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Categoria: releases |
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Inizio: 16/04/2012 - Fine: 16/04/2016 |
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Titolo: The ProgeNIA/SardiNIA project IRGB/NIA - Funding renewal from National Institutes of Health |
Dettagli: The National Institutes of Health (NIH), the primary Federal Agency of the Government of the United States of America in the field of biomedical research, renewed for another 5 years the ProgeNIA/SardiNIA project through the National Institute on Aging (NIA) - the NIH Institute conducting and supporting research on aging, to be carried out by the Institute of Genetics and Biomedical Research (IRGB) of the National Research Council of Italy (CNR).
The study began in November 2001; the project is periodically evaluated by anonymous reviewers; the final evaluation reported an extremely positive results achieved to date. This is one of the most important research projects in duration and financial commitment ever funded by the NIH out of the U.S. territory in recent years. During the first decade, the funding amounted to $ 26,354,333.00. Despite the many cuts that the U.S. government is applying to research projects conducted in the U.S itself, the high productivity of the project led to its further extension for another five years, with funding of $ 4,213,583.79, to be ended in April 2016.
The project takes place in a IRGB outpost located in Lanusei, and studies the population of four Sardinian small towns: Ogliastra, Lanusei, Ilbono, Eling and Arzana, where about 6200 volunteers aged between 14 and 102 years participated to the project. Each volunteer has been genetically characterized in details and more than 300 biomedical quantitative variables of interest are taken into account, including anthropometric measurements, cardiovascular features, aspects of personality and several hematological, blood chemistry and immunological parameters - considered to be risk factors for several serious illnesses. Moreover volunteers underwent a complete medical examination, including echocardiography and both kidney and thyroid ecographies. Finally, to improve the longitudinal perspective of the study, participants are followed over time through periodic medical examinations with the repetition of the measurements collected and characterization of new ones, in order to detect the development of new health-related events. The ability to superimpose all the information collected for each volunteer facilitates studies of co-morbidities and interactions and can ultimately help understanding the age-related risk factors that require changes of diet, physical activity or in general lifestyle.
The success of the study is documented by numerous publications in leading scientific journals and the repeated extension of the same funding in scenarios which are economically very difficult for the U.S. government. Nor can one underestimates the great socio-health relevance of the project. There are numerous cases of latent serious illnesses such as cancer and heart disease, who have been diagnosed by our doctors and allowed early treatment of the volunteer.
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