A brief look at some of ICGEB’s recent, top research articles published thus far in 2022, with a commentary by Vittorio Venturi, Scientific Coordinator and Group Leader, Bacteriology.
Frank Brombacher and team, Cytokines and Diseases, conduct research into immunological mechanisms of host protection in infectious and non-infectious diseases. Recent results were published in the journal Trends in Parasitology in a paper reporting the Influence of schistosomiasis on host vaccine responses, focusing on human; immunomodulation; praziquantel (PZQ); schistosomiasis, and vaccine response.
Emanuele Buratti and his Molecular Pathology Group look at RNA-protein interactions, defective RNA processing and neurodegeneration, as well as Genetic disease caused by defective splicing.
In a recent paper published in Nature, together with collaborators he reports on variants of UNC13A, a critical gene for synapse function, increase the risk of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and frontotemporal dementia, two related neurodegenerative diseases defined by mislocalization of the RNA-binding protein TDP-43.
The recent study, led by Serena Zacchigna, Cardiovascular Biology lab, ICGEB Trieste, published in Nature Communications represented a turning point in innovative cardiovascular therapies. Her Group looks at cell-cell interactions and cross-talk in angiogenesis, cancer and cardiac disease, and this latest work focused on assessing whether inhibition of Protein 1 (BMP1.3) by a specific monoclonal antibody reduces cardiac fibrosis.
The success of our investigations are also measured from a series of bibliographic parameters including the number of publications in top international scientific journals. These are reported annually in the ICGEB Annual Report. Many of our publications are freely available in Open Access.

