WHO WE ARE

THE MISSION

The mission of the Centro San Giovanni di Dio - Fatebenefratelli, as it was identified by the Ministry of Health, is primary  rehabilitative. As well as the other national IRCCSs (Institutes for Research and Care) research needs to be focused on projects which emphasize the clinical aspect. This purpose, defined by an istitutional mandate, finds its  ethical basis in the catholic tradition which characterizes the Fatebenefratelli hospitals.
A patient affected by  Alzheimer’s disease lays  often in a condition of not only cognitive but also physical, social and economical frailty. Therefore the interventions must be addressed to the whole person and not only to particular aspects of the disease. The foundation of the Centro Alzheimer as well as its clinical and scientific activities are based on the belief that the ill Man is at the core of research rather than disease by itself.
This principle finds its practical applications in the scientific activities which concern the biological and neurobiological aspects of the disease as well  as the clinical and the psychological ones.
In 1991 when the Centro Alzheimer was opened,  few physicians were devoted  to the care of  the Alzheimer’s patients and even less to the activity research. According to the increase of social sensibility and of public financial resources, several neurological and geriatric centers began to focus their activity on Alzheimer’s disease, sometimes with good scientific results.
Moreover, we believe that the most important thing which characterized our Centro Alzheimer is the global approach to the patient, a Person whose disease could not be understood either on the basis of magnetic resonance of the brain and on neurobiological exams nor on neuropsychological tests and other high tech but it needs a clever and sensitive clinician who collects, integrates and gives sense to these information

LABORATORY OF EPIDEMIOLOGY AND NEUROIMAGING

The laboratory of Epidemiology and Neuroimaging  is a research structure of the Sacro Cuore Fatebenefratelli hospital, connected to the Alzheimer Unit and to the Laboratory of Neurobiology. Together, the three structures constitute the Centro Alzheimer, as it is commonly known in the scientific and clinical Italian community.
The activity research of the laboratory concerns the study of causative factors of memory, cognitive and behavioral disturbances as well as the determinants of their longitudinal progression. Another important activity of the laboratory is the study of new methods based on CT, magnetic resonance and cerebral scintigraphy which lead to a pre-clinical and early diagnosis of the Alzheimer disease.
The chief of the laboratory is Giovanni B. Frisoni, neurologist. In 1991, with Angelo Bianchetti, Orazio Zanetti e Giuliano Binetti, he founded the Clinical Research Department for Alzheimer Disease-Experimental center of the Lombardia Region, a clinical and modern structure created by Marco Trabucchi, at that time Scientific Director and Fra Marco Fabello, the Prior. In 1996, the clinical and scientific activity of the Centro Alzheimer and the great engagement of the Order of the Fatebenefratelli led  the Center to the recognition as IRCCS by the Ministry of Health.

The Alzheimer Unit is the clinical structure of the Centro Alzheimer which studies and treats  memory disturbances, dementia and  Alzheimer’s disease. It is consists of a ward of 40 beds, 20 of them open to the national territory, a day hospital for 15 persons and a surgery service open from Monday to Friday. The purposes of this service are diagnosis, rehabilitation and treatment of the cognitive and behavioral disturbances. The diagnosis is based on the most advanced technologies while the pharmacological treatment and the rehabilitation follow the international guide lines. Particular attention is paid to the diagnosis and the care of somatic illnesses (extra-cerebral) which often affect the elderly with a cognitive impairment.
Staff: Orazio Zanetti, (MD, geriatrician, head of the Unit), Giuliano Binetti (Neurologist, head of the day hospital), Giorgio Kuffenschin (geriatrician), Giulia Lussignoli (MD), Cristina Geroldi (MD, PhD, geriatrician) and four fellows.

The laboratory studies the neurobiological and genetic aspects of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease with clinical and research evidence. The activity of the laboratory focused on the genetic transmission of Alzheimer’s disease, on the pathogenic mechanisms related to APP metabolism, on the apoptotic mechanisms of presinilina, on the deficiency of the energetic metabolism, on the oxidative stress, on the signal transduction systems and on the proteinchinasi (PKC).
Therefore the laboratory make a systematic collection of peripheral biological material as fibroblasti and DNA of demented patients.
Staff: Giuliano Binetti (head), Antonella Alberici (MD) and Luisa Benussi (biologist) and 5 fellows.