CNR (National Research Council), Institute of Clinica Physiology (IFC), Pisa

The CNR Institute of Clinical Physiology (CNR IFC) is a Center for basic, clinical, technological and epidemiological research. This multidisciplinary translational approach has been the key strategy driving years of collaborations operating on a flexible and problem-solving basis. The main interest of the Institute is in the field of cardiovascular diseases, which are dealt with through a multi-organ and multisystem prospective, covering associated pathologies of the lungs, kidneys, and the neuro-endocrine and metabolic systems. Research is mainly developed in the area of physiopathology and methodology, in which multidisciplinary projects merge in the fields of experimental and clinical medicine, in line with the tradition of the Institute. IFC-CNR has carried out several pharmacological and medical trials in the cardiovascular disease field, developing during its activity a wide clinical database for selection of study populations, characterized in terms of genetics/biohumoral data as well as of clinical imaging repository (Echo, MRI, CT, Angiography). Furthermore, CNR IFC has a longstanding experience in coordinating and participating in projects and has been long involved in supervising pre-graduate and graduate doctoral studies.The Institute is currently participating in 22 international projects (19 of which are EU projects) and 37 national projects.

The mission of the Institute has remained unchanged since its establishment in 1968 and can be summarised by the following sentence:

  “ Innovation For better patient Care” (IFC).

IFC aims at creating the ideal milieu for multidisciplinary innovation in a variety of fields of knowledge (Medicine, Biology, Engineering, Physics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Chemistry) in close collaboration with other Institutions. Innovation requires the support of the most innovative technologies, having as constant reference the central role of the patient and of the related pathology, which are both, the starting and the endpoint of the cultural, managerial, technological and industrial advancement.

This was the "disruptive" intuition (uprooting the existing cultural and operational models) of the founder of IFC, Prof. Luigi Donato. Such an approach remains the today the peculiar feature of the Institute: a "Rainbow coalition" of different knowledge, competences and affiliations.

There are actually two rainbows on the horizon: the scientific one (IFC) and the clinical one ("G. Monasterio" Foundation), which reflect each other and are inextricably intertwined.

For MATHforHEALTH, the group of research of IFC involves Ele Ferrannini, Maria Laura Manca, and Andrea Mari.

Active EU projects in 2014 are:

- DORIAN (coordination)

- DOREMI (coordination)

- SEMEOTICONS (co-coordination)

- DOPPLER CIP

- NEUROFAST

- EUROMEDICAT

- MICHELANGELO

- HEALS

- PERSUADED

- OPENSCIENCELINK

- DYSLANG

- DDMORE

- REPOPA

- E-PREDICE

- ADRIHEALTHMOB

- HIA 21 (Life)

- AIS (Life)

- GIOCONDA (Life)

- Marie Curie IEF (The use of VAD in Congenital Heart Disease: The role of Numerical Models)

Ele Ferrannini, MD - curriculum vitae

Institutions

Department of Internal Medicine, University of Pisa School of Medicine, and CNR IFC, Pisa, Italy; Diabetes Division, Department of Medicine, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, Texas, USA

Current Position

•  Associate, CNR (National Research Council) Institute of Clinical Physiology, Pisa;

•  Adjunct Clinical Professor of Medicine, Diabetes Division, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, Texas, USA

Professional Education

1966-1971 Research Associate, Institute of Microbiology, University of Pisa

August 1969 Visiting Student, Chester Beatty Cancer Research Institute,

Department of Immunology, Sutton, England

April 1970 Visiting Student, Czechoslovakian Academy of Sciences,

Department of Immunology, Praha, Czechoslovakia

July-August 1972 Visiting Student, Department of Pathology,

Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, USA

December 1972 Degree in Medicina, cum laude , University of Pisa, Italy

Jan 1973-Oct 1980 Intern and Resident Physician, 2nd Medical Clinic and Diabetes Clinic, University of Pisa School of Medicine, Pisa

