The work of Italian researchers and laboratories that appeared in the scientific press during January 2018 dealt mainly with endeavors in the fields of medicine, physics, and nutritional science. Monitoring of the leading international scientific journals (Science, Nature, PNAS-Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, National Science Review, and Scientific Reports, rated as the top 5 for scientific impact according to the SCImago Journal Rank) revealed that 16 studies involving 22 Italian research centers were published during this period.
Medicine and related disciplines (genetics, neurology, and bioengineering) accounted for 9 of these studies, published in Nature and PNAS, with input from Italian laboratories at the Universities of Padua, Trento, Perugia, and Naples, in addition to the SDN Istituto di Ricerca Diagnostica e Nucleare in Naples, the Istituto Nazionale per la Ricerca sul Cancro in Genoa, and the Polytechnic University of Milan.
Of particular note, in the medical field also, is the study published in Nature conducted by the Columbia University team led by Antonio Iavarone and Anna Lasorella, the researchers who, in 2012, identified a gene fusion responsible for 3% of gliobastoma cases, the most aggressive and lethal of brain tumors. The team’s recent study illustrates the mechanism triggered by this fusion, effectively identifying the catalyst for growth of certain types of cancer. Antonio Iavarone explains this discovery in detail in an interview on the Aspen Italia website.
The 4 studies in the field of physics published in PNAS, on the other hand, involved the Bocconi University, the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare in Turin and Parma, the Universities of Parma and Padua, the International Center for Theoretical Physics in Trieste, and the Polytechnic University of Turin.
Also published were Italian contributions to research into nutrition, with input from chemistry and biology laboratories. 3 such studies appeared in PNAS, involving the Healthy Diets from the Sustainable Food Systems Initiative in Maccarese (Rome), the University of Naples, and the University of Milan-Bicocca.
ARTICLES MONITORED: 16
ITALIAN RESEARCH CENTERS INVOLVED: 22