
Regional Foundation for Biomedical Research of the Lombardy Region is responding to this emergency by funding, through the Unmet Medical Needs call, the IN SIGNO project (Identification of Novel molecules Supporting the Impact of β-lactams against clinically-relevant Gram-Negative multidrug resistant Organisms) with 1,247,160.00 euros. The project aims to identify new antibiotic adjuvants, which could be used in combination with β-lactams against multiresistant Gram-negative bacteria.
The project is coordinated by Professor Nicasio Mancini of the IRCCS San Raffaele Hospital and involves, in addition to the University of Insubria, also the Sette Laghi Territorial Social-Health Agency (ASST Sette Laghi) and FIIRV. The group of researchers from the University of Insubria, coordinated by Dr. Francesca Berini from the Department of Biotechnology and Life Sciences (Dbsv) includes microbiologists, biochemists and chemists from Dbsv and the Department of Science and High Technology (Disat). The ASST Sette Laghi group is coordinated by Dr. Andreina Baj, researcher at the Department of Medicine and Surgery (Dmc). The FIIRV unit is coordinated by Dr. Monica Abbondi. An interesting note: the project was also awarded for the presence of many women in the research team and in the coordination of the units involved.
In the photo from left: professors Gianluca Molla, Luciano Piubelli and Flavia Marinelli and researcher Francesca Berini of Dbsv, professor Nicasio Mancini of IRCCS San Raffaele Hospital, researchers Monica Abbondi and Paola Turconi of FIIRV, Andreina Baj of ASST Sette Laghi and the Insubria Department of Medicine and Surgery, the researcher Nicola Clementi of the IRCCS San Raffaele Hospital.
