With the aim of creating a national centre of excellence for biotechnology, in 1992 Consorzio Interuniversitario per le Biotecnologie (CIB) promoted the birth of its first National Laboratory.

The Laboratory is located in the Area Science Park of Trieste and it presently covers a surface of around 300 square metres entirely assigned to equipped laboratories. On average LNCIB hosts 40 people, including professors, researchers, grant- holders, post-graduates, PhD students, trainees and students coming from different institutions (Universities of Trieste, Udine, Bologna, Modena-Reggio Emilia; S.I.S.S.A.; F.I.R.C.), with an average presence of 30 persons. The only "steady" positions of the laboratory are those of the Professors of the Universities of Friuli Venezia Giulia, Trieste e Udine, who constantly work as Coordinators of the different Operative Units. When the laboratory was established, CIB invested an overall amount of € 363,709.08 (2003 balance-shhet data) for the structure and for purchasing scientific equipments. The present involvment of CIB consists in facing the renting fees and accessory expenses, for an overall amount of 77K Euro/year, yearly paid to Consorzio Area di Ricerca. Obtaining grants to support research from national (AIRC, Telethon) and international (NIH-NCI, EC, Merck, Amgen, Invitrogen) private agencies is one of the tasks of the different operative units and it allows the complete coverage of staff and researh fees, along with the daily laboratory expenses.

The annual average budget of LNCIB, not considering CIB contribution to renting and to additional expenses, is around 400K Euro/year.
Including CIB funding, the allocation of fees from institutions belonging to central government (CNR, MIUR, Department of Health) has never exceeded 20% of the overall fees yearly obtained.
LNCIB is a reality that has been operating in Area Science Park (Trieste) for ten years and has since acted as a reference for member universities for promoting research and higher education in biotechnology in Italy, its scientific achievements in the field of biotechnology and basic research being recognized at international level. This allowed LNCIB to attract funding also from American government institutions (National Cancer Institute) and biotech firms (Invitrogen, Merck Genome Research Institute).

Presently the laboratory is organized in four Operative Units, whose research goals are closely inter-related, based on highly productive collaboration and exploitation of a core of shared equipment and analytical techniques and having financial autonomy.

Functional Genomics Operative Unit: human transcriptome analysis by full-length cDNA libraries production, storing, sequencing and characterization. Production of cDNA microarrays and cell-arrays. Expression profiling of tumors samples (ovary and colon). Analysis of tumour-derived gene clusters by retroprofiling of suitable cell lines challenged with either growth factors or single pathway-controlling genes. Creation and application of bioinformatic technologies for genome/transcriptome analysis and cDNA microarrays.

Molecular Oncology Operative Unit: analysis of the mechanisms controlling cell proliferation through the study of tumour oncosuppressor p53 and its family members p63 e p73. Development of retroviral and lentiviral vectors along with new cloning systems for identifying small aptamer peptides from combinatorial libraries, capable of inhibiting the function of important proteins in proliferation control. These studies may contribute to the identification of "lead molecules" for developing peptidic drugs and for their use in gene therapy.

Proliferation Control Operative Unit: analysis of growth pathways involving GTSE-1, MAGE and gas genes. The downstream biochemical activities constituting the present major focus are HDAC (histone deacetylase) and Calpains.

Immune Biotechnology Operative Unit: assessment of the function of antimicrobial peptides as effectors and mediators of defense mechanisms, aiming at boosting the immune response through the pharmacological modulation of endogenous peptides levels.

The mission of Laboratorio Nazionale CIB is to consolidate the previous investments in order to combine the technologies developed for gene expression profiling by cDNA microarrays with these developed for protein interaction profiling by means of the yeast two-hybrid technique. From the complementation of these two technologies it will be possible to recover the functional mapping allowing to explain the mechanisms underlying new and relevant pathways harnessing the complexity of human tumours.

Training