Naples

The scientific activity in Naples is carried out by the SDN IRCCS and by the Institute for Biostructures and BioImages (IBB) of the CNR, and  is characterized by research projects aimed at the development of new procedures of image acquisition and analysis and of molecular imaging techniques in the fields of oncology, cardiology and neurology. The working group has always been characterized by its interdisciplinarity and for the active collaboration between physicists, engineers, medicians, biologists, chemists and computer scientists.

The preclinical activities are strongly linked to Medical Imaging. In particular, in the field of neurology, the latest generation methods such as PET / MRI, microPET/CT experimenting new radiotracers (¹⁸F-DPA714, ¹²³I- FP-CIT), MRI 9.4 T and ultrasound developed in murine models of neurological diseases (mutiple sclerosis, brain tumors such as medulloblastoma, glioma etc) are now in the clinics. Analogously, in cardiology, PET,SPECT and MRI protocols in clinical studies and  PET/CT, Ultrasound (with dedicated software for quantitative analysis of the percentage of infarcted area for diagnosis and treatment planning) are derived from studies on murine models of myocardial disease. In the field of oncology, scientific activity is aimed to develope new methods of imaging and characterization of new tracers to visualize and quantify the molecular and biochemical processes underlying the onset and progression of cancer. The use of FDG  for the diagnosis, staging, follow-up and monitoring of various neoplasms by PET-CT and PET-MRI, produced a considerable impact on the subsequent management of the cancer patient. Furthermore, the development of non-invasive high resolution imaging technologies, the design, synthesis and characterization of molecular probes directed against specific molecular targets allow to characterize novel radiopharmaceuticals able to view and quantify biological processes such as apoptosis, angiogenesis, pleiotropic drug resistance and the modulation of gene expression in neoplastic diseases.

In Naples, much attention has been devoted to the development of tools for image analysis in order to provide the clinician with the quantitative assessment of the biomarkers of choice for a given pathology.

The Naples site owns X-ray, radiotherapy and nuclear medicine equipments of last generation, which allow to carry out research of international high profile. Equipment for non-invasive imaging of animal models of human diseases is also available.