The Unit is involved in the study of systemic and cellular iron regulation in physiological conditions and in genetic disorders of iron metabolism. The central aim is the understanding of the regulation of the liver peptide hepcidin, the key regulator of iron, in inherited disorders leading to iron overload (hereditary hemochromatosis) and to genetic iron deficiency. The Unit collaborates to the Val Borbera genetic isolate project in order to identify determinants of quantitative variations of iron parameters in normals, as potential genetic modifiers of the phenotype of iron disorders (hemochromatosis and anemia), with the Innate Immunity and Tissue Remodelling Unit on macrophage iron metabolism in inflammation and with the Bonetwork Program of the Division to study the potential role of iron in myeloma cells. External collaborations include University of Verona (Domenico Girelli), University of Milano Bicocca (Alberto Piperno) for clinical trials in hemochromatosis patients, UCLA (Tomas Ganz and Ella Nemeth) on hepcidin evaluation in diseases, Utah University (Jerry Kaplan and Ivana De Domenico) on zebrafish models of iron disorders.