Results were presented in Trieste from the cross-border clinical research project X-BRAIN.net - Network for cross-border cooperation aimed at the rehabilitation of stroke patients with innovative technologies, funded by the Interreg Italy-Slovenia Programme with a total budget of €750,000.

Coordinated by the Department of Medicine, Surgery and Health Sciences at the University of Trieste, the project involved the participation of the Science and Research Centre Koper (ZRS Koper), the Neurological Clinic of ASUGI’s Cattinara Hospital and the Neurology Unit of Izola General Hospital.

The aim of the project is to make stroke rehabilitation more effective, a crucial challenge for today's healthcare system, by activating a targeted protocol in the very first days, enhanced by the use of innovative technologies. ‘The multimodal approach,’ explains project coordinator Professor Gianni Biolo of the University of Trieste, ‘combines nutritional integration, cognitive training through virtual reality and prehabilitation activities to ensure the maintenance of muscle mass and strength and to modulate the reorganisation processes within the central nervous system that are typical of immobility, promoting a more rapid recovery at the end of the period of inactivity.’

The experimental phase was conducted on healthy volunteers, with an average age of 68, who had to stay in bed for ten days. ‘From a nutritional point of view,’ continues Biolo, ‘we intervened by increasing protein intake from 0.8 to 1.4 grams per kilogram of body weight per day and introducing a daily intake of 3.5 grams of the amino acid leucine, in order to ensure the maintenance of muscle mass.’

‘Through immersive and multisensory environments,’ explains Dr Luka Šlosar of the Science and Research Centre Koper, ‘the volunteers underwent mental training that preserved the flow of neuromuscular information and modulated the reorganisation processes within the central nervous system. In this way, it was possible to promote the maintenance of muscle strength and accelerate recovery times.’

‘Strokes are one of the leading causes of disability worldwide,’ emphasises Professor Paolo Manganotti, director of the Neurological Clinic at Cattinara Hospital, ‘with consequences that profoundly affect daily life. Intervening in the first few days with targeted rehabilitation programmes is essential for recovering compromised functions and improving quality of life. Thanks to the project, we were able to set up an active room entirely dedicated to the acute phase, equipped with virtual reality devices that allow for safe, stimulating and personalised exercises. The immersive and interactive aspect increases patient motivation and consistency, which are decisive factors in a successful recovery.’

A portable, inexpensive sensor capable of detecting the presence of chemical pollutants (PFAS) in water in just a few minutes. This is the result of a study coordinated by Marcello Berto of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (UniMoRe), in collaboration with Pierangelo Metrangolo of the Polytechnic University of Milan (PoliMi) and Lucia Pasquato of the University of Trieste (UniTS). The research has just been published in the journal Advanced Functional Materials and is part of the PRIN-Nifty project funded by the Italian Ministry of Universities and Research (MUR).

PFAS, poly- and perfluorinated alkyl substances, are chemical compounds used in numerous consumer products, from non-stick pans to waterproof fabrics. Resistant to degradation, they accumulate in living tissues and spread into the environment – water, soil and air – even over long distances, making them one of the most insidious pollutants for health today.

The sensor developed by the three universities responds to this need: it is based on an organic electrolyte modulation transistor, capable of distinguishing different types of PFAS thanks to a special molecular coating designed by the UniTS research group.

'The heart of the sensor,' explains Lucia Pasquato, professor of organic chemistry at the Department of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, 'is a gold electrode coated with a mixed self-assembled monolayer (SAM) consisting of two types of molecules. Our group has been working on these coatings for over 15 years, particularly those containing fluorinated molecules, and we have developed the expertise to design them in such a way as to make them stable, reproducible and effective. In this case, the aim was to create a SAM that would bring the water to be analysed into contact with the electrode and at the same time be able to interact with PFAS. To do this, we combined two components: fluorinated thiols, which promote the recognition of contaminants thanks to fluorine-fluorine interactions, and hydrophilic thiols, which improve the wettability of the surface. This combination, together with the expertise of the UniMoRe and PoliMi groups, has resulted in a portable, inexpensive and high-performance sensor.’ 

