The Mario Negri Instiute Board of Directors has decided to move the Institute to a new building, leaving behind its original “headquarters” where research and training have been going on for 40 years. This decision obviously implies a substantial investment, but has become necessary to respond to the challenge of the new exciting fields of genomics and proteomics. Unforeseeable opportunities lie ahead for developing new drugs and research methods. But these call for adequate facilities, ultramodern equipement and new experimental models if we are to reproduce in the laboratory human diseases that still await treatment.
The new site, providing almost 25,000 sq. meters of space, will enable us to set up new laboratories and develop new research lines. These will include:
a) new laboratories for pharmacogenomic research, aimed at individually tailoring psychodrug therapies, and at optimizing the benefits and reducing the toxic side effects of antitumoral chemotherapy;
b) b) the latest biotechnologies, particularly new carriers for gene therapy, and stem cells for the treatment of heart failure;
c) new models of neurodegenerative diseases, especially Alzheimer’s and Parkinsons’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and diseases causing convulsions;
d) studies of the mechanism of action of psychotropic drugs, particularly antidepressants, with a view to designing new strategies for treating depression.

Obviously research will continue in the Institute’s traditional areas: immunology of inflammation and tumors, angiogenesis, chemotherapy of metastasis, mother and child pathologies, tumor epidemiology, cardiovascular pharmacology, and environmental pollution. The new building will enable us to strengthen our training schemes for young researchers, whit more space and equipment for the Open University of London Ph.D. programs.
The new building is expected to be ready in three years’ time, in the suburb of Bovisa, near the Milan Polytechnic, and we plan to work closely with this section of the university to achieve multidisciplinary synergies.
The new building itself is outlined in the annex, and will cost about 40 million Euros (abaut 80 billion old Italian Lire), which will be partly financed through a 12-year mortage loan. The Fondazione Cariplo has generously agreed to cover the cost of interest on this loan.