Edinburgh Science, an education charity known for its annual Edinburgh Science Festival (30 March – 14 April 2024, world’s first and still one of the biggest), is proud to reveal that Mario Negri Research Institute is this year’s recipient of Edinburgh Medal with the ceremony taking place on Tuesday 2nd April, during the Festival.

Dr Simon Gage, Director and CEO at Edinburgh Science: “The way most medicines and many treatments are devised and prescribed is too often driven by the forces of profit and protectionism. This despite most of the basic research being funded by the taxpayer. Over prescription, high prices preventing ubiquitous access, a lack of interest in widespread diseases perceived to be unprofitable and a reluctance to share trial results are some of the symptoms of the current set-up. All get in the way of optimising the health of the global population".

“The Mario Negri Research Institute sees the world differently, and it is its open access approach to research in health that we applaud and feel inspired by. The Edinburgh Medal recognises pioneers from the world of science who act to better society; this year’s award to a world-class research institute that shows us a different approach to improving global health could not be more fitting. It provokes us to ask why the UK doesn’t have its own institute of this type and to even go further to call for one to be founded.”

Founded in Italy in 1961, Mario Negri Research Institute is a biomedical research institution driven by an ethical imperative to remain ‘patient-oriented’ rather than ‘patent-oriented’ and operating by the following rules:

• Institute doesn’t patent any of its discoveries or research which means it is all publicly available, for free.
• Full transparency and accountability in research planning, implementation and publication.
• Institute conducts tests on new drugs in comparison with the best available to check if it is better than current provision and not just better than a placebo.
• Institutional and economic independence from government, industry and academia.
• Development of large-scale clinical trials based on the population of patients who will be the ones using the medicines being evaluated.
• Promotion of public policies to support research for unmet needs rather than marketing and the need for profits.
• Monitoring the transferability of research evidence into clinical practice, taking advantage of professional networks.  

Since establishing, the Institute has had an immeasurable impact on the world of medicine and improving people’s lives. In 1986, the Institute introduced a drug for patients who have suffered from a heart attack which has since saved millions of lives. Through its research, the Institute has also reduced the need for dialysis for patients with chronic kidney disease and improved quality of life for transplant patient by expanding the donor pool to include older donors. In 2007, the Institute developed a new drug, trabectedin, which has improved survival outcomes for patients with a rare form of sarcoma, a type of cancer which develops in bones and soft tissues. See Notes for editors for more examples of the Institute’s breakthrough research.

Giuseppe Remuzzi, Director of the Institute, will visit Edinburgh to receive the Medal on behalf of the Institute. He said: “I am very honoured to accept the prestigious Edinburgh Medal on behalf of the Mario Negri Institute. This award is a well-deserved acknowledgement of the hard work and dedication of all the researchers who have worked for the Institute over the years: their passion and sacrifices have been absolutely vital, because preserving our independence comes at a high price.

The Edinburgh Medal also recognises the contributions of all the students we have trained, particularly the impressive number of over 900 international students who have trained at the Mario Negri. Many now occupy important positions, including advisors to the Ministry of Health in their home countries, in leading international transplant organizations, or advisors in senior management roles within universities; one of our former students served as dean of the Universidad Austral de Chile. We are particularly proud to have played a role in their education.”

Commenting on the importance of the Institute, Richard Horton, editor-in-chief of The Lancet, a weekly peer-reviewed general medical journal said: “The Mario Negri is an Italian research institution with a global reputation unparalleled in this country”.

One of the most highly regarded nephrologists in the world, Prof. Barry M. Brenner added: “I can honestly state that Mario Negri is the place to be in Italy, and perhaps in all of Europe, for the serious and focused study of renal biology today. You have many reasons to be proud and I have no doubt that your future contributions will be every bit as rich, if not more so!”

About the Edinburgh Medal

The Edinburgh Medal has been instituted by the City of Edinburgh Council to honour men and women of science and technology who have made a significant contribution to the understanding and wellbeing of humanity.

