Trieste, November 6, 2024 – A new generation of plastic microsatellites, modular like interlocking structures, integrating electrical connections between the various operational boards inside, thus making them lighter, more spacious, and more efficient: this is the goal of the RISE (Resilient Integrated Structural Elements) project from the University of Trieste and the company PICOSATS.

Since (NET) 6th of November, the International Space Station has hosted a very special prototype designed by UniTS researchers and the university's spin-off company, PICOSATS.

It is a cube made of plastic material with conductive tracks (circuits) running through it, which connect the operational boards mounted on the sides of the object. The electrical component, essential for the satellite’s operation, is thus integrated into the structure, making it much more robust, cheaper, and easier to produce compared to the older generation.

The microsatellite structure, made of 3D-printed plastic and hollow inside, finally allows for the modular management of its geometry, as if assembling modular building blocks... but extremely high-tech!

‘During the four months in which we will test our idea, we will find out if the device can function in microgravity and withstand the stresses from the launch of SpaceX's CRS-31 mission aboard the Falcon 9 rocket,’ explains Stefano Seriani, professor of Robotics at UniTS and scientific coordinator of RISE. ‘If so, we will have laid the groundwork for a real revolution in the microsatellite market.’

These space objects lend themselves to extremely versatile applications, ranging from Earth observation to telecommunications, to astrophysics and planetary exploration.

The RISE project took its first steps in 2018 when the founding team won the challenge sponsored by ICE Cubes within the ‘Space Exploration Masters’ competition organised by the European Space Agency (ESA), placing second in the ESA & Commercial Partners challenge.

The project thus secured a ‘ticket’ to the International Space Station provided by Space Applications Services, a Belgian aerospace company..

Now, in the year of the University of Trieste’s 100th anniversary, it has become a reality, thanks also to the contribution of ASI, the Italian Space Agency, which financed its development.

‘We wanted to bring this important anniversary into space,’ concludes Seriani. ‘Inside the cube, we included the UniTS 100th anniversary logo which, together with the PICOSATS logo, will float in microgravity, sending very special greetings to our ground command centre.’

An international research team coordinated by the University of Trieste's Department of Physics has synthesised a potential bifunctional catalyst, mimicking the functionality of vitamin B12, i.e. one capable of promoting two distinct chemical reactions, each supported by a different oxidation state of the metal. Also known as cobalamin, a molecule to the centre of which is bound a single cobalt atom, vitamin B12 is in fact capable of catalysing different reactions depending on the context. The results of the study, with important application implications in the field of energy storage and transport, have been published in the scientific journal Advanced Functional Materials.

The study involved the collaboration of the Materials Laboratory Institute of the National Research Council (CNR-IOM), Elettra Sincrotrone Trieste and the Laboratory for Surface Nanostructures of EPFL in Switzerland. The activities were funded in the context of the PRIN 2022 and PRIN NRRP projects.

'Energy storage and transport are today's most strategic applications; however, from the point of view of available technologies, they are still far from optimal. Think, for example, of rechargeable batteries and the need to use two separate catalytic agents to support the opposing reactions of oxidation and reduction in reversible charge and discharge processes', explains Erik Vesselli, professor of experimental matter physics at the Department of Physics, University of Trieste. ‘The result we have obtained shows, however, how we can be inspired by nature to create new materials of extreme applicative interest in the field of green energy, i.e. bifunctional catalysts, capable by themselves of promoting different chemical reactions.’

Cobalt is one of the strategic metals in the periodic table, already particularly used in catalysis. Its functionality can be controlled by defining the way it coordinates and calibrating its oxidation state. In nature, vitamin B12 - also known as cobalamin, as it is characterised by a single cobalt atom - in its various forms and through complex mechanisms, is itself able to regulate the oxidation state of this single cobalt atom, thus changing its reactivity and stability.

‘We did the same’, Vesselli continues: ‘That is, we synthesised a matrix of two-dimensional molecules and single cobalt atoms, using a single sheet of graphene as a worktable. By controlling the co-ordination, we were able to modulate the oxidation states of cobalt just as occurs in vitamin B12, and were also able to obtain phases in which several oxidation states are co-present in the material.’

In conclusion, the researchers succeeded in synthesising and characterising a new material whose properties are determined by long-range electronic and magnetic interactions between different reaction centres, i.e. individual cobalt atoms. This was achieved by combining state-of-the-art experimental techniques using laser sources, synchrotron light and microscopy techniques, combined with numerical simulations.

