Carmelina Ruggiero is head of the Bioengineering and Medical Informatics Laboratory at the Department of Informatics, Systems and Telematics, University of Genova. She is full professor of Bioengineering at the University of Genova. Her particular research interests which will contribute to this project are: medical and biological informatics; molecular and cellular engineering, protein structure determination. With special reference to medical and biological informatics her work relates to medical knowledge based systems, multimedia data-bases and decision support systems, knowledge modelling for automatic reasoning and information retrieval. The main applications are in chemotherapy, metabolism, radiology, motor rehabilitation, medical records for cardiology; telematic applications to home care, bacteriology and virology. She also has a great experience in managing national and international projects in which she collaborated both with basic biomedical and industrial researchers. Specifically she has participated to the EPIC project, within the AIM programme of the Third Framework; and to the following projects of the IV Framework: Bioartificial Organ and Tissues (Biomed 2); CONQUEST and ECOLE/GRIP (ACTION cluster, Telematics Applications); Advanced technology in image analysis for telemedicine (LEONARDO); BREAK-IT (Info 2000). In the present V Framework, this laboratory is involved in the following projects: BITES, Neural Tissue Engineering and ASIARESIST (Quality of Life), ADHESTOP (GROWTH) and Plants in European Masterpieces (Culture 2000). She is software coordinator of Culture 2000 project Plants in European Masterpieces.

Mauro Giacomini is professor of Bioengineering at the University of Genova. He has more than 10 years experience of application of computer science techniques in problems regarding medical, biological and environmental fields. His main areas of interests are knowledge-based systems, artificial neural networks and database of medical and environmental interest. He is software designer of Culture 2000 project Plants in European Masterpieces.

Stefania Bertone is head of R.I.L.A.B. S.r.l. a company recently constituted by a group of Ph.D.s characterised by a high level of interdisciplinarity who have already been worked together for many years at the University of Genova. She is visiting professor of Microbiology at the University of Genova. Her main interests are: Artificial Neural Network and data base applications in environmental, biological and medical fields; laboratory automation tools; microbial communities adherent to marine macro-organisms and bacterial strains hydrocarbon degrading; immunopathology. In the present V Framework, RILAB is involved in two projects as contractor ASIARESIST and BIOFILTERS (Quality of Life) and in the following projects as subcontractor: BITES and Neural Tissue Engineering (Quality of Life), ADHESTOP (GROWTH) and Plants in European Masterpieces (Culture 2000). She is responsible of software implementation of Culture 2000 project Plants in European Masterpieces.

Alessandra Toncini Cabella is an Art Historian at the ligurian Soprintendenza per il Patrimonio Storico Artistico e Demoetnoantropologico (Fine Arts State Department). She was born in 1968, graduated at the Faculty of Arts, Genova (1992/1993); master in Medieval and Modern History of Art, Genova (1996/1997). She has about sixty scientific publications about historical-artistical-critical-iconographical themes on her credit. At the University (Faculty of Arts) she has got the dean appointment "Cultore della materia" and is involved in the course "Modern History of Art in Liguria". She has been organizing the historical Archive of the Pallavicinos. She is member of the Cultural Commission of Sovereign Military Order of Malta, Ligurian Delegation, as an art critic. She gives lectures in follow up courses for school teachers. She collaborates with the main cultural institutions holding lectures, courses, itinerant lessons about artistical and iconographical themes, the same she does in a TV program twice in a month. She is now going to publish a book about the genoese baroque painter Paolo Gerolamo Piola and organising in France (Bastia 2005) an exhibition about the painter Domenico Piola and an european meeting about the artistic relationships between Genova and Corse in the Baroque age. She is responsible of painting selection of Culture 2000 project Plants in European Masterpieces.

Luigi Minuto is Curator of the University of Genoa Botanic Garden (Italy) since 1989. He is a member and he regularly takes part to the activities of the Società Botanica Italiana; since 1994 he is councilor of the Ligurian Section; since 1997 heis member of the council of the Working Group for Botanical and Historical Gardens. International Diploma in Botanic Garden Management from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, UK in 1998. He has collaborated with seminars and lectures to the teaching of different Universitarian coures of the Biological Science Degree Coursese of the University of Genoa. His research work is about systematic, geobotany and historical botany. The work is carried on according to some national research programs (Ministry and NCR) and it have been brought the publication of many scientific works (54). The research work takes the following items: Investigation of some autocton species or groups of species from the systematic point of view; ecology, taxonomy, dynamic and conservation of the vegetation of the coastal belt of the Mediterranean region in Liguria; ecology, floristic aspects, and vegetation in urban and historical gardens of the Ligurian Riviera; Botany History; Botanical Gardens and Biodiversity conservation; Pharmaceutical botany and Ethnobotany. He is responsible of plant identification in paintings within Culture 2000 project Plants in European Masterpieces.

Angela Bisio has two degrees, in Pharmacy and in Pharmaceutical Chemistry, and has a Ph.D. in Science and Technology of Medicinal Plants. She performs studies of phytochemistry, ethnobotany, plant morphology and histochemistry on in vivo and in vitro tissues. Particularly she has studied plants of the genera Salvia and Brugmansia. She is responsible of etnobotany research of Culture 2000 project Plants in European Masterpieces.