Each year, since its inception in 1989, the Medallist delivers a Medal Address as part of the annual Edinburgh Science Festival. This year’s Address will take place at 7pm on Tuesday 2nd April in Edinburgh at City Chambers.

Previous Medallists include Prof. Heidi Larson, Prof Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell, Sir David Attenborough, Prof Jane Goodall, Prof Cordelia Fine, Wangari Maathai, Prof Colin Blakemore, Christiana Figueres, Sunita Narain and Prof Peter Higgs.

About the Edinburgh Science Festival 2024

The 2024 Edinburgh Science Festival takes place from Saturday 30 March to Sunday 14 April with the theme Shaping the Future. Celebrating the power and potential that human creativity, collaboration, innovation and play have to change our world for the better, the 2024 Festival will explore the roles of science, technology and their creative cousins in tackling the challenges and seizing the opportunities that our ever-changing world presents. Full 2024 programme will be announced at 11am on Thursday, 15 February.

Edinburgh Science

Edinburgh Science, founded in 1989, is an educational charity that aims to inspire people of all ages and backgrounds to discover the world around them. The organisation is best known for organising Edinburgh’s annual Science Festival: the world’s first festival of science and technology and still one of Europe’s largest.

The two-week Festival provides wide and diverse audiences with amazing science-themed experiences through a diverse programme of innovative events for adults and families. Alongside the annual Festival in Edinburgh, the organization has a strong focus on education, running a touring programme, Generation Science, that brings science to life for primary schools around Scotland throughout the year, and running an annual Careers Hive event which promotes STEM careers to young people.

After programming on the themes of climate change and the environment for many years, in 2019 Edinburgh Science awarded the Edinburgh Medal to Christiana Figueres, the inspirational Costa Rican diplomat instrumental in the Paris Climate agreement. Inspired by this visit, Edinburgh Science established the Climate Co-Lab, a forum for all sectors to come together and generate collaborative actionable ideas that accelerate our transition to net zero. One outcome from the Climate Co-Lab series if The NetZeroToolkit, a free, online resource that SMEs can use to build carbon management strategies.

Edinburgh Science also shares its content and expertise internationally through Edinburgh Science Worldwide and operates a large-scale international programme of work. It regularly presents events overseas and is currently the Major Programming Partner of the annual Abu Dhabi Science Festival, helping to curate, produce and deliver the event. For international partners, the team at Edinburgh Science provide engaging content, curatorial advice on programming and business planning support, along with expert staff and training for local science communicators.

Mario Negri Research Institute milestones:

• 1963 - The Mario Negri Institute was founded, the first private Italian foundation entirely committed to scientific research
• 1970 – First clinical studies: 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
• 1984 – Research and the clinic working together. 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
• 1986 – Turning point in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases: we introduced into clinical practice a drug for treating patients following heart attack, which has saved millions of lives
• 1992 - Challenging rare diseases. The Institute opened the Aldo and Cele Daccò Clinical Research Centre for Rare Diseases. The researchers became a reference point for doctors and patients and families affected by rare diseases. So far, we have been involved in the care of 32,000 patients diagnosed with one of 1,000 rare diseases. We have found more than 900 genetic mutations that contribute to causing rare diseases, and in some cases have found treatments for them. In 2001 our Clinical Research Centre became the regional reference point for other centers in Lombardy
• 2002 – The goal of transplantation: a new Transplant Research Centre opened at the Daccò Centre with the aim to improve tolerance to transplanted organs
• Kidney disease – we have reduced the need for dialysis for patients with chronic kidney disease, improved quality of life for transplant by expanding the donor pool to include older donors
• Nervous system diseases – we have made several discoveries regarding the role that inflammation plays in range of neurological diseases, including epilepsy and Alzheimer’s disease, and suggested many therapeutic recommendations  
• 2007 – We developed a new drug, trabectedin, which has improved survival outcomes for patients with a rare form of sarcoma  
• 2013 – The Italian Ministry of Health 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
• 2019 – The world's first patient lives without anti-rejection drugs after a kidney transplant.

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