Full study published in Advanced Functional Materials 

Co(III), Co(II), Co(I): Tuning Single Cobalt Metal Atom Oxidation States in a 2D Coordination Network

Trieste, 23rd October 2024 – Today the University of Trieste awarded degrees to its first 26 graduates in Dentistry and Prosthodontics with concurrent professional certification.

The new graduates discussed their theses in the ‘Rita Levi Montalcini’ Hall of the Cattinara Hospital in front of Rector Roberto Di Lenarda, who awarded them the title.

The vocational degree was established by the Italian Ministry of Universities and Research as of the academic year 2023-2024 and UniTS is among the very first universities in Italy to have implemented the degree, serving as an example for other universities in the future.

‘The transition to this vocational degree is testimony to the excellence of the University of Trieste, which is part of the small group of Italian universities able to implement the new degree right away,’ stressed Rector Roberto Di Lenarda. ‘By the academic year 2027-2028 everyone will be expected to offer the level of training that we have been offering for years. I would also like to emphasise how the clinical activity of the professionals in training (both undergrads and postgrads) provides an extraordinary support to the provision of dental care, in a collaboration between the University and the Regional Health Service.’

Friuli Venezia Giulia, and in particular the area covered by ASUGI (local health authority), represents the area with the widest range of high-quality dental services in Italy.

The Region's public dentistry programme was inaugurated in 2017. It was conceived and coordinated by Roberto Di Lenarda, President of the College of University Lecturers of Odontostomatological Disciplines and Director of ASUGI's Maxillofacial Surgery and Odontostomatology Clinic since 2000.

Since then, in the Trieste area alone, it has provided 500,000 services at the Maxillo facial Surgery and Odontostomatology Clinic in the Ospedale Maggiore (ASUGI) and 60,000 in the Paediatric Odontostomatology Department, directed by Milana Cadenaro, the current coordinator of the Bachelor’s Degree in Dentistry and Dental Prosthetics.

Trieste, 23rd October 2024 - The programme for the 2024-2025 academic year of the project 'The Lincean Academy for new teaching methodology in schools', in which the University of Trieste plays a leading role, has been presented.

The Trieste Hub of the initiative's national network, with the collaboration of the Foundation 'The Lincean Academy for Schools', the Regional School Office of Friuli Venezia Giulia and the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region, has been engaged for six years in organising refresher and advanced training activities for school teachers in the four disciplines covered by the project: Italian, mathematics, digital and science.

‘Primary and secondary school teachers from all over Italy take part in the project every year,’ explains University of Trieste lecturer Roberta Bulla, coordinator of the Trieste Hub. ‘From 2021 to date we have had a total of 1,000 teachers enrolled.’

‘At a complex time for the Italian university and school system such as the one we are currently experiencing, the role of support for the training of school teachers played by UniTS within the framework of the Lincean project is of strategic importance," says Rector Roberto Di Lenarda. "I would like to thank the Region for the support that it once again guarantees our university and all of our teachers involved, who add these activities to their ordinary ones with great passion and commitment.’

‘The presence of the Lincean Hub in Trieste represents a great opportunity for the education system in Friuli Venezia Giulia. Teachers who train and update their knowledge improve not only their own preparation, but also the school within which they teach and the system as a whole. If, as confirmed by the data from the Invalsi 2024 tests, school education in FVG is of high quality and the drop-out rate is among the lowest in Italy, we certainly owe this to projects like this one, which the regional administration will continue to support, as an investment for the younger generations, in the years to come,’ adds Alessia Rosolen, Regional Councillor for Employment, Training, Education, Research, University and Family.

‘In an ever-changing society, continuous teacher training is of fundamental importance to ensure the quality of education. It represents an opportunity for effective professional development and growth of the teaching profession. With a view to promoting continuous training, the FVG Regional School Office has signed an agreement with the FVG Region and the Universities of Trieste and Udine in which it commits itself to disseminating the training activities organised by the two university centres as part of the project ‘The Lincean Academy for new teaching methodology in schools’ and to cooperating in identifying tutor teachers among the local educational institutions to support teaching and workshop activities,’ concludes Daniela Beltrame, Head of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Regional School Office.

