The largest brain research program ever carried out in Italy, and among the most ambitious in the world, is called "Mnesys", and brings together 12 public and private universities, and 13 research centers, scientifically oriented hospice and care institutions (IRCCS) and companies, led by the University of Genoa. The program can count on an investment of 115 million and involves about 500 scientists, eager to illuminate, deepen, investigate the meanderings and the secrets of the most unknown of our organs, which is the heart of the central nervous system. Medical researchers, biologists, bioengineers and computer scientists will have to explore those few cubic centimeters that enable motor functions, speech, perceiving stimuli from the external environment, feeling emotions, processing memories and thoughts; and, above all, they will have to understand why the brain sometimes malfunctions, how it changes over the course of life and as we age, triggering diseases of the nervous system, and not only of the neurodegenerative sphere. Digital avatars of the organ will be created to study the response to drugs and diseases, developing new biomarkers for early diagnosis, identifying new molecular targets for innovative drug therapies.
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