The full article on Advanced Functional Materials

The DIGILAFS project (Digitisation of the Antonio Fonda Savio Legacy), promoted by the University of Trieste’s Library and Museum Services, seeks to enhance and preserve the documentary section of the Antonio Fonda Savio Legacy, held within the Writers and Regional Culture Archive.

DIGILAFS is one of the projects funded by the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region as part of the regional call for proposals for “Interventions aimed at promoting the use of ICT solutions and augmented reality for the benefit of cultural operators” under the PR FESR 2021-2027 funds.

The approved €63,440 of funding will cover all expenses for the duration of the project, which is set to last 24 months. Project activities began on 1 July and will include the purchase of a professional planetary scanner for the purpose of document digitisation.

The documentary section of the Antonio Fonda Savio Legacy consists of personal documents and heterogeneous materials of particular importance, including a collection of letters by Pietro Nobile (414 items), historiographical documents relating to the world wars, family documents, records, postcards, photographs and 313 historic documents (parchments, papal bulls, proclamations).

The collection’s variety and historical interest coupled with the extremely fragile condition of most of the paper documents mean that its digitisation and online promotion are essential if this particular piece of cultural heritage is to be valorised and made accessible to potential interested parties.

The long-term objective of the project is to complete the digitisation of the cultural heritage preserved in the Archive of Writers and Regional Culture and, in the short term, to scan at least 40% of the documentary section of the Fonda Savio Legacy, in order to make it accessible to the public via the regional portal and the University Museum Services portal.

The EAES Research Grant has been awarded to Professor Silvia Palmisano, Associate Professor of General Surgery at the University of Trieste, and her team, for the project Teaching Rectal Surgery through Artificial Intelligence Navigation – TRAIN Study. This is an international recognition conferred by the European Association for Endoscopic Surgery (EAES).

The study, which involves an international network of experts, aims to enhance training in rectal surgery through the integration of artificial intelligence–based navigation systems.

Founded in 1990, the EAES is one of the leading international organizations in the field of endoscopic surgery and related interventional techniques, engaged in promoting training, research, and development activities, as well as organizing high-level scientific congresses.

The grant, worth a total of €30,000 and awarded annually to two or three carefully selected projects, supports clinical and translational research activities to promote safe and high-quality minimally invasive surgery.

For Professor Palmisano, who also serves as Medical Director of the Complex Structure of Surgical Clinic at the Giuliano Isontina University Health Authority (ASUGI), the award of the grant “highlights the value of teamwork and international collaboration.”

Starting from the academic year 2025/26, the University of Trieste will activate a second Bachelor’s Degree in Dental Hygiene at the Pordenone campus, alongside the one already offered in Trieste. The publication of the admission call for the Health Professions degree programs confirms the new developments in the educational offer anticipated in recent weeks.

The total number of places for the Dental Hygiene degree program (CLID) will therefore increase from last year’s 30 to 50, equally distributed between Trieste and Pordenone. This further expands the University’s presence in Pordenone, following the launch of the Dietetics degree program last year.

Separate rankings will be drawn up for the Trieste and Pordenone Dental Hygiene programs: applicants may indicate both campuses and, if eligible, may be admitted to their second choice through ranking shifts.

For the a.y. 2025/26, UniTS has planned the training of 460 future healthcare professionals, through the activation of ten first-level degree programs: Health Assistance (40 places, Gorizia), Dietetics (30 places, Pordenone), Physiotherapy (40 places, Trieste), Dental Hygiene with 25 places in Trieste and 25 in Pordenone, Nursing (200 places, Trieste), Speech Therapy (30 places, Trieste), Environmental and Workplace Prevention Techniques (20 places, Gorizia), and Psychiatric Rehabilitation Techniques (30 places, Trieste).

Among the inter-university programs with the University of Udine, which alternate annually between the two institutions, this year the Midwifery degree program returns to Trieste, with 20 available places, four more than in the previous UniTS call (2023). At UniUD, the Biomedical Laboratory Techniques and Medical Radiology Techniques for Imaging and Radiotherapy degree programs will be offered, each with 40 places available.