The project stems from a Memorandum of Understanding signed by the Lincean Academy, the Ministry of Education and Merit, and the Ministry of Universities and Research, with the aim of supporting and encouraging the improvement of the national education and training system through numerous initiatives aimed at promoting a renewal of teaching-learning processes in the scientific and humanistic disciplines.

The programmes proposed for the 2024/2025 academic year are highly structured.

The University of Trieste today proclaimed 133 new PhDs, the highest number ever, during the Graduation Day ceremony held in the Main Hall of Building A in Piazzale Europa.

The 36th-cycle PhDs, who celebrated their proclamation with the traditional ‘tossing of the academic cap’, registered a further increase in the international presence – one in five is in fact from abroad – and witnessed the perfect gender balance achieved among PhD students. 

‘Graduation Day,’ says Prof. Alessandro Baraldi, Deputy for scientific research and Doctorates at the University of Trieste, ‘does not only celebrate the achievement of an extraordinary milestone for our young researchers, but it is also the moment when the University wishes to express its gratitude to the PhD students, who represent a fundamental part of our research activity. 

It is a recognition,' Baraldi concludes, ’that will culminate on 2nd December, with the awarding of the PhD Innovation Awards in the centenary year.’

The University of Trieste's initiative – an absolute novelty – will celebrate through the awarding of five prizes to young scholars a century of research, excellence, creativity and ingenuity, rewarding innovation in thought, knowledge, research methodologies and technologies.

The guest of honour at Graduation Day was Marco Gori, Professor of Computer Science at the University of Siena, who delivered a lectio magistralis entitled ‘Intelligent Machines that do not Accumulate Data’, in which he proposed a new approach to artificial intelligence and machine learning that is not based on the massive accumulation of data. 

Gori suggested that, as happens in nature, machines can develop cognitive skills through interactions with the environment, thus avoiding the centralisation of large collections of data. This approach would reduce privacy risks and concentration of power.

The University of Trieste ranks once again in the 501-600 range among the world’s top universities according to the prestigious THE 2025 ranking published by Times Higher Education.

The ranking evaluates universities based on five main indicators, each with a specific weight: teaching quality (29.5%), research environment (29%), research quality (30%), knowledge transfer to industry (4%), and international outlook (7.5%).

Compared to the previous year, the University of Trieste achieved higher scores in teaching quality and research environment, two key areas that together represent 60% of the overall evaluation. Specifically, the teaching quality score rose from 31.9 to 33, while the research environment score increased from 25.1 to 26.4.

This achievement reflects the university's strength in the global academic landscape, placing it in the top 28% of the world’s best universities ranked by THE, which reviews only 2,092 institutions among over 20,000 worldwide.

Researchers from the Department of Life Sciences at the University of Trieste, in collaboration with the Sapienza University of Rome, have discovered that the preference of animal species, both human and non-human, for consonant sounds would be partly physiologically determined. The hypothesis at the origin of the study, conducted on one hundred and thirty hatchling chicks, is that the constituent elements of musical abilities - of humans and animals - have a biological root, shared between species that are also phylogenetically distant, and do not depend solely on culture and musical experience.

‘Previous research by the University of Trieste had already led to the discovery that chicks, like other species, prefer so-called consonant musical intervals. The latter, in fact, are those that most resemble the sound produced by living beings, while the dissonant ones recall the lesser harmony of environmental sounds,’ explains Andrea Ravignani, professor of general psychology at the Department of Human Neuroscience at the Sapienza University of Rome. ‘At the time, we did not know the reasons for this; today, however, we know – thanks to studies conducted together, the University of Trieste and the Sapienza University of Rome - that consonant intervals are produced in acoustic social signals.’

The research was carried out on one hundred and thirty hatchling chicks; once hatched, the chicks – which do not require any parental care, neither to develop their vocal repertoire nor to walk – were reared for four days, in pairs, in rectangular cages at controlled room temperature. 

The following calls were recorded for each chick in soundproof pens: contact calls emitted by the chick when it feels discomfort because, for example, it is separated from the hen, brooding calls emitted in pleasant situations and food calls emitted when the chick identifies a profitable food source. These calls are part of a complex vocal code that chicks develop from hatching to adulthood to communicate their needs to other conspecifics and to express the positive or negative nature of a situation they are experiencing. 

The researchers stimulated the production of each type of call by the chicks by gradually recreating the natural situation associated with each one. Specifically, they recorded: contact calls, leaving the chicks alone in the empty pen after separating them from their rearing mate and the imprinting object; brood calls, placing an imprinting object in the centre of the pen after initial isolation; food calls, placing a dish of food in the centre of the pen after removing the imprinting object.