July 1973-Oct 1980 Established Investigator of the National Research Council

at the CNR Clinical Physiology Laboratory, Pisa

Sept 1977-July 1978 Visiting Investigator, Karolinska Institutet,

Department of Clinical Physiology, Stockholm, Sweden

April 1979-Oct 1981 Postdoctoral Fellow of the Fogarty International Center of the National Institutes of Health, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA

October 1980 Assistant Professor of Medicine, 2nd Medical Clinic,

University of Pisa School of Medicine

October 1981 Investigator, CNR Institute of Clinical Physiology, Pisa

June-July 1982 Visiting Scientist, Endocrine Section, Yale University,

New Haven, USA

February 1983 Visiting Scientist, Endocrine Section, Yale University,

New Haven, USA

July-August 1984 Visiting Scientist, Endocrine Section, Yale University,

New Haven, USA

February 1985 Associate Professor of Medicine, University of Pisa

January 1987 - Chief, Metabolism Unit, CNR Institute of Clinical Physiology, Pisa

August 1988 Clinical Professor, Diabetes Division, Department of Medicine, University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, Texas, USA

June 1993 Director of Research, National Research Council,

CNR Institute of Clinical Physiology, Pisa

November 1995 - 2014 Professor of Internal Medicine, University of Pisa

November 2014 – Research Associate, CNR Institute of Clinical Physiology, Pisa

Subspecialities

October 1975 Nuclear Medicine, cum laude

University of Pisa

December 1978 Diabetes and Metabolic Diseases, cum laude

University of Torino

February 1979 Certificate of the Educational Council for Foreign Medical

Graduates (ECFMG, USA), University of Bologna

Memberships

- Italian Society of Diabetology (member)

- European Association for the Study of Diabetes (President 2005-2008)

- European Foundation for the Study of Diabetes (Scientific Advisory Board)

- American Diabetes Association (member)

- International Diabetes Federation (member)

- New York Academy of Sciences (member)

- American Federation for Clinical Research (member)

- European Society for Clinical Investigation (member)

- Italian Society for the Study of Obesity (founding member and past-President)

Editorial Activity

- JOURNAL OF NUCLEAR MED. & ALLIED SCI. (Assistant Editor, 1975-1983)

- Diabetes Care (Editorial Board, 1985-1987; 2011-2013)

- Diabetes, Nutrition & metabolism (Editorial Board, 1988-1994)

- DIABETES CARE REVIEWS (Associate Editor, 1990-1995)

- DIABETIC MEDICINE (Associate Editor, 1988-1992)

- JOURNAL OF HYPERTENSION (Editorial Board, 1992-1995)

- HYPERTENSION RESEARCH (Editorial Board, 1992-1995)

- BLOOD PRESSURE (Editorial Board, 1993-1995)

- HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE (Editorial Board, 1992-1996)

- EXPERIMENTAL NEPHROLOGY (Consultant Editor, 1992-1995)

- DIABETOLOGIA ( Associate Editor , 1990-1993; Editor-in-Chief 1994-1997)

- INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF OBESITY (Editorial Board, 1998-2003)

- JOURNAL OF HYPERTENSION (Editorial Board, 2004-present)

- JOURNAL OF CLIN. ENDOCRINOL. & METAB. (Editorial Board 2006-2008)

•  DIABETES CARE (Editorial Board 2011-2014)

•  JOURNAL OF CLINICAL ENDOCRINOLOGY & METABOLISM (Associate Editor 2015-2017)

- INTERNATIONAL TEXTBOOK OF DIABETES MELLITUS (Alberti KGMM, DeFronzo RA, Keen H, & Zimmet P eds, John Wiley & Sons, London, 1992) ( Associate Editor );

- INTERNATIONAL TEXTBOOK OF DIABETES MELLITUS (DeFronzo RA, Ferrannini E, Keen H, & Zimmet P eds, John Wiley & Sons, London, 2004) (Editor ).

- INTERNATIONAL TEXTBOOK OF DIABETES MELLITUS (Alberti KGMM, DeFronzo RA, Ferrannini E, & Zimmet P eds, John Wiley & Sons, London, 4th Edition 2015) (Editor ).

