International collaborative projects of the Centre for Personalized Medicine

The World-Class Research Centre for Personalized Medicine is engaged in a number of international collaborative projects involving worldwide acclaimed scientists with outstanding discoveries.

In 2021, the Centre engaged the following world renowned scientists:

• Alberico L. Catapano (Italy), Professor of Pharmacology at the University of Milan, Past President of the European Atherosclerosis Society (EAS), Director of the Centre for the Study of Atherosclerosis at the Bassini Hospital, Chairman of the EAS/European Society of Cardiology (ESC) guidelines for the treatment of dyslipoproteinaemias and Director of the Italian Society for the Study of Atherosclerosis.

The collaboration includes joint biobanking of blood samples of patients with acute coronary syndrome for subsequent analysis using omics technologies (genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, pharmacogenomics) as the key tools allowing the use of a personalized approach in medicine and real clinical practice. Prof. Catapano participates in the interpretation of the results obtained from genetic testing of patients with severe clinical phenotype of familial hypercholesterolemia. He provides expert support and comments in the development of the educational program “Modern aspects of pathophysiology of vascular inflammation and new approaches to its treatment” and its parts “Modern diagnosis and personalized therapy for genetic lipid metabolism disorders” and “New biomarkers for risk assessment of atherosclerotic progression.”

• Andrea Baragetti (Italy), Post-Doctoral Researcher, Department of Pharmacological and Biomolecular Sciences, University of Milan.

Andrea Baragetti participates in the joint development of educational modules of the program “Modern aspects of pathophysiology of vascular inflammation and new approaches to its treatment”, section “Modern diagnosis and personalized therapy of genetic lipid metabolism disorders.” He contributes to the preparation and writing of a scientific article in the Q1-Q2 journal devoted to the possibilities of increase of clinical diagnostics of familial hypercholesterolemia using instrumental measurement of achilles tendon thickness, and its relevance to the genetic data analysis.

• Paolo Magni (Italy), Full professor of Biomedical Engineering at the Università degli Studi di Pavia; Associate Professor, Department of Pharmacological and Biomolecular Sciences, University of Milan.

Prof. Magni participates in the development of the educational modules of the program “Modern aspects of pathophysiology of vascular inflammation and new approaches to its treatment”: “New biomarkers for risk assessment of atherosclerotic progression” for the training of cardiologists focused on personalized medicine. He also contributes to the writing of an article in the Q1-Q2 journal describing genetic and epigenetic approaches in cardiovascular risk prediction using multi-omics technologies and the design of the patient registry.

• Jeroen Bax (Netherlands), Director of Non-invasive Imaging at the Leiden University Medical Center.

Prof. Bax gives lectures on imaging and personalized medicine in cardiology and is a key speaker representing the WCRC for Personalized Medicine at the WCRC Integration Summit – World-Class Research Centres for Health Care as a Tool for Advanced Development of the Industry on November 30, 2021.

Relying on his unique and extensive experience in cardiac imaging, Prof. Bax supervises and coordinates the creation of cardiac image stores and processing algorithms.

• Roberto Ferrari (Italy), Emeritus Professor, University of Ferrara.

As part of collaboration with the WCRC for Personalized Medicine, Prof. Ferrari gives lectures on calcification and cardiovascular risk factors; participates in online meetings dedicated to the joint plans and implementation of the program for the establishment and development of WCRC and gives advisory sessions on calcification and cardiovascular risk factors with the specialists of research laboratories of research area “Unknown, rare and genetically determined diseases.”

• Luisa Marracinо (Italy), Researcher, University of Ferrara.

As part of her onsite training, Luisa Marrachino is carrying out the research work “Analysis of the role of Dll4 and Jag1 genes in pathological osteogenic differentiation in aortic valve calcification.” Research will result in the preparation of a manuscript for publication in a scientific journal indexed in Web of Science.

A major area of the WCRC for Personalized Medicine is the development and study of the properties of PSMA ligand radiopharmaceuticals for theranostics of prostate cancer in collaboration with colleagues from Uppsala University in Sweden studying the properties of diagnostic efficacy for dual bombesin/PSMA-targeting radioligand. Involved scientists:

• Anna Orlova (Sweden): Professor at the Department of Medicinal Chemistry, Associate Professor at the Department of Immunology, Genetics and Pathology, Uppsala University.

Over the past years, Prof. Orlova has been developing radiopharmaceuticals for nuclear medicine, focusing on the creation, study of the properties and diagnostic efficacy of bombesin antagonist-based radioligands, as well as radiopharmaceuticals based on several receptor ligands, which are used for theranostics of prostate cancer. At the Centre for Personalized Medicine, Professor Orlova supervised a trial synthesis of a dual bombesin/PSMA-targeting radioligand.

• Vladimir Tolmachev (Sweden): Professor at the Department of Immunology, Genetics and Pathology, Head of Research, Department of Radiation Medicine, Uppsala University.

Prof. Tolmachev is engaged in the creation, study of the properties and diagnostic effectiveness of radiopharmaceuticals in the diagnosis of tumors of various sites based on antibodies, incl. mini-antibodies, affibody, scaffolds, radioligands. He possesses unique knowledge and skills in radiochemical synthesis and prerequisites for obtaining radiopharmaceuticals with desired properties.

• Fausto Pinto (Portugal): Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Lisbon, President, Executive Board of the Lisbon Academic Medical Centre (CAML, 2019-2021), President of the World Heart Federation (WHF, 2021-2022).

Prof. Pinto is a scientific advisor and contributor to the course of lectures on “Personalized cardiology and imaging.”

Collaboration with the world renowned scientists is a way to exchange experiences, achieve new goals and improve the diagnosis and treatment of many complex and understudied diseases.

09.11.2021