The Molecular Biology Laboratory in the local health authority’s (ASUGI) Anatomical Pathology Department has obtained EMQN 2023 Certification. The European Molecular Genetics Quality Network (EMQN) awarded this important European certification in recognition of the laboratory’s activities in the analysis of prognostic-predictive markers in the field of oncology.

The accreditation is crucial for authorising the purchase of very expensive drugs for patients.

In the past, ASUGI could only evaluate a small number of markers for a few types of tumours. The accreditation increases the number of markers and tumours the lab can analyse, guaranteeing more treatment possibilities.

This year, the Anatomical Pathology Laboratory has seen a significant increase in activity, and by the beginning of February 2024, the new state-of-the-art instrumentation that also allows for second-line oncological examinations should be up and running.

‘What has been achieved in terms of clinical oncology diagnostic services, provided for patients, has been made possible thanks to collaboration between hospital and university staff from the various laboratories within the Anatomical Pathology Department, allowing for an optimisation of the material used in analyses. The molecular laboratory staff have also played an essential role, contributing to the execution and interpretation of tests and working harmoniously with the support of clinical professionals across the various sectors involved. In addition, in this field, the Anatomical Pathology Department has been able to count on a sizeable contribution from LILT (an Italian foundation funding research into tumours) to equip itself with state-of-the-art equipment and research funding in order to develop the field of tumour biomarkers in liquid biopsy,' says Prof. Fabrizio Zanconati, professor of Anatomical Pathology at UniTS and Director of the Pathological Anatomy and Histology Unit.

On Saturday, 27 January, 20,000 AIRC volunteers will distribute in the squares little red oranges grown in Italy, honey and orange marmalade. The contributions collected will be used to fund cancer research.

The 2024 arancedellasalute.it campaign invites people to take concrete action to prevent cancer, with their lifestyle, and to make it more curable by supporting research. A mobilisation in which tens of thousands of students and supporters are also participating.

Numerous studies have shown the effectiveness of a healthy lifestyle in reducing the risk of cancer. Up to 40 per cent of new cancer cases are potentially preventable or more curable when action is taken on modifiable risk factors through individual behaviour: not smoking, physical activity, choosing a healthy, balanced diet, and adhering to recommended screening for early diagnosis.

Data on the population living in Italy have shown that about one third of adults have risk factors for developing cancer. About 33% of people are overweight and 10% obese, 31% are sedentary and 24% smoke. The most worrying numbers concern school children: about 39% are overweight and, of these, 17% are obese. These numbers are among the highest in Europe, mainly due to insufficient physical activity and a diet that has moved away from the principles of the Mediterranean diet.

UniTS participates in AIRCAMPUS

Since last year, UniTS has also been part of AIRCampus, the project dedicated to university students to introduce them to the reality of AIRC and spread awareness of the 'cancer' problem.

In the 2023/24 academic year, the university is organising 8 lectures on topics related to the Foundation's activities and, at the same time, of interest to students on various study courses.

The UniTS degree courses involved in AIRCampus are: Medicine and Surgery; Dentistry and Dental Prosthetics; Economics and Business Management; Physics; Functional Genomics; Primary Education Sciences; Scientific Computing and the Master's Degrees in Biomedical Engineering and Materials Engineering.

AIRC supports researchers under 40

Once again this year, AIRC is making more than 19 million euros available for talented oncology researchers under the age of 40, activating specific calls for proposals to accompany them at different stages of their careers.

This page has been temporarily translated using AI. A revised translation by the University Language Centre (CLA) will be uploaded soon.

The University of Trieste, on the occasion of Holocaust Memorial Day celebrated on January 27, commemorates the victims of the Holocaust, renewing its commitment to transmit knowledge of racial and political persecutions and genocide to the younger generation, perpetrated by the Nazi regime of the Third Reich and their allies.

Knowing and remembering to fight forgetfulness and indifference.

