Azienda Ospedaliera Ospedali Riuniti Villa Sofia – Cervello - AORC

The Villa Sofia-Cervello Hospital built in 1909 by the pharmacologist Dr. Vincenzo Cervello, was first conceived as a structure for the treatment of respiratory system diseases. In 1970 it became a General Hospital and with the latest Italian health reform it has become a regional reference structure for 2nd level emergency. Several medical and surgery specialties are available for the patients. Since September 2009 the V. Cervello Hospital joined together with the Villa Sofia Hospital forming the “Ospedali Riuniti Villa Sofia – Cervello” to get reorganized and to offer a more appropriate service in the public interest. The Hematology II with Thalassemia Div. is the Regional Reference Centre for the screening, prenatal diagnosis, molecular characterization and treatment of Thalassemia and Hemoglobinopathies in Sicily. The activity of the Division includes: more than 4,500 hemoglobin studies for the identification of thalassemia carriers, about 1,000 prenatal diagnosis on foetal blood samples, and 4,000 early prenatal diagnosis on chorionic villi samples, about 20,000 molecular characterisations of globin genes. Several studies on prenatal diagnosis, regulation of globin gene expression, pharmacological therapy for haemoglobinopathies, “in utero” hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for thalassemia, and gene therapy for thalassemia, have been carried out in collaboration with several groups that are leaders in the field.

Main tasks in the project

The Ospedali Riuniti Villa Sofia – Cervello (AORC) will contribute to the fulfilment of WP3 objectives in the establishment of the effect of deferiprone on human haemopoietic progenitors proliferation “in vitro”, by means of a colony-forming cells (CFC) assay.

In addition, AORC will participate in the clinical activities related to WP3, WP4 and WP5. For these activities AORC will act as reference recruitment centre for other Sicilian clinical centres participating in the study.

Azienda Ospedaliera Ospedali Riuniti Villa Sofia – Cervello
viale Strasburgo 233
90146 Palermo – Italy
Website