After analysing the minimum and maximum peaks of the fundamental frequencies and calculating their ratio, the study revealed a prevalence of perfect consonance in all types of calls, confirming the idea that consonant sounds are intrinsically present in animal communication. The only recorded dissonances were found in situations of particular distress, such as isolation contexts.

‘This research could open up promising applications: a chick that emits a sound with a certain frequency is probably indicating a certain type of situation, and we now know that the most harmonious calls are those emitted in the most pleasant situations,’ explains Cinzia Chiandetti, associate professor of psychobiology at the Department of Life Sciences at the University of Trieste. ‘Depending on the dominance of consonances or dissonances, we will be able to understand the emotional status of the animal associated with the context in which it finds itself: we are not so far from being able to imagine devices capable of recording the calls and returning the level of comfort or stress of the animal in front of us, even of chickens that, as the writer Andrew Lawler would say, are the birds that have nurtured civilisation’ concludes the expert.

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Full study published in Biology Letters

Chicks produce consonant, sometimes jazzy, sounds

Gianmarco Maldarelli1,2, Andrea Dissegna1, Andrea Ravignani3,4,5 and Cinzia Chiandetti1

1Department of Life Sciences, University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy

2Department of Biopsychology, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology, Ruhr-Universitat

Bochum, Bochum, Germany

3Comparative Bioacoustics Group, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

4Center for Music in the Brain, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark

5Department of Human Neurosciences, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy

A one hundred square metre stand, as blue as the jerseys of the athletes who have made the history of Italian sport, will be the ‘branch’ of the University of Trieste in the prestigious setting of Piazza Unità d'Italia, on the occasion of the 56th edition of the Barcolana.

From 5th to 13th October, the University of Trieste, as part of the celebrations linked to the 100th Anniversary of its foundation, will once again take part in what has become one of the world's greatest sporting events and will open ‘Casa UniTS’ in the Barcolana Village to meet the world of sport and citizenship through a series of events, talks and presentations that will deal with some of the key themes of the university world in an original and light-hearted way.

In particular, within a daily appointment open to the public, researchers, alumni, students, athletes, journalists and sports managers will discuss scientific and technological innovation, phenomena affecting society, sustainability, social inclusion, culture and the challenges of the future.

Guests will include athletes such as Paralympic gold medallist Matteo Parenzan, Jana Germani, Francesca Genzo, Stefania Buttignon, Ilaria Corazza and Giorgia Marchi, Marcell Jacobs' former coach in Tokyo Paolo Camossi, journalists Paolo Condò, Sergio Tavčar and Giovanni Marzini, Trieste basketball star Daniele Cavaliero and swimming champion Novella Calligaris. The latter, on Saturday 12th October, will talk, in her capacity as president of the Associazione Nazionale Atleti Olimpici e Azzurri d'Italia (National Association of Olympic Athletes and Italian National Team members), about the emotions aroused by the travelling photographic exhibition ‘Tutte le sfumature dell'azzurro’ (All shades of blue), which can be visited in Trieste at the Sala Fittke in those days.

The stand will be inaugurated on Saturday 5th October with the presentation of Aura, the electric racing car of the UniTS Racing Team, the result of a project of technological excellence and innovation in the field of sustainable mobility, on which around sixty students from the University are working to take part in Formula SAE competitions.

Aura will be on display in front of the UniTS stand for the entire opening period of the Barcolana Village and will be accompanied by Bai-Flying Lina, the world's first moth-class boat equipped with terraces composed of a core and linen fibre sandwich, a jewel of technology and sustainability designed by the students of the Audace Sailing Team.

Among the highlights, the 100UniTS Barcolana Dragon Boat Race ‘Rowing for the Future’, organised by Trieste University Sports Centre, is scheduled for Thursday 10th October: two characteristic dragon-headed canoes, made available by Venice University Sports Centre, will be steered by crews of UniTS students.

The non-competitive performance will see the two boats take to the water at the entrance to the Grand Canal to reach the Old Sea Wall. The initiative will see the participation of students from different cultures and countries to promote peace, coexistence and social inclusion through sport.

The activities of the University of Trieste at the Barcolana see the contributions of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region and Io Sono Friuli Venezia Giulia and the technical partnership of Illy caffè.