"Indifference is more guilty than violence itself," said Liliana Segre, a survivor of deportation to the Auschwitz concentration camp and a witness to horror. "It is the moral apathy of those who turn the other way: it happens today towards racism and other horrors of the world. Memory is valuable as a vaccine against indifference," urges the life senator, to whom the University of Trieste conferred an honorary degree in 2008.

Among the initiatives planned by the university to celebrate Holocaust Memorial Day, on Monday, January 22, the Department of Humanities will organize a meeting titled "History and exile: the case of the series 'Transatlantic,'" which will take place at 5:30 pm at Androna Campo Marzio 10, in the "Arduino Agnelli" Hall. The event will discuss the transposition of the themes of rescuing Jews in cinema and historical television series, starting from the famous television series dedicated to the events of Jewish refugees in occupied France during World War II. The discussion will involve University of Trieste professors Tullia Catalan and Massimiliano Spanu, along with Leonardo Gandini, who teaches History of Cinema at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia and has authored numerous publications on classical and contemporary cinema, with a particular focus on Hollywood production.

On Tuesday, January 23, at 5:30 pm, at the Museum of the Jewish Community of Trieste Carlo and Vera Wagner, Tullia Catalan, professor of Contemporary History, and Alessandro Carrieri, research fellow, will discuss with Giorgio Fabre, a scholar of twentieth-century political history and essayist, on the state of research on fascist anti-Semitism.

On Thursday, January 25, 2024, at the Teatro Miela in Trieste, the tenth edition of the multidisciplinary conference "Living with Auschwitz" will take place, held within the framework of the agreement between the University of Trieste and the cultural association Stazione Ernesto Nathan Rogers. At 3 pm, after the greetings from academic authorities, Miriam Spizzichino, the niece of Settimia Spizzichino, the only woman to survive the deportation to Auschwitz of 1023 civilians of Jewish origin, will open the proceedings. The event will include presentations by UniTS professors Mauro Barberis (IusLit), Sergia Adamo (DiSU), Giuseppe Ieraci (DiSPeS), Edoardo Milotti (DF), Sabina Passamonti (DSV), Francoise Ghislaine Favart (IusLit), Giovanni Fraziano, and Maurizio Prato, as well as the director of EUT Mauro Rossi. The event will be livestreamed.

The catalog of the exhibition "December 7, 1943: Destination Lager," in which the Department of Humanities participated, will be presented on January 31 at 5 pm at the Museo Revoltella Auditorium Marco Sofianopulo (via Diaz 27). The publication recounts the ongoing exhibition at the Risiera di San Sabba until June 9 and gathers all the texts and archival and photographic materials, integrating them with additional documentation, video interview transcriptions, names of deportees, and an essential bibliography. The catalog, produced in Italian, Slovenian, and English, will be available for free download from the web pages of the Museo della Risiera di San Sabba – Monumento Nazionale. Professor Tullia Catalan will participate in the presentation.

The collaboration between the University of Trieste and the association Deina APS continues within the Promemoria Auschwitz project, which will be offered again in 2024. Forty-eight UniTS students have been selected to participate in a "memory journey" at the end of a preparatory course on the themes of European history in the first half of the twentieth century, the persecution of Jews, and the Holocaust. The journey, scheduled for late February, will take them to Krakow, with visits to the Schindler Factory Museum and the remains of the Jewish ghetto, and to the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp.

The theme of Holocaust education is also the subject of a research grant activated by the Department of Humanities, which will continue in the coming years.

On Holocaust Memorial Day, January 27, the University of Trieste will illuminate the facade of the central building at Piazzale Europa in red.

This page has been temporarily translated using AI. A revised translation by the University Language Centre (CLA) will be uploaded soon.

Inaugurated two new laboratories in the field of quantum physics at the University of Trieste: the ArQuS - Artificial Quantum Systems Laboratory (VIDEO), where artificial quantum systems will be studied through the control of individual atoms, and the Quantum Communication and Information Laboratory (QCI - VIDEO), where research and technological development for new solutions in quantum communications over optical fiber and free space will be conducted.

