Understanding the architecture of complex disorders such as hypertension, diabetes, obesity, cancer and neurodegenerative diseases is a major public health challenge.
Environmental factors are not sufficient to explain why persons are affected and others are not. Definitively unique to each disease, the susceptibility models underlying all these complex diseases involve both environmental and genetic risk factors in strong interaction. 
The aim of the Genetic Park of Cilento e Vallo di Diano project is to identify gentic risk factors of susceptibility for common diseases using isolated populations of Cilento area. This approach is based on the hypothesis that, in these populations, a simplification of the complexity of genetic models underlying these diseases is expected. In fact, the features of isolated populations - small number of founders, long-lasting isolation and a high rate of consanguineous and endogamous marriages - may reduce the number of susceptibility genes and increase genetic homogeneity. In addition, as individuals share a similar life-style and environment, the relative weight of environmental variation can be controlled. The comprehension of the genetics of common diseases is a fundamental step in the search of new therepeutic strategies and prevention approaches.