Referee for: NEJM, JCI, Diabetes, Diabetes Care, Diabetologia, Circulation, ATVB, AJM, Lancet, PNAS, Arch Intern Med, JAMA, Ann Intern Med, AJP, Diabetic Medicine, JCEM, Hypertension, J Hypertens, Am J Hypertens, Clin Sci, Intern J Obes, Eur J Clin Invest. Ad hoc reviewer of the Metabolism Study Section, NIH, 1991

Honours

- Award for the Best Scientific Communication , II Milano International Meeting on Diabetes, Nutrition and Atherosclerosis, Milano, March 1983

- Award of the Italian Society of Diabetology for the best investigator under 40 , IX Annual Meeting of the Society, Palermo, Italy, June 1986

- State of the Art Lecture , European Association for the Study of Diabetes, Paris, September 1988

- State of the Art Lecture , Annual Meeting of the International Society of Hypertension, Montreal, Canada, June 1990

- Sixth Annual Kroc Lecturer for Outstanding Contribution to Diabetology, University of Uppsala, Sweden, April 1991

- Visiting Professorship Program Award , Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, USA, September 1991

- Keynote Lecturer , Japanese Society of Hypertension, Okinawa, Japan, November 1991

- Morgagni Medal , Padova, October 1998

- Visiting Professor , University of Virginia at Charlottesville, USA, November 1998

- Visiting Professor , King's College Medical School, London, UK, February 2000

•  Visiting Professor , Imperial College Medical School, London, UK, March 2000

•  Visiting Professorship Program Award , UTHSA at San Antonio, Texas, USA October 2002

•  Visiting Professorship Program Award , Department of Endocrinology & Metabolism, Washington University, Seattle, USA, February 2006

•  Chairman , European Group for the Study of Insulin Resistance (EGIR) 1995-2008

•  Novartis Award for Long-Standing Achievement in Diabetes, September 2004

•  Keynote Lecturer, 43rd Annual Meeting of the German Diabetes Association, Münich, Germany, May 2008

•  International Clinician Award 2008, American College of Endocrinology, Orlando, USA, May 2008

•  Robert L Ney Visiting Professor in Endocrinology&Metabolism, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, USA, June 2008

•  Keynote Lecturer, Japanese Diabetes Association, Okayama, May 2010

•  Stanley Mirsky Named Lecturer, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, January 2010

•  Tuck Memorial Named Lecturer , Columbia University, New York, April 2011

•  Naomi Berrie Named Lacturer, Columbia University, New York, June 2011

•  Claude Bernard Prize Lecturer, European Association for the Study of Diabetes, Lisbon, September 2011

•  Award Lecture, World Diabetes Congress, Dubai, December 2011

•  Distinguished Leader in Insulin Resistance Award, World Congress on Insulin Resistance, Los Angeles, November 2014

Scientific Publications

Over 600 original papers and 50 book chapters. On the list (ISIHighlyCited.com) of highly cited scientists.

Maria Laura Manca - curriculum vitae

Maria Laura Manca is a Mathematics graduate (University of Pisa), with postgraduated diploma in Physics (University of Pisa), and master programs in Systematic Reviews (University of Milan) and in Well-being, Nutrition, Sleep and Thermal Medicine (University of Pisa). She is currently working as technical-scientific manager at University of Pisa. From 2010 to March 2014, she was administrative director at Department of Neuroscience (1 year), Mother-Child (1 year) and Internal Medicine (2 years), at Pisa University Hospital.

She received a Nikon Instruments Award on the elaboration of histology images (2000), and a Travel Grant Award for young researcher of the European Neurological Society for "Epidemiology Of Myotonic Dystrophy In Italy: Re-Apprisal After Genetic Diagnosis" (2001).

Her main research interests involve advanced methods of medical statistics, mathematical modelling, biomedical signal processing (electromyography and electroencephalography), neural networks in neuroscience sector and, since 2011, in insulin resistance and diabetes fields.

She is author of more than 50 scientific publications.