The laboratories are located at the CNR premises in the Area Science Park, Basovizza campus, and are directed by Francesco Scazza, associate professor of material physics at the Department of Physics of UniTS, and Alessandro Zavatta, senior research scientist at the National Institute of Optics of CNR (INO-CNR).

These laboratories enrich the dedicated research facilities for the new master's curriculum in Quantum Science and Technologies, the curriculum in Material Physics, and the undergraduate Physics program. The University of Trieste boasts a recognized tradition in the field of quantum mechanics, supported by synergy with major international research institutions.

Friuli Venezia Giulia, and particularly Trieste with its university, plays a leading role in the field of quantum communications thanks to projects funded by the Region and coordinated by the University's "Quantum FVG" and "QuFree." The former aims to develop a regional fiber optic network for secure data transmission using quantum technology, with the associated QCI laboratory. The latter is an ambitious research program on quantum communication in the air and aims to pave the way for secure satellite connections.

ArQuS Laboratory - Cold atoms for quantum sciences and technologies

The ArQuS (Artificial Quantum Systems) Laboratory, the only one of its kind in Italy, is designed to create artificial quantum systems through precise control of individual ytterbium atoms. Through laser beams and magnetic fields, the atoms, identical by nature and very delicate, can be slowed in their movement and observed meticulously, offering a valuable "magnifying glass" for studying processes and phenomena otherwise inaccessible. This is made possible by state-of-the-art experimental equipment where atoms are isolated from the external environment and cooled to a temperature only a millionth of a degree above absolute zero, trapping them in literal traps based on laser light. Laser radiation, also a wave, if properly synchronized with the internal oscillation of the atom, can be used to control particles extremely precisely without destroying their quantum nature, but rather exploiting it for new technological applications.

Francesco Scazza, head of the laboratory, explains: "The quantum systems of cold atoms realized in the ArQuS laboratory can be used as prototypes for studying the interaction of a large number of quantum particles, creating so-called quantum simulators. Precise control over individual atoms can also be exploited to generate highly correlated states of matter, such as entangled states of many particles, an essential resource for future quantum computers and atomic clocks."

QCI Laboratory - Quantum networks for maximum security of information systems

The QCI laboratory serves research and technological development of new solutions for quantum communications over optical fiber and aims to train students in physics and engineering at the University of Trieste while collaborating with major research and training institutions in the field.

The field of quantum information, a new discipline born from the intersection of information science and quantum mechanics, is indeed a promising area that has seen significant progress in recent years.

Thanks to the instruments in the laboratory, which allow the generation of quantum cryptographic keys and experimentation with ultra-secure communications, researchers aim to lay the groundwork for creating true quantum networks for data manipulation and transmission capable of ensuring maximum security.

Angelo Bassi, full professor of theoretical physics, models, and mathematical methods at UniTS and coordinator of the projects that led to the creation of the laboratory, emphasizes: "While in traditional computer networks, data can be intercepted, in a quantum network, this is impossible: any intrusion would be immediately detected, a certainty guaranteed by the principles of quantum mechanics. Quantum communication systems have immense potential and strategic application scenarios in political and commercial contexts."

Alessandro Zavatta, head of the laboratory, adds: "Quantum communications represent an advanced and highly secure approach to information transmission, exploiting the peculiar characteristics of quantum physics. In our laboratory, thanks to the use of cutting-edge optical instrumentation, we control and manipulate individual photons, the building blocks of light, with extraordinary precision.

This ability to handle light at the level of single photons allows us to implement secure and inviolable communication schemes. In the QCI laboratory, we are currently developing innovative systems for the quantum distribution of cryptographic keys and for direct quantum communications, both in optical fiber and free space. It is encouraging to note that our commitment is not limited to countering current threats but extends to preventing potential risks arising from future technologies, such as the progress of quantum computers. By continuing on this path, we will contribute significantly to ensuring the security of communications even in the face of increasingly complex scenarios.