In addition, the new rules regulating admission to Master’s Degree programs in Medicine, Dentistry, and Veterinary Medicine provide for reserved quotas of up to 20% of the planned places in related health profession degree programs, available to candidates who are not admitted in the merit ranking at the end of the filter semester. At the University of Trieste, this will allow for up to 40 additional enrollments in Nursing, 8 in Health Assistance, and 4 in Environmental and Workplace Prevention Techniques.

Applications must be submitted exclusively online by 1:00 p.m. on 28 August, according to the procedures indicated in the official call. Each applicant may select up to three different degree programs, for which they will be considered in the rankings.

The admission test, common to all degree programs, will take place on Monday, 8 September 2025 in Trieste, at the Piazzale Europa campus (buildings H3 and C1), starting at 11:00 a.m., with identification procedures beginning at 8:30 a.m. The test will last 100 minutes and will consist of 60 multiple-choice questions, covering reading skills and acquired knowledge, logical reasoning and problem solving, biology, chemistry, physics, and mathematics.

The Italian Ministry of Universities and Research has granted Maurizio Prato the prestigious title of Professor Emeritus.

The decree, signed by Minister Anna Maria Bernini on 5th August 2025, recognises Maurizio Prato’s extraordinary academic and scientific career as a former full professor of Organic Chemistry at the Department of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Trieste.

The Emeritus Professorship is the crowning achievement of an extremely successful career full of awards. Prof. Prato began his career in 1983 at the University of Padua and continued from 1992 at the University of Trieste, first as an associate professor and, from 2000, as a full professor, until his retirement in 2023.

A member of the Accademia dei Lincei and Ikerbasque Research Professor at CIC biomaGUNE in San Sebastián (Spain), Maurizio Prato has made fundamental and interdisciplinary contributions to the field of nanoscience, particularly in the design and synthesis of carbon nanostructures for applications in bio-nanotechnology and in the conversion and storage of solar energy. 

His research has become an important point of reference for the scientific community thanks to his work on innovative, controlled and reproducible synthetic protocols and analytical methods for the functionalisation and design of carbon nanostructures – an area of research which, in recent years, has also been extended to include graphene and carbon dots. His contributions have significantly advanced the understanding and control of the chemistry of carbon nanostructures, placing them at the centre of a number of developments in technology.

Prof. Prato has received numerous national and international awards, including the prestigious Raffaele Piria Medal awarded in 2024 by the Italian Chemistry Society, reserved for scholars who have honoured Italian organic chemistry and represent a continuation of its distinguished traditions. He has also obtained significant research funding, including two ERC Advanced Grants, in 2008 and 2020, and was appointed a member of the Accademia dei Lincei in 2010, a member of the European Academy of Sciences in 2013, the Academia Europaea in 2015, the Venetian Academy of Sciences, Letters and Arts in 2018, the National Academy of Inventors (USA) in 2021 and the Royal Academy of Sciences of Spain in 2022. He is an honorary professor at Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China.

Over the years, Prof. Prato has formed a veritable school. His research group at the University of Trieste has trained over 230 students, PhD students, post-docs and visiting professors, many of whom come from abroad. Numerous former members of his group have embarked on successful scientific careers and now hold prestigious positions in high profile universities and research centres. The success of his colleagues and students is a testament to his ability to inspire and guide young scientists towards innovative and unexplored paths.

His intense research activity has led him to publish over 800 articles in high-impact international journals, with a total of over 82,000 citations and an h-index of 132 (Scopus). He has conducted research at Texas Tech University, Lubbock, USA (1980), University College, Dublin, Ireland (1983), Yale University, New Haven, USA (1986-87), and the University of California, Santa Barbara, USA (1991-92). He was a visiting professor at the Chemistry Departments of the École Normale Supérieure in Paris in 2001, the University of Namur, Belgium, in 2010, the University of Strasbourg in 2014 and the University of Mons (Belgium) in 2018. 

Maurizio Prato has also contributed to the community at the University of Trieste by holding important institutional roles. He was Head of the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, leading the merge with the Department of Chemistry in 2010, Vice Dean of the Faculty of Pharmacy from 2002 to 2013, PhD Coordinator for the Pharmaceutical Sciences programme for two three-year periods, and Vice PhD Coordinator for the Chemistry programme for an additional two three-year periods.

