The Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research is a not-for-profit biomedical research organization. It was founded in 1961, and started work in Milan on 1 February 1963. There are now research units in Bergamo, at Ranica – near Bergamo – and at Santa Maria Imbaro, near Chieti.

The Institute’s main aim is to help defend human health and life.
To achieve this goal, we need a fuller understanding of the innermost workings of living organisms; we need to know why diseases arise, and what happens inside an organism when foreign substances enter it. The Institute’s research programs therefore span from the molecular level to the whole human being, and the findings help build up the basis for developing new drugs, and making existing ones more effective.

The main research headings are the battle against cancer, nervous and mental illnesses, cardiovascular and kidney diseases, rare diseases and the toxic effects of environmental contaminants, mother and child’s health. The Institute is also involved in research on pain relief and drug addiction.

Parallel to its biomedical investigations, the Mario Negri Institute runs training schemes for laboratory technicians and graduate researchers. It takes part in a range of initiatives to communicate information in biomedicine, on a general level and with the specific aims of improving health care practice, and encouraging more rational use of drugs.