In 1958, Silvio Garattini, then an assistant at the Institute of Pharmacology of the University of Milan, met Mario Negri, a Milanese jeweller and philanthropist. Young Garattini had recently returned from the United States and the vision that he had fascinated Mario Negri. Garattini’s idea was to create a foundation – an organisation that would operate in the public interest and have the flexibility of a private institution – that would always remain a non-profit organisation.

When the last will and testament of Mario Negri (1891-1960) was read, it emerged that the Milanese philanthropist, who had already financed several scientific research programmes, had designated a significant proportion of his estate to be used to establish a research institute that would bear his name. He indicated precisely what its characteristics and purpose were to be and asked that Silvio Garattini be its director and charismatic guide.

On 1 February 1963, the first office in the Quarto Oggiaro area in Milan was inaugurated. It was the only private Italian foundation at the time that was dedicated entirely to scientific research. Alfredo Leonardi and Silvio Garattini were joined by a team of 21 talented scientists working in the fields of psychopharmacology, lipid metabolism and cancer chemotherapy.

Thanks to the team’s expertise in the field of pharmacokinetics, the first studies to establish the efficacy and toxicity of drugs began and ‘created the first bridge between research and patients’. Research focused on cardiovascular diseases (GISSI), gynaecological tumours (GIVIO), skin diseases (GISED) and on patients in intensive care (GIVITI) or suffering from psychiatric disorders (GISAS).

The Negri Bergamo was established and housed in the Conventino, an eighteenth-century building in the city of Bergamo, in 1984. This was possible thanks to the generosity of the Banca Popolare di Bergamo, Banca Provinciale Lombarda and the Credito Bergamasco bank. Twenty-five enthusiastic young clinicians and biologists, who had dreamed since 1979, under the guidance of Giuseppe Remuzzi, of freeing patients with kidney disease from the need for dialysis, began to work towards making that dream a reality, thanks also to collaboration with researchers in Milan.

Thanks to a generous donation from Angelo and Angela Valenti, in 1983 a six-storey tower that would house research laboratories was added to the headquarters in Via Eritrea. In 1987, further support from Catullo and Daniela Borgomaineiro enabled the institute to expand further beyond the original historical building and begin research on molecular and epidemiological biology.

Thanks to donations from Cele Daccò (in memory of her husband Aldo) and the Istituto Bancario S. Paolo di Torino, in 1992 the Mario Negri Institute opened the Aldo and Cele Daccò Clinical Research Centre for Rare Diseases* in the beautiful neoclassical headquarters in Villa Camozzi in Ranica (Bg). The researchers at the centre – true pioneers in their field – set out to provide resources to and be a reference point for doctors and patients and families affected by rare diseases.

In 2001, the Daccò Centre became the headquarters of the Coordination of the Regional Network for Rare Diseases in Lombardy, in collaboration with the National Centre for Rare Diseases of the Istituto Superiore di Sanità. It collects documentation, disseminates information, carries out experimental and clinical research and trains young researchers, as well as coordinating centres in Lombardy that are dedicated to rare diseases.

The Chiara Cucchi De Alessandri and Gilberto Crespi Transplant Research Centre opened at the Daccò Centre in 2002, thank to contributions from the ART Transplant Research Foundation. The researchers’ work is consistently supported through scholarships and enabled by state-of-the-art equipment, and their aim is to improve tolerance to transplanted organs.

After 44 years of dedicated and rewarding work in the historic headquarters in Via Eritrea, the institute inaugurated and moved to the new, state-of-the-art headquarters in the Bovisa neighbourhood of Milan. Covering 42.000 square metres, the campus was appointed with cutting-edge equipment and technology, making the Mario Negri a great Milanese institution.

An especially generous donation from noblewoman Anna Maria Astori facilitated the building of the new headquarters in Bergamo, which took her name. The new building is situated in the Kilometro Rosso Science and Technology Park and occupies 6000 square metres.

Since the 2013, the Ministry of Health has recognised the Mario Negri Institute as an IRCCS (Institute of Hospitalisation and Care of a Scientific Nature – an Italian Research Hospital), attesting to its decisive contributions to pharmacology and clinical trials in the fields of neurological, rare and environmental diseases.

After dedicating his remarkable professional life to establishing and developing the institute, Silvio Garattini retired from his position as director of the institute and was succeeded by Giuseppe Remuzzi on 1 July 2018. The transition was facilitated by years of friendship, shared goals and fruitful collaboration.