RESEARCH PROGRAMMES

The Berloni Foundation awards grants to physicians, biologists and nurses, both in Italy and worldwide, under research and training programs for the treatment of thalassemia and bone marrow transplantation.

Prof. Guido Lucarelli - Prof. Eduard D. Thomas

These programs are developed under key research collaboration promoted initially at the Bone Marrow Transplantation Center in Pesaro , now in Rome .
Particularly fruitful is the collaboration established with the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle , WA , USA – formerly under the direction of Professor Donnel Edward Thomas, Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1990. Research programs have been agreed jointly with this organization, a leading innovator in hematology, with a focus on the post-transplant conditions of patients cured of thalassemia.

A memorandum of understanding was signed between the Ministries of Health of Russia, Belarus , Egypt , Iran , Iraq , Palestine and of various countries in the Mediterranean area and Italy 's Ministry.
It is precisely under this agreement that, from June 1991, the Berloni Foundation has funded the training of medical and nursing staff from Moscow and Minsk . They were trained in the techniques for the treatment of thalassemia they could later employ at the Minsk hospital, the first in the former Soviet Union equipped to perform bone marrow transplantation.
Opened in October 1993 on expectations of increased leukemia incidence as a consequence of the Chernobyl radiation, the Minsk hospital with its specially trained staff and advanced technology saved numerous lives.

Jointly with IME, the Berloni Foundation is actively involved under Italian Government projects for the treatment of thalassemia in the Mediterranean area.

The Berloni Foundation has an additional focus on the funding and organization of conferences and workshops on hematology issues.
The International Symposium on Bone Marrow Transplantation in Thalassemia sits on a periodic basis, with the participation of authoritative professionals in a forum where prominent clinicians and physicians from all over the world present their research.

The Berloni Foundation also provides financial support to the International Bone Marrow Transplant Registry, a global resource for information critical to research for advancing methods to cure thalassemia and other genetic diseases.