The Art Relations project, inaugurated in June 2024 with the exhibitions of Serse and Manuela Sedmach, is completed with the two exhibition points dedicated to the artists Elisa Vladilo and Antonio Sofianopulo set up in two different UniTS locations in the San Giovanni Campus on Via Weiss 6.

The two exhibitions, curated by Lorenzo Michelli, are the final point of a collaboration agreement signed on the occasion of the 100th Anniversary of the University of Trieste with ERPAC – Friuli Venezia Giulia Cultural Heritage Agency, which has given rise to a series of exhibition initiatives culminating in Art Relations.

Elisa Vladilo has come into contact with the structure of the San Giovanni Theatre, reinterpreting it in its historical, identity and architectural components to offer a contemporary reinterpretation of a positive nature. The installation Funny Reflections finds its place on the facade of the building, in particular in the glass parts of the windows and doors that are reinterpreted thanks to warm block colours.

‘Imagining that these coloured panes of glass could ideally project the light, obviously of the same colour, onto the asphalt in front, we can create a further imaginary game, where skewed rectangles and ovoid circles are created on the ground that precisely reflect what exists on the facade – explains Vladilo herself – All this is part of the usual path of Public Art, in particular of Ambient Painting, that I have been carrying forward for years, where colour relates to space in a dialogue that enhances and reanimates places.’

Antonio Sofianopulo, on the other hand, exhibits an apparently light painting and sarcastic in which elements of the natural appear in extremely complex counterpoints.

The collection of his paintings ‘RiConoscenza’ is exhibited in the Museum of Mineralogy and Petrography of the University of Trieste, in Building O of the San Giovanni Campus.

 ‘The salient features of the narrative poetics of Sofianopulo's paintings are discretion, gentleness, tact, subtlety, readiness, elegance, diplomacy, irony. Implied Irony is an obvious value, since the combinations on the canvases can not only hide a criticism and generate a smile, but invite us to think of a craftsman/carver who carries out his work with an infinite series of small touches in order to make it full of indecipherable details and not recognizable at first glance,’ we read in The ethics of the image by Roberto Vidali.

The four exhibition points inaugurated between June and October have allowed these spaces to be regenerated thanks to the artists who, through their works, have expanded themes and suggestions linked to the university institution.

More info at https://100anni.units.it/index.php/home/relazioni-darte/ 

Art Relations is an initiative organized on the occasion of the 100th Anniversary of the University of Trieste in collaboration with the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region, ERPAC FVG, ARDIS and SMATS – University Museum Services.

Biography Elisa Vladilo

She studied at the Art Institute of Trieste, and at the Academy of Fine Arts, Scenography, in Venice and Milan.

Her work is based on installations and site specifics in public and private spaces, through the use of colour in various modalities.

She has held various exhibitions in Italy and abroad, and has created various permanent and temporary projects in various spaces including public spaces, gardens, schools, streets, squares, and train stations.

She collaborates with various cultural associations and professional studios.

She lived in London for 3 years (1997-2000), where she came into contact with some aspects of Public Art; During that period she also participated in Whitechapel Open in London, and the Billboard Site Project in Belfast.

She won a grant from the Pollock- Krasner Foundation in New York in 1998, and participated in a residency in Berlin as part of a European project (2001).

Echo Surrounding, The Old Port, Trieste (2020), Rhyme of Origin, Cambridge – UK (2014), Melting Street, Pula – Croatia (2013), Melting tower, Villach – Austria (2011), I take the landscape and bring it with me, Nervesa della Battaglia (2010).

Biography Antonio Sofianopulo

Antonio Sofianopulo was born in Trieste in 1955, the city where he lives and works. 
He studied art, but his education mainly took place in the family with his mother Renata, a painter and advertiser, and with his great-uncle Cesare, a symbolist painter and student of von Stuck. He 
began exhibiting in 1977. Among his solo exhibitions, we will remember those held at the ‘M. Merkouri’ in Athens in 1997, in Trieste at the ‘Palazzo Gopcevich’ for the Revoltella museum in 2003, at the Juliet space in Casier, at the Galleria Victor Saavedra in Barcelona in 2006 and at the Franco Toselli gallery in Milan in 2008 and at the Duetart in Varese in 2009, Bocconi University, Milan in 2010, at the Maniero gallery in Rome in 2011, and at the Revoltella Museum in Trieste in 2015, in 2021 at the Duetart in Varese, in 2022 at the Medusa gallery in Koper and in 2023 at the Studio Vigato in Alessandria.

