Hemostasis and the kidney: an unforeseen initial opportunity to create a small research group that grew into an institute

This is the story of how, in the mid-1970s, a small group of young doctors and scientists in Bergamo began studying hemostasis and thrombosis in kidney diseases in collaboration with hematology researchers at Mario Negri Institute in Milan. At a small laboratory that was set up in the Nephrology and Dialysis division of Bergamo Hospital, their collaborative earlier research focused on platelet-vessel wall interactions, prostaglandins and bleeding in uremia, prostacyclin and prostacyclin-stimulating plasma factors in pre-eclampsia and thrombotic microangiopathies, and platelet hyperaggregability in nephrotic syndrome. As the group grew, so did the need to address patients’ nephrological problems through more efficient laboratory research. This led to the foundation of the Mario Negri Bergamo Institute in 1984. Since then, their research work has expanded to include mechanisms of proteinuria and disease progression, organ transplantation and rejection, tolerance, autoimmune disease, glomerulonephritis, molecular biology, and more. In 1992, the Aldo and Cele Daccò Clinical Research Center for Rare Disease was established as an integral part of the Institute.