VIMM is the research institute of the Foundation for Advanced Biomedical Research (FRBA), a non-profit organization headquartered in Padua, Italy, that promotes cutting-edge research in biomedicine. VIMM is a unique multidisciplinary research institute devoted to conducting, supporting, and encouraging applied research with a tangible impact on the progress of medicine and human health. VIMM is accomplishing its mission coupling excellent basic and translational research also fostering the career of several young independent investigators. The institute is strategically located in an academically and research rich area close to the Life Sciences complex of the Padua University School of Medicine and its University Hospital, thus allowing for collaborative relationships with many scientists involved in basic science and clinical activities.
VIMM is built upon a 25-year history of innovation and sustained excellence, with an active intellectual community that spans multiple departments and colleagues throughout the University of Padua. We are home to 20 tenured and research faculty, and more than 150 graduate and undergraduate students coming from 20 countries, hosted in fully equipped open space labs. Driven by commitment, curiosity and passion our scientists conduct state-of-the-art research thus making VIMM a leading Institute in the Italian biomedical science scenario with a prominent international standing in its core domains: mitochondrial dynamics in medicine, cardiovascular and muscular pathobiology, biology and immunology of cancer, neuroscience and neurodegeneration, metabolism and bioengineering.
As scientific director of VIMM, I envision that tomorrow’s challenges in terms of research and public health demand novel and unconventional approaches that cross the boundaries of classic disciplines. The future of medicine lies in the creation of new knowledge and technology as well as its rapid translation into patient care. With this as a background, faculty at VIMM works with a spirit of corporate identity on up-to-date problems set at the intersection of medicine, biology, physics, and engineering.
I invite you to explore our website and learn more about latest researches, discoveries, achievements, events and our available positions. Even more, I encourage you to visit our Institute in person, to find out more on our plans, on our career opportunities and to meet our faculty and students thus seeing first-hand the spirit of innovation you will find here.
Our scientists tackle the following diseases:
At VIMM, we delve into the basic mechanisms of heart function and dysfunction, combining molecular biology with advanced physiology and tissue engineering.
Integrated research programmes try to address the basic mechanisms and the pathophysiological consequences of diabetes, obesity and of their complications.
To improve healthy ageing and sustain muscle force in the elderly population, our scientists are characterizing the molecular mechanisms responsible for muscle mass maintenance and loss.
Our scientists delve into the mechanisms of neuronal function and dysfunction at the molecular, cellular and mesoscale, to combat the neurodegenerative disorders affecting an ageing population.
By studying basic mechanisms of cancer formation or by performing translational research into hematological and solid cancers, our scientists aim at providing novel anti cancer therapies.