A chemist and scientist of the highest calibre, Maurizio Prato is internationally recognised for his scientific contributions, but also for his humanity and kindness. The ministerial conferral of the title of Professor Emeritus is a well-deserved recognition of an extraordinary career which has contributed significantly to strengthening the prestige of the Department of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences and our university, both nationally and internationally.

Rector Donata Vianelli congratulates Prof. Prato on this important recognition, expressing gratitude for his contribution to the scientific prestige, internationalisation and, more generally, growth of the University of Trieste on behalf of the entire academic community.

On August 10, Pio Nodari passed away. He was a former Full Professor of Economic and Political Geography and Dean of the Faculty of Economics at the University of Trieste from 2000 to 2003.

The Department of Economics, Business, Mathematics and Statistics "Bruno de Finetti" (DEAMS) remembers him for his academic work, carried out with great passion and dedication, and for his political commitment, which made him a leading figure in the civic and political life of Trieste.

Professor Nodari’s teaching activity was primarily dedicated to undergraduate and doctoral degree courses within the Faculty of Economics.

His scientific production focused mainly on the study of migration phenomena, but also addressed a wide range of themes and disciplines, such as territorial planning, sustainable economic and tourism development, economic and political dynamics in the north-eastern border area of Italy and the Balkans, political-economic territorial organization processes of the European Union, and the study and development of cartography and Geographic Information Systems applied to economic decision-making and territorial planning. In this context, it is worth recalling his promotion of the interdepartmental centre of excellence in telegeomatics “GeoNetLab.”

For many years, he led the working group of the Association of Italian Academic Geographers (A.Ge.I.) on foreign immigration to Italy, effectively coordinating the national inter-university research on the subject, benefiting over the years from PRIN funding—reserved for projects of significant national interest—and from CNR grants.

He was an tireless promoter of initiatives aimed at enhancing research activities, with particular attention to involving and supporting young emerging scholars. In this spirit, in addition to creating the Laboratory of Economic and Political Geography—still active at DEAMS—he was among the founders of the “Ezio Vanoni” Centre for Economic and Political Studies in Trieste and the “Giorgio Valussi” Centre for Tourism Studies in Gorizia.

He was a mentor to more than one generation of students, many of whom have gone on to hold academic positions at the University of Trieste and other universities.

Pio Nodari was also the organizer of many national and international seminars, meetings and conferences, including the Italian–Romanian Colloquia, and numerous events held as part of Interreg Italy–Slovenia projects.

His commitment and the esteem he enjoyed within the Italian academic geography community are also evidenced by the fact that he served for many years as an elected member of the A.Ge.I. Governing Council.

Those who worked with him remember him with respect, affection and gratitude.

The Department of Life Sciences (DSV) at the University of Trieste is a partner in a project that uses cutting-edge technology to reconstruct the environmental evolution of the Venice lagoon through the analysis of historical and contemporary macroalgae. 

Coordinated by Professor Stefano Loppi of the University of Siena in an Italian first, the initiative involves use of a new high-precision X-ray instrument, recently acquired with NRRP funds by the University of Siena. The instrument allows metal content in samples to be detected without damaging them.

The University of Trieste working group is made up of Professors Annalisa Falace (Environmental and Applied Botany) and Stefano Martellos (Systematic Botany), with the collaboration of PhD students Alessandra Metalli and Linda Seggi (PhD programme in Environment and Life). 

The UniTS team's activity focuses on three main areas: collecting the macroalgae currently present in the lagoon (already carried out in June), providing specialist expertise in algae taxonomy and biology, and scientifically enhancing particularly historical museum collections.

The study will focus on over 200 algae samples dating back to the 1930s, kept in the Vatova-Schiffner algae collection at the Natural History Museum of Venice under the care of Raffaella Trabucco, which will be compared with current specimens collected by the Trieste research group.

‘This is the first time in Italy that this technology has been applied to herbarium samples of macroalgae,’ emphasises Professor Stefano Martellos. ‘The analyses are completely non-invasive and allow unique and irreplaceable museum collections to be preserved, expanding their research potential.’

