The IMT School among the winners of the "Ricerca Finalizzata" call for proposals

The IMT School contributed to the research project dedicated to the study of autism, which has won the Ministry of Health’s 2024 "Ricerca Finalizzata"call for proposals. Together with the IRCCS Stella Maris of Pisa, the project leader, and the IRCCS Eugenio Medea of Lecco, the IMT School’s research group has been awarded 450 000 euros in funding for the DAPHNE research project – “Disentangling Autism PHenotype trajectories through NEuroimaging: toward early individualised healthcare”.

The focus of the research is to understand and predict developmental trajectories in preschool-aged children with autism, a condition whose outcomes are often variable and difficult to predict. “The DAPHNE project aims to improve our understanding of neurodevelopmental trajectories in autism, with a particular focus on those that cannot be explained by behavioural observation alone,” explains Marco Pagani, Assistant Professor at MoMiLab della Scuola IMT. 

The contribution of the IMT School research group, in particular, will focus on identifying quantitative predictors using neurocomputational methods: “We will study a wide range of brain signals obtained via magnetic resonance imaging, integrating them with phenotypic information,” says Pagani.

The project involves analysing a large cohort of children, with the aim of translating data on brain structure and function into practical tools for better predicting outcomes and delivering increasingly personalised medical interventions - an important step to ensure a better quality of life for children with autism and their families.