Our group historically originates from high energy particle physics, and in particular cosmic ray and neutrino physics. In these activities we have developed experience in Monte Carlo simulation. This allowed us to focus our attention to hadronic and nuclear interactions, giving us also the chance to learn about the application of nuclear physics to other disciplines, and in particular to medicine. In the last twenty years we have maturated some competences in particle therapy and related topics. In particular we have been mostly working on the relevant nuclear physics aspects, both at experimental and phenomenological level. In the same time, we have been also active in the field of those particle detection techniques which are of interest for therapy monitoring purposes.