GSD Foundation

Founded in 1995, GSD Foundation supports and implements scientific projects that are chosen according to the criteria of priority for the present and the future of people’s health. GSD Foundation is a non-profit organization that aims to promote scientific research in the field of biomedical sciences, in particular research on cardiovascular diseases. To guarantee everyone’s well-being, preserve life and break the risk of developing a disease down to zero, GSD Foundation is working on several initiatives:

implementation of specific cutting-edge scientific projects;
clinical application of innovative diagnostic and therapeutic methods;
awareness-raising and prevention activities.

What we do?

Doctors and researchers team up to find effective solutions for the most important diseases of our century.
Prevention is essential to reduce the risk of developing a disease.
Through awareness-raising initiatives, the Foundation fights against the disease by dissemination of the guidelines for a healthy lifestyle and therefore spreads the culture of well-being.

Our projects

COR: Italian research on heart disease

COR is a project aimed at prevention, scientific research and awareness-raising on cardiovascular diseases.

Project’s goals are: reduce number of deaths and accidents of the cardiovascular origin and provide a better and longer life with a healthy heart.

Since 1957 Gruppo San Donato is specialized in cardiovascular diseases, developing and significantly improving diagnostic, surgical and therapeutic techniques. Today, GSD is a recognized reference centre for treatment of heart pathologies. Gruppo San Donato continues to constantly invest in prevention and improvement of the quality of life.

Inform to prevent

Holding awareness-raising events, COR and GSD Foundation aim at reaching as many people as possible to narrate about heart functioning, cardiovascular diseases, its symptoms, and main risk factors.

Contribution to the research

Scientific research helps us to get better. Through the COR Project GSD Foundation promotes research on biomaterials, new technologies and study of surgical outcomes. Thanks to COR, earlier diagnoses, targeted and effective therapies will be offered to more people.

Ongoing studies and projects

Computational and 3D simulation laboratory on cardiovascular diseases
Creation of a statistical database for cardiac surgery
Mitral insufficiency and heart failure
Cardiac magnetic resonance (MR) stress testing in patients with total coronary occlusion
The CARMA study: bio-molecular bases of myocardial fibrosis in cardiomyopathies
MicroRNA-210: an allied potential for the treatment of acute peripheral ischemia

EAT: sustainable nutrition

Our Mission: Importance of prevention tomorrow’s healthcare

By now, it has been widely recognized that in order to live longer and better, it is necessary to lead a healthy lifestyle complemented by a well-balanced diet. However, maintaining this lifestyle is not always easy.

For the first time in history, new generations may spend more years in bad health than their parents. The main cause for this is: overweight, obesity and diabetes. The only way to combat this phenomenon is to prevent and educate new generations to lead a healthier diet and lifestyle.

Various European studies have shown that every euro invested in prevention saves the National Healthcare System significantly more in the long-term. It is, therefore, impossible to think of tomorrow’s healthcare in Italy without giving a central role to prevention.

Being a pioneer in the healthcare sector and with this objective in mind, in 2009, the San Donato Hospital Group launched the EAT project - a teen nutrition education that focuses its attention on the theme of sustainable nutrition, both for the body and for the environment. The Foundation of the San Donato Group, together with GSD’s physicians, have thus entered the schools to talk to children in their place of learning, raising awareness of a healthy diet and promoting physical activity.

Given the excellent results, obtained and verified by a scientific study, Project EAT has therefore become not only a program aimed at teenagers, but is also a project of food education aimed at everyone and an important part of San Donato’s corporate culture, able to make people understand the importance of nutritious food and choosing good-quality products, extending to everyone who is willing to embrace a sustainable lifestyle.

EAT Objectives:

Prevention: promoting sustainability principles for the planet and for our health;
Food education: understanding the nutritional basics and consciously choosing healthier foods;
Promotion of a healthy lifestyle: being physically active and avoiding potentially dangerous food additives;
Scientific validity: Our work is validated with extensive studies and has been published internationally;
Multidisciplinary approach: many doctors and professionals provide their knowledge to help enrich and update EAT continuously;
Balanced Nutrition: EAT has developed a new tool for healthy eating – the balanced plate.

Take steps toward healthy living with Gruppo San Donato today.

Research at the San Raffaele hospital

San Raffaele Research Hospital was founded in 1971 to provide innovative treatments and therapies for the most complex and difficult health conditions. For the first time it was recognized with IRCCS status (Institute for Scientific Hospitalization and Care) by Italian Ministry of Health in 1972 for its commitment to diabetes research. Recognition was extended on the entire field of molecular medicine in 2011.

San Raffaele’s research embraces the entire biomedical innovation process: from basic laboratory discoveries to the first clinical studies on humans.

Multidisciplinary approach, profound clinical activity and use of cutting-edge technologies have made San Raffaele a point of reference in Europe and in the world for study of vast range of diseases and for development of innovative therapies.

San Raffaele was the first in the world to use stem cells for corneal transplantation, to perform gene therapy for the treatment of a rare immune disease (Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome) and to perform pancreatic islet transplants in severe cases of diabetes. In 2017 the first pilot trial in the world started to test safety and tolerability of the infusion of neural stem cells in patients with progressive multiple sclerosis. In 2019 was launched the first clinical trial in the world (phase I) for CAR-T anti-cd44v6 therapy, developed in the laboratories of the institute to treat Acute Myeloid Leukemia.