IRCCS Casa sollievo della Sofferenza

The Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza is a highly specialized hospital constituted in a non-profit Foundation recognized by the Italian Health Ministry as a Istituto di Ricovero a Cura a Carattere Scientifico –IRCCS (Research Hospital) in the field of “Genetic Diseases, Innovative Therapies and Regenerative Medicine”. It is one of the biggest hospitals in Southern Italy, with an average of 57,000 patients per year. It is organized into four departments (40 clinical units): Surgical Sciences, Medical Sciences, Emergency/Critical Area, and Services. In order to guarantee the best multispecialistic approach to the patient, in compliance with the best scientific evidence available, a new organizational unit has been created which is composed of the Lung Unit, the Breast Unit, and the Head and Neck Unit.

The hospital has an average of 2,500 employees; of these, more than 150 (clinicians, biologists and technicians) constitute the staff of the Scientific Research Department. The researchers of the Casa Sollievo publish every year an average of 200 scientific manuscripts on the most renowned scientific journals (e.g. Science, New England Journal of Medicine, Nature Genetics). Moreover, they are Principal Investigators or take part as partners in a variety of research projects ranging from the biomedical field to ICT and robotics, funded by regional, national and EU funds (H2020 and FP7). The research laboratories of the Casa Sollievo Research Hospital cover an area of 8,700 m2 and are equipped to conduct studies on medical genetics, innovative therapies, and regenerative medicine.

Every research laboratory has the basic instruments to extract, quantify, amplify and analyze nucleic acids, such as sequencers, real-time PCR platforms, and instruments for in vitro studies such as biological cabinets for cellular cultures and CO2 incubators. The main instruments are centralized in services like: Illumina NextSeq 500, Illumina MiSeq and Thermo Fisher Scientific Ion S5 (sequencing), Leica TCS SP8 confocal microscope and Beckman Astrios EQ cell sorter (cytofluorimetry).

Recently inaugurated, the Istitute for Regenerative Medicine (ISBReMIT) hosts various laboratories for the production of clinical-grade human neural stem cells and for the synthesis of biopolymers. In the same Institute, an animal facility is present for in vitro studies (mouse and rat), and it is equipped with the Perkin Elmer IVIS Spectrum CT. The activity of the researchers is supported by a Grants Office, a Clinical Trial Office, a Bioinformatics Unit, a Biostatistics Unit and a Unit of Cellular Reprogramming which are also part of the Scientific Research Department staff.

The Hospital is working on 47 scientific research projects funded in response to competitive tenders from the EU, non-profit foundations, regional tenders and of the Italian Ministry of Health.

The Research Hospital maintains a high level of quality and is ISO 9001/2015 certified.