Among the collective exhibitions we will remember in 1993 ‘La montagna Dipinta’ at Castel Tevlana and Raffaelli gallery in Trento, ’Equinozio’ at Rivara Castle in 1994, ‘Va' pensiero…’ at the Promotrice alle Belle Arti in Turin in 1997, ‘Bel tempo’ Ludwig ,museum in Budapest in 1999, ‘Mediterranea’ in Dubrovnik in 2001, ‘Da de Chirico a Leonor Fini’ at the Museo Revoltella in Trieste in 2002, ‘A ruota libera’ in the spaces of the Fiera di Milano in 2004, in 2016 ‘Corrispondenze d'Arte’ at the Revoltella museum in Trieste, in 2017 Sala 1 – Rome, in 2018 ‘Soft Revolution ‘ at the Triennale – Milan/ in 2019 Hotel Aquerello Toselli Museo city Milan.

The main reference galleries in Italy are: Studio Vigato in Alessandria, Toselli in Milan and in Spain the Galeria Saavedra in Barcelona. 
His work appears in Germano Celant's latest book +Spazi. One of his works was featured on the 
Luc Orient music CD ‘La Vie À Grand Vitesse’ from 2012

Among others, the following have written about him: Roberto Vidali, Maria Masau Dan, Valerio Dehò, Vittorio Sgarbi, Alessandra Tiddia, Elena Pontiggia and Franco Toselli, Ivan Quaroni, and Francesca Liotta.

Antonio Sofianopulo was among the founders of the international contemporary art magazine Juliet, and is the curator of the ‘Costantino e Mafalda Pisani’ museum of the Eastern Greek Community of Trieste. His works are found at the Paolo Pini museum in Milan, at the ‘P. Revoltella’ museum in Trieste and in various private collections in Italy and abroad.

An international study co-ordinated by the Interdisciplinary Centre of Nanoscience of Marseille, with the collaboration of organisations and research centres of excellence, including the Biology and Nanotechnology Laboratory of the Department of Engineering and Architecture at the University of Trieste, has synthesised a new antibacterial compound that promises to be an excellent candidate for the fight against antibiotic resistance, a growing global public health problem that still causes millions of deaths worldwide.

‘The main threat is posed by the eskape group of bacteria - comprising the genera Enterococcus faecium, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Enterobacter species - because they are particularly virulent and resistant to antibiotics introduced with treatment” explains Sabrina Pricl, one of the study's researchers and associate professor of chemical engineering at the Department of Engineering and Architecture at the University of Trieste. “Hence the need to develop new antibacterial agents that, on the one hand, are able to kill bacteria, on the other, are not toxic to the organisms that take them in and, above all, do not induce the appearance of further drug resistance.’

The molecule synthesised by the researchers - an amphiphilic dendrimer called AD1b - proved highly efficient against all Gram-negative bacteria, including drug-resistant strains such as Escherichia coli and Acinetobacter baumannii.

The compound interacts with the bacterium by an innovative mechanism of action: it binds to the phospholipids of the bacterial membrane, such as phosphatidylglycerol and cardiolipin, causing the destruction of the membrane itself and the consequent collapse of cell metabolism, leading to the death of the bacterium, without damaging healthy cells - even in vivo - and minimising the risk of developing new resistance, a problem that otherwise plagues traditional antibiotics.

In preclinical tests, the molecule demonstrated strong antibacterial activity as well as great safety, with very low toxicity and no haemolytic effect - results later confirmed in in vivo tests. Moreover, after thirty days of exposure to the compound, no resistance was observed; on the contrary, a drastic reduction in the bacterial load in infected animals was observed.

‘This molecule could pave the way for safer and more targeted therapies and thus give an impetus to the treatment of resistant infections: together with its efficacy, in fact, the ability to not induce resistance puts it in pole position to be further developed at the clinical translational level’ explains Professor Sabrina Pricl.

Researchers from the University of Trieste worked on the design of the AD1 molecule and took part in the computational study, using molecular dynamics simulations to study the interaction between AD1b and the bacterial membrane, applying advanced methodologies supported by CINECA's supercomputing resources.

The research project was funded with NRRP funds and was supported by ICSC, the National Research Centre in High-Performance Computing, Big Data and Quantum Computing.