The nature of dark matter from properties of galaxies

(Λ) cold dark matter (CDM) has become the standard theory of cosmological structure formation, within which cosmological measurements are confronted and interpreted. Although its predictions appear to be in good agreement with data on large scale structure, a number of discrepancies with data emerges on the galactic and sub-galactic scales. In this Thesis we investigate the distribution of dark matter in late Hubble type galaxies and we address the key challenges of galaxy formation and evolution in the (Λ)CDM scenario by means of the kinematics of a sample of dwarf disk galaxies. We develop tests based on the mass modelling of rotation curves for the validation of dark matter halo models on galactic scales. These tests have been applied in order to investigate the core-cusp controversy, and to analyze galactic rotation curves in the framework of modified Newtonian dynamics. We also derived the universal rotation curve of dwarf disk galaxies, the latter are crucial objects in testing the (Λ)CDM scenario.