When it comes to cardiac arrest, every second counts, and it is the speed with which cardiopulmonary resuscitation is started that makes the real difference, not so much who performs it. This is what emerges from an important study presented at the ESC Acute CardioVascular Care 2025 congress.

The research is the result of the work of a team coordinated by Prof. Aneta Aleksova, cardiologist and lecturer at the Department of Medical Sciences of the University of Trieste and the local health authority (ASUGI). The study group is an integral part of the Department of Cardiology, headed by Prof. Gianfranco Sinagra, and included the contribution of Dr Alessandra Lucia Fluca, research assistant at the Department of Medicine of the University of Trieste, and Dr Andrea Perkan, interventional cardiologist at the Department of Cardiology.

The study analysed 21 years of data (from 2003 to 2024) on 3,315 patients who had suffered a ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), a particularly serious form of heart attack in which a major coronary artery is completely blocked, preventing blood flow to part of the heart. Among these patients, 172 suffered out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) and 44 of them received cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) from bystanders.

Urgent response is crucial 

The results are clear: every 5 minutes of delay in the return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) increases the risk of death in hospital by 38%. Even a slight reduction in left ventricular ejection fraction (an indicator of heart function) or increased age is associated with a significant increase in mortality.

'We observed that, regardless of whether cardiopulmonary resuscitation was performed by a professional rescuer or a bystander, the determining factor was the speed with which resuscitation was started,' explains Prof. Aleksova, emphasising the value of active prevention. ‘It is essential to raise awareness among the population and promote CPR and defibrillator training courses. Even imperfect intervention, if timely, can save a life. It is better to act immediately than to wait for help without doing anything.’

A positive trend, but still insufficient

The study shows a clear improvement over time: the percentage of CPR performed by bystanders rose from 26% in the period 2003-2007 to 69% in the four-year period 2020-2024. However, considering that about 80% of cardiac arrests occur at home, public involvement remains crucial.

Although the average ROSC times are longer for interventions by bystanders (20 minutes compared to 5 minutes in cases handled by healthcare professionals), the chances of long-term survival do not differ. This suggests that even intervention by ordinary people, provided it is timely, can have a life-saving impact comparable to that of professionals.

A call for public training

The survey also reports that those who receive CPR from bystanders are more frequently subjected to endotracheal intubation (91% versus 65%), indicating more intensive clinical management. But the key factor remains time. All other factors being equal, prompt intervention can mean the difference between life and death.

The study relaunches a simple but urgent message: training more people in basic life support (BLS) techniques is a public health priority. Because every minute counts. And anyone, with the right training, can make a difference.

A study published in Arthritis & Rheumatology clarifies, through clinical, tissue and laboratory data, why the risk of cardiovascular