L'Italo-Americano

L'Italo-Americano THURSDAY, MAY 19, 2022 www.italoamericano.org 6 NEWS & FEATURES TOP STORIES PEOPLE EVENTS Continued from page 4 order and there is nothing unknown about it anymore." The University of Bari is the only Italian third-level institution to take part in this prestigious internation- al research project, led by the University of Washing- t o n S c h o o l o f M e d i c i n e , Johns Hopkins University, U n i v e r s i t y o f C a l i f o r n i a Santa Cruz, and the National Human Genome Research Institute. The experience accrued by the Washington lab has been determinant for the Italian team. Professor Francesca Antonacci, one of the geneticists in Ventura's team (she has been, just like Ventura, a postdoctoral fel- low with Eichler, and also I S S N A F f i n a l i s t f o r t h e Young Investigator Award 2 0 1 2 ) , c o n f i r m s i t . B a c k t h e n , s h e w a s a l r e a d y involved in revolutionary research that enabled the reading of long portions of DNA: "I was able to apply personally state of the art techniques, which were not available in Italy, yet, and also to interact with incredi- bly talented researchers." P r o f e s s o r V e n t u r a , y o u s t u d i e d i n t h e U S thanks to a Fullbright S c h o l a r s h i p . Y o u s t i l l teach in the US today, b u t y o u c a m e b a c k t o I t a l y . W h a t h a s y o u r A m e r i c a n e x p e r i e n c e taught you? I believed it's been funda- mental because it taught me to approach research in a way that was totally differ- ent from how we'd approach it in Italy 20 years ago, when I started. In Italy, we'd focus on the detail, not on the big picture. But when you do research at the highest level, you must look at the big pic- ture. You must look up and see what's around. However, I must say that, in the last f e w y e a r s , r e s e a r c h h a s c h a n g e d a n d e v o l v e d i n Italy, too, it has embraced this outlook." We need to learn how to look at "the big pic- ture," but they need our skills in the US… I t a l i a n s t u d e n t s a r e a s g o o d a s t h e A m e r i c a n s . When I send my doctoral candidates to the US, the first thing everyone notice is how prepared they are. Tak- ing exams with me it's not a stroll in the park, but my students understand well w h y : t h e k n o w l e d g e a n d skills they learn now, is what w i l l m a k e o r b r e a k t h e i r career in the future. Profes- sor Antonacci – who, just like me, studied with profes- sor Eichler – and I are in charge of an MA in citoge- netics at the University of Bari, a highly specialized course on the study of chro- mosomes. We believe in it because we understood this is a very sought-after spe- cialization. Considering your very prestigious outcomes, do you think we'd have m o r e " m a d e i n I t a l y " r e s u l t s i f t h e r e w e r e m o r e i n v e s t m e n t s i n research in our country? Definitely, but you always have to remember that there is a lot at stake. It's not only a m a t t e r o f h a v i n g m o r e money, something in Italy often is short, but also of being available to move, to invest a lot of time and a lot of energy. Both myself and a good part of my team have worked four or five years abroad before coming back to Italy, and we've been see- ing the results of it because we didn't only increase our knowledge, but we also cre- ated the right connections. I work in Bari and Washing- ton and this certainly helps the collaboration between Italy and the US team. What's the most fasci- n a t i n g a s p e c t o f t h i s research, in your opin- ion? T h e r e a r e m a n y , b u t probably the opportunity to work with many different minds, each of them dealing with different things, all at the same level and with the same importance. You can get in touch with different ways of thinking and invest in science in manners not necessarily like those you're used to. And then, the result. W h e n w e r e a l i z e d h o w , thanks to new technologies, we could finally solve prob- l e m s w e c o u l d n ' t s o l v e before, I mean… things that we didn't even know existed … we understood that what we were working on was to change the future of biology as a whole and not only of genetics. How does it feel to see y o u r r e s e a r c h o n t h e cover of Science? It's an incredible achieve- ment. It's worth all the effort y o u p u t i n t o y o u r w o r k . W h e n y o u r e a c h s u c h r e s u l t s , y o u f e e l w o r k i n g hard paid back. What's the next step i n g e n o m e r e s e a r c h going to be? R e s u l t s , a n i n c r e d i b l e wave of results. Today, we're just at the beginning of the s t o r y . E v e r y o n e w i l l b e i n s p i r e d b y i t . T h e r e a r e g o i n g t o b e r e s e a r c h e r s working on many different a s p e c t s o f t h e h u m a n genome, and those studies will inspire more studies. This is the first book of a series that has the potential t o b e i n c r e d i b l y l e n g t h y because each thing we know today and we didn't know yesterday is bound to open a new research field. Will the collaboration between the University of Bari research team and that in the US keep going? O u r c o l l a b o r a t i o n h a s been going on for 20 years a l r e a d y , a n d I t h i n k i t ' s going to last many more. America's technology and our ability to put in order what they produce is the key to a long-lasting collabora- tion. What do you think is going to happen, in 20 years, thanks to your research? W e ' l l p r o b a b l y g e t answers to the many ques- tions we have about genetic illnesses; we'll have person- alized therapies. Thanks to pharmacogenomics, we will be able to know how each person responds to treat- ment, based on their genetic sequencing. We'll be able to create a personalized thera- peutic plan. If I know the book well, finding the right chapter or sentence is going to be easier. Are we going towards personalized medicine? We've read the complete genome of a cellular line. Now, we know all the letters and pages of the book. If we take two people, we won't find the same sentences - let's say - on page 5, but we'll be able to find and read page 5 and understand the differ- ences in the text. From reading genes to writing... Do you think there are risks? I don't see negatives in knowledge. Of course, the way it is used, it's up to us. Einstein didn't know how his theory of relativity was to be used, either. Right now, however, we're only looking at, not touching, the human genome. The cover of Science dedicated to the Ventura and Eichler's article (Photo courtesy of Mario Ventura) Up to now, Ventura explains, "Human genome was like a book with many pages missing. It was full of holes. Now, it's finally complete. It's fully written and we can read it, because all of its pages are in the right order"

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