In his will, in 1960, Mario Negri gave us a great opportunity: he enabled us to build the first Italian foundation entirely dedicated to biomedical research. It is a private Institute but it works for the public interest, because it is a no-profit organization.

There were 22 people when we started: the whole group came from the Istituto di Farmacologia at the Milan University. In 40-plus years we have grown enormously - to almost 900 people in four locations.
All the scientific knowledge from our research is used to help sick people.

We have published more than 10,000 articles in international scientific journals and these have raised so much interest that four of the 50 Italian researchers most cited worldwide in all scientific disciplines, work here at the Mario Negri Institute.

We had our difficulties setting up the Institute, because we live in a Country where scientific research has never had high priority. We have always put freedom first even though this has called for sacrifices. Still, we have no debt, we publish all the results of our research. We chose not to patent the therapies we discover as a result of our research.

Our work focuses mainly on cardiovascular diseases, psychiatric/neurological diseases, cancers, but  over time we have adapted our research in line with technological developments: health and the environment, renal diseases, organ transplants and rare diseases.

We have become more specialized, where necessary, but always in the general contest of medicine and the sick.
Our initial work was mostly in the laboratory, but we gradually felt the need to work more closely with clinicians, striving for Evidence Based Medicine (EBM) and learning how important are epidemiological studies, risk factors, social and economic conditions for individual and general health. We have asked patients’ associations, various specialized hospital groups, general practitioners and nurses to participate in our activities, as we believe that research provides an essential impulse towards knowledge and progress.

All of this is backed by basic research in pharmacokinetics, pharmacology, immunology, cell biology, genomics, and proteomics.

Dissemination of information has been a constant aim. We have often taken stands in defense of the environment, in the fight against smoking and drugs, spreading information on the risks and benefits associated with the use of pharmaceuticals, promoting research with no political and religious tags, campaigning for prevention and defending patients’ rights.We have been lucky in receiving help from many sides, which has always been a great encouragement: individuals and institutions, large and small contributions. We count on this support for the future too, so that we can remain an independent scientific institute at the service of the patients.