Transcriptomic and proteomic analysis of fibrotic diseases.

Within the HEAL ITALIA Project, the research programme aims to identify shared or disease-specific molecular pathways and biomarkers associated with fibrotic diseases, with a particular focus on systemic sclerosis. The study will investigate the composition and activation states of immune cells using single-cell transcriptomics and cell-surface protein profiling. Newly generated data will be integrated with existing datasets to expand the cohort and strengthen downstream analyses. RNA sequencing and protein profiling data will be analysed using bioinformatic approaches to identify cell populations, differences in cell abundance and gene/protein expression, as well as biological pathways and molecular signatures associated with fibrosis. The ultimate goal is to identify cellular and molecular features capable of discriminating between different disease groups and supporting improved disease characterization.