Ethics, research, finance: the new frontiers of the medicine of the future

If it is true - as Saint Augustine taught - that 'as we are, so are the times' this is a season of (dutiful) engagement. Of all knowledge. To respond to the needs of an increasingly long-living population. Which is confronted with the ever-increasing questions of bioethics. But which also enjoys - as never before - more possibilities offered by research. Provided it is adequately supported. By the public and the private sector. Thirty years of the Foundation Veneto Institute of Molecular Medicine thus become the occasion for a collective call to responsibility, in a day articulated between round tables, the lectio magistralis of the Nobel Prize winner for medicine, William G. Kaelin Jr. and scientific reports on the Vimm's projects. Between ethics, scientific integrity and contemporary conflicts, spiritual dimension, AI, private investment, partnership models.

"We have achieved a great team effort, developed," says Vimm president, Giustina Destro, "progressively, with the institutions at our side. The idea, shared with Francesco Pagano, of creating a multifunctional research centre has grown into a centre of excellence that celebrates three decades of life at the Cini Foundation in Venice, in a dialogue around Ethics, Research and Finance. The story of Vimm today is also the story of 300 researchers for a medicine that increasingly focuses on man in his entirety. What we are and the environment in which we move; ethical values and the questions of artificial intelligence.

Since the algorithm, at least for the moment, remains a 'power without consciousness', according to mathematician Alfio Quarteroni's definition, it is 'on people and needs' rather than on tools that research and science must focus, according to the invitation of Daniele Franco, president of the Cini Foundation. The needs of the body and those of the mind. The limits, the questions. The principles, to be transmitted to young researchers. The Vimm Foundation's new code of ethics, illustrated by the director Nicola Elvassore, is addressed to them. Because it is never just a matter of formal protocols to be observed, but of concrete effects on the lives of the most fragile in particular. "Scientific research is not a neutral activity.

Every study project incorporates - this is the meaning of the reflections - value choices that concern not only the method, but the very meaning of the investigation'. "Ethics must be the light that guides all paths", the indication of Sandra Gallina, Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety of the European Commission, who recalls the encyclical of Leon XIV: "It stimulates us to focus on the regulatory framework governing Artificial Intelligence and the management of biomedical data". Rather than 'disarming AI', as one often hears people say, it is the training of those who create the algorithm that we need to talk about, according to Monsignor Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Fondazione Età Grande, who recalls the other side of longevity: a population with more and more needs.

If life is getting longer, it is also thanks to the discoveries of science, which take time, investment and trust. And they go through mistakes and trial and error. An opposite conception to the politics of the present. It is no coincidence, notes Francesco Micheli, president and CEO of Genextra Spa, speaking at the round table moderated by Ferruccio de Bortoli, that 'one of Italia's limitations is the great fear of failure'.