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AIP-FG-ICP synergy |
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Unity, we know, is strength. That is why AIP, the Grigioni Foundation and the ICP Parkinson Institute work closely together. At first there was only AIP, founded in 1990 with the mission of disseminating information about the disease. Soon the Association realized that information on the disease was growing exponentially and there was a need for neurologists specialized in PD, who dedicate themselves to PD patients full time, putting the new information obtained from research into practice everyday in their clinics. Only in this way would patient benefit from the results of research on PD within a short timeframe. That is why AIP strongly supported the foundation of a specialized centre dedicated exclusively to PD and parkinsonisms.
The efforts of AIP were successful in 1997, the year in which the Parkinson Institute at the Istituti Clinici di Perfezionamento in Milan opened. Today the centre co-operated actively with AIP, providing support for the dissemination of information on the disease. The specialists who work at the centre not only take part in meeting with patients organized by AIP on various topics selected to provide in-depth information on the disease, but also hold courses for health workers who with to extend and update their knowledge on the disease, which are certified by the Ministry of Health (Continuous Medical Education CME) and act as tutors to physicians specializing in neurology at various Universities as far as their training in the field of PD and parkinsonisms is concerned.
In 1996 one of the founders of AIP, Prof G. Pezzoli, created the Grigioni Foundation, whose mission is at least partly make up for the lack of public funding of research in Italy, where it was the first non-profit organization that had the sole objective of identifying funding sources and collecting funds for scientific research to fight PD. It is important to be part of a research team that is well introduced in the international scientific community: The exchanges of information at meetings provide access to the last development in the field of research and researchers can verify the information personally.Today the Grigioni Foundation contributes to AIP's mission by disseminating information on international research in the field of PD and parkinsonisms via its journal ParkinsonNews and its site www.parkinson.it. It also provides scholarships to physicians who wish to specialize in neurology focusing their research in the field of PD and parkinsonisms. The three Banks for research However, the primary mission of the Grigioni Foundation is research. As soon as the ICP Parkinson Institute became operational, the Foundation decided to put it in an optimal position to carry out research at an international level, as it was the only Italian centre entirely dedicated to PD and parkinsonisms.
It transferred the Clinical Data Bank there immediately. It was already supporting this Bank, in which the clinical, investigational, laboratory and therapeutic data (about 250 parameters, overall) related to PD patients followed up in the long term by neurologists specialized in the management of movement disorders are entered.
In 2002 it actively contributed to the opening of the DNA Bank, also at the ICP Parkinson Institute, which it continues to support together with Telethon.
Finally, in 2007 the Foundation promoted the opening of the Bank of Nervous Tissue BTN, together with Istituti Clinici di Perfezionamento Hospital and Niguarda Ca' Granda Hospital. These three Banks are worth much more for research when they are used together as a triad, than when they are used separately:
Experts in genetics need not only the DNA, but also the clinical data of a patient, because only with both they are in a position to study how much a gene is "expressed" i.e. to what extent its effects produce clinical signs and symptoms; furthermore, also BTN data are important, as only the outcome of the autopsy can make the diagnosis 100% certain.
The same is true for pathologists, who need to know what clinical effects certain alterations in nervous tissue that they see under the microscope had and to assess whether there are any correlations between tissue alterations and genetic mutations or history of exposure to certain environmental toxins.
The usefulness of the triad is true also for clinicians, as they are interested to see whether certain aspects of a patient’s history (e.g. exposure to an environmental toxin) are correlated not only with manifestations of the disease, but also with certain tissue alterations and to assess the contribution of certain genetic characteristics. Not only the physicians working at the ICP Parkinson Institute who wish to carry out research, but also researchers from all the world who submit valid research projects have access to the three Banks, as specified elsewhere. |
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AIP-FG-ICP synergy 
