Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center, the banking group company dedicated to innovation, and the Infectious Diseases Laboratory of the Luigi Sacco Department of Biomedical and Clinical Sciences of the State University of Milan (Sacco Hospital) launched of lockdown, one close collaboration for genomic sequencing and the geographical mapping on the national territory of SARS-CoV-2, the agent of COVID-19, and the reconstruction of the origin and methods of diffusion of the virus among the Italian population.
The close relationship between Intesa Sanpaolo, University of Milan and Sacco Hospital, already consolidated for some time in the field of occupational health and safety thanks to the commitment of the Company Protection Department of the Bank, has found further strengthening in the field of applied research.
In fact, the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory of the Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center supports the research activities of the Infectious Diseases Laboratory of the State University at the Sacco Hospital making skills and human capital available in information technology, statistics and data science and providing greater computing power, with the creation of a research environment (servers, databases, accesses, licenses and IT tools) thanks to which programming codes for automation have been developed of a significant part of the research, such as the selection and cleaning phases of the genomic sequences.
The collaboration proved to be decisive in the analysis of the considerable amount of genomic sequences deposited in public databases and in the structures that are part of the Infectious Diseases Laboratory network, leader of the project for genomic sequencing and geographical mapping of the Coronavirus which it involves over 20 Italian clinical centres.
The project, of fundamental importance for the molecular surveillance of SARS-CoV-2, led to the publication of a scientific paper in the international medical journal Viruses, entitled Molecular tracing of SARS-CoV-2 in Italy in the first three months of the epidemic. The study, carried out on 59 new viral genomes obtained in various Italian regions, made it possible to observe that almost all of the viruses present in our area belong to the B.1 lineage, which later became the most widespread in the world, and that the most probable period of entry into Italy, according to estimates on dated phylogenetic trees, is between the end of January and the beginning of February 2020, at least one month before the description of the first cases of COVID-19 in our country.
"The significant results obtained confirm the importance of the multidisciplinary approach combined with scientific rigor and the fundamental role of public-private cooperation in research - he said Professor Massimo Galli, Ordinary of Infectious Diseases at the Milan State University and Director of the Infectious Diseases Clinical Division of the Sacco Hospital -. We hope that the collaboration with Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center, with its IT, statistical, mathematical and data management skills, will continue in a longer-term perspective, with the creation of an open research environment for archiving and the sharing of genomic sequences and related personal and clinical data, which would be of great use for the Italian network including the Infectious Diseases Laboratory and, in perspective, for the international scientific community".
“During the Coronavirus pandemic, the Intesa Sanpaolo Group supported numerous hospitals in the country in various forms, with particular regard to the most affected areas. As an Innovation Center, we have chosen to support the research activities on Covid-19 carried out by the group of researchers of the Milan State University at the Sacco Hospital in Milan, directed by Professor Massimo Galli, immediately making skills and tools available" - he explains Maurizio Montagnese, President of Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center. “Our constant collaboration with universities and research centers of excellence has favored the development, internally, of new professionals such as data scientists and analysts of the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, capable of making fundamental research dialogue with the challenges of business not only in the financial sector. From their work in synergy with University researchers, a protected IT environment was born, called Smart IT, which we are continuing to enhance with the commitment and expertise of other Bank structures, to consolidate and develop what we started and put it provision of other structures and institutions for the fight against the Coronavirus".
