Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS)- EUPHEM

Contact person

Claudia Lucarelli, Giulietta Venturi
Tel: + 39 064990 2171 / 2663

Description of institute 

The Istituto Superiore di Sanità (Italian National Institute of Health - ISS) is the main Italian research Institute in the biomedical and public health fields. It is the technical and scientific body of the Italian National Health Service.

Mission: promotion and protection of national and international public health through research, surveillance, regulation, control, prevention, communication, guidance and training.

Vision: Generate scientific knowledge through research and experimental work in order to promote evidence-based decisions among decision-makers, health professionals and citizens.

Promotion and protection of public health are pursued through activities carried out in the following areas:

• neurological,
• psychiatric,
• oncological,
• haematological,
• genetic,
• infectious,
• cardiovascular,
• endocrine-metabolic,
• immune-mediated, and
• ageing-related diseases.

The Institute collaborates with national institutions performing public health functions such as the Ministry of Health and the Ministry for the Environment, regions, local health units, hospitals and scientific institutes. It is also involved in a wide range of international activities including scientific and technical support to the European Commission, to WHO, EFSA, ECDC, IARC, OECD, OIE, UNEP, and other organizations, and to developing countries, and to countries suffering natural emergencies or war situations.

ISS develops tools and strategies for food safety, fighting zoonoses. It  carries out environmental monitoring to assess the environmental risks for human health. As the official Italian control laboratory for medicines, it performs quality and safety assessment of medicines. The Institute hosts the National Reference Centre for Rare Diseases, the National Transplant Centre and the National Blood Centre.

The Institute plans, develops and organises training courses in the field of public health for the personnel of the National Health Service. It also organises conferences, workshops and seminars both at national and international level on relevant public health issues. It produces a range of scientific publications including: the “Annali”, a quarterly peer-reviewed journal with impact factor, the “Notiziario”, a monthly newsletter on current activities, technical reports and monographs on public health issues.

The technical and scientific area of the Institute includes 6 Departments, 18 National Centres, 2 Reference Centres and 5 Technical-scientific Services.

The Department of Infectious Diseases (DMI) fights diseases due to infectious agents (viruses, bacteria, fungi and parasites) through the study of the human pathogens, of the host immune response, and of treatment of infections.Medical entomology competencies and insectariums are also present in the Department. DMI is involved in all the activities related to diagnosis, research, surveillance, control, and advice in infectious diseases.

Special emphasis is devoted to poverty-related diseases (AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria) and to the emerging threat of antibiotic-resistance.

The Department includes National Reference centres (e.g. Legionella and Flu), Supranational Reference centres (e.g. MDR-TB at WHO) and several ECDC Contact Points. The personnel of the Department take part in committees and workshops organized by the Ministry of Health and other public health organizations.

Training is an important part of the task of the department: graduate students, PhD students and post-docs attend the laboratories in order to prepare their research thesis or to obtain the Microbiology specialty Diploma

In recent years, the Department has been especially engaged in detecting outbreaks and epidemics (e.g. Chikungunya virus, A/H1N1 pandemic flu) due to emerging or re-emerging infectious diseases and has greatly contributed to their control. After the 2011 emergence of the West Nile virus activities related to diagnosis and control and the organization of a surveillance network have been implemented. Currently, the DMI it is the National Reference Lab for the diagnosis of Covid-19, working also in research, and is coordinating the Italian Integrated Surveillance system of Covid-19. In addition DMI has been contributing to several circular laws, decrees for the fight of Covid-19 pandemic, specific guidelines and online courses.

The Department has collaboration and support projects with the Balkan countries, and with developing countries, especially in Africa.

Main areas of activity:

• AMR and HAI (including MDR-TB)
• Covid-19 (surveillance, diagnosis, research, public health advice)
• Vaccine-preventable diseases (including Flu)
• Food & Water-borne diseases (including parasites)
• Hepatitis
• Vector-borne diseases
• Epidemiology
• Immune-response to infection

Training opportunities 

ISS is an acknowledged training site for EPIET and EUPHEM.

Fellows will have the opportunity to cover all the training objectives set by ECDC as she/he will be personally involved in the large frame of activities of both surveillance and research present in DMI. The added value of DMI is to have both EUPHEM and EPIET fellows at the same department, further promoting strict cooperation. There will be also occasion for collaboration with other relevant Italian institutions, as well as participation to national and international projects.

Training supervision

Dr Claudia Lucarelli (EUPHEM alumna) is the main supervisor and Giulietta Venturi is the co-supervisor. Patrizio Pezzotti is the epidemiology supervisor. A number of experts in different areas will be available for EUPHEM-dedicated projects.

Language requirements

English is largely spoken at ISS, personnel are involved in many international activities and willing to cooperate. In time, however, a little Italian will be appreciated and will make the everyday life a little easier.

Training history

ISS was nominated EUPHEM training site in 2012. Two MS-track fellows (cohort 2013 and cohort 2015) and one EU-track fellow (cohort 2017) trained and graduated at ISS. The site is currently hosting a MS-track fellow (cohort 2019) who will graduate in 2021.

ISS has also a long-standing tradition as EPIET training site since 1995 - 13 EPIET fellows trained at institute since 1995 to 2014. The site is currently is currently hosting an EU-track and an MS-track fellow (cohort 2019) who will graduate in 2021.

Two EUPHEM and two EPIET alumni are working at the ISS.