Informational digest bulletin from san raffaele foundation and tosinvest sanitá (No. 19). A brief report on research activities at the scientific research institute

This brief report represents the results of a commitment that started in 2005, when our Institute was recognized as Scientific Research Institute and currently continues with the goal to improve patients' quality of life. Healthcare and research need to proceed together in order to guarantee quality of care and patients' safety and well-being. From 2005 to 2008, there has been an increase in financial resources, research planning and realization, and healthcare services provided. This growth reveals major competitiveness both for high quality of scientific publications and funds related to different researches and for healthcare provided to patients. The San Raffaele Pisana's scientific activity has allowed us to strengthen preexisting collaborations and start new ones with prestigious national and international research institutions. The main goal of our Institute's activities is the improvement of healthcare criteria, attained through the organization of the research areas (in order to satisfy educational, healthcare, translational, and basic research needs) as well as the elaboration of strong network activities. The extensive clinical experience gathered during the years, also applied for research, will allow us to constantly increase healthcare innovations in order to effectively satisfy patients' needs and to strengthen excellence of neurological, neuromotor, bronchopulmonary, cardiac, and developmental diseases. Moreover, the synergy of interdisciplinary activities of the entire San Raffaele network is a distinctive characteristic of our Institute, contributing to the increase of its clinical and scientific value, with a major possibility of transferring results immediately to benefit patients and the National Health System. Following is an overview of the research laboratory facilities of the Advanced Biotechnology Research Area within the San Raffaele Network, with a special focus on the Interinstitutional Multidisciplinary Biobank (BioBIM) and Biochemistry and Clinical Proteomics (BioPC) Projects with relation toDown syndrome.