‘Macroalgae are excellent bioindicators,’ adds Martellos, ‘and analysing their chemical composition over a period of almost a century allows us to accurately reconstruct the impact of human activity on the lagoon ecosystem, providing valuable data for more informed environmental management.’

‘The potential is enormous,’ comments Professor Loppi, project coordinator. ‘We can rewrite the environmental history of these areas, making a scientific heritage that has been little explored until now accessible to the public.’

The project will be completed by the end of the year and the results will be presented at two important international scientific events: the 9th International Plant Science Conference and the 3rd Conference of the International Association for Biomonitoring of Environmental Pollution.

On 8th August, the University of Trieste celebrates the National Day of Remembrance for Italian Workers Abroad, established in memory of the 136 Italian workers who died in 1956 in Belgium in the Marcinelle coal mine, commemorating these victims along with the many other Italian emigrants who died at work.

This anniversary calls for reflection on the central role that our Constitution has assigned to work, starting with Article 1, recognising its role as the foundation of our Republic, and assuring that in all contexts workers both male and female may be guaranteed respect for their dignity and protection.

'It is precisely the sacrifice of our emigrants of yesterday that dissuades us from turning a blind eye to the many situations of exploitation and violations of rights suffered by today's migrants, if we do not want memory to be merely a rhetorical exercise,' comments Roberta Nunin, UniTS Vice-Rector for HR, Trade Unions and Equal Opportunities. 'Swiss writer Max Frisch’s warning in the mid-1960s, who looking at the condition of Italian immigrants in Switzerland wrote, “We asked for workers, we got people instead” still seems valid today. He highlighted the paradox of socio-economic systems which, on the one hand, cannot do without immigrant labour, but on the other, try to shirk their duty to help the integration and reception of these people. This perspective is unfortunately still relevant today and requires us, as a scientific community, to continue to focus our attention on migration phenomena, social cohesion objectives and the tools to pursue them, in order to honour the memory of so many of our compatriots who perished while seeking a better life far from their own country.’

Refining our understanding of the evolutionary mechanisms of different types of cancer in order to achieve increasingly targeted diagnoses and therapies is the objective of the new RESOLVE method, based on a study of ‘mutational signatures’, i.e. recurrent patterns of mutations in DNA that tell the story of the damage suffered by cancer cells and help identify their origin and mechanisms of development. 

The study presents a new computational tool to analyse the mutational mechanisms underlying cancer. By applying this method to approximately 20,000 adult and paediatric cancer genomes, the researchers were able to accurately identify a small number of dominant mutational signatures, associated with both known biological mechanisms (such as aging, smoking exposure, or defects in DNA repair) and different clinical prognoses. 

‘The problem of identifying processes that generate mutations in DNA is crucial to understanding what damages the genome and can accelerate tumour transformation. The tools we create in our laboratories are able to extract these signals thanks to machine learning techniques. This area of research sees us directly involved with several projects, such as this one in collaboration with Milano-Bicocca and others that we coordinate within our group,’ says Giulio Caravagna, professor of Computer Science at UniTS involved in the study. 

Mutation signature analysis is an established practice in cancer genomics but presents several challenges. Compared to existing methods, RESOLVE (Robust EStimation Of mutationaL signatures Via rEgularization) allows a more precise detection of mutation signatures, a more reliable estimate of their relevance in individual patients and the possibility of distinguishing tumours into molecular subtypes, with promising repercussions for personalised medicine.

This innovative method, illustrated in the article ‘Comprehensive analysis of mutational processes across 20 000 adult and pediatric tumors’ published in the journal Nucleic Acids Research, was developed by a multidisciplinary group of the University of Milan-Bicocca, coordinated by Daniele Ramazzotti (Department of Medicine and Surgery and Foundation of the Research Hospital San Gerardo dei Tintori). Researchers from the Department of Computer Science Marco Antoniotti and Alex Graudenzi, from the Department of Medicine Rocco Piazza and Luca Mologni, and Giulio Caravagna from the University of Trieste also participated in the project. The team also includes Matteo Villa, Federica Malighetti, Luca De Sano, Alberto Maria Villa, Nicoletta Cordani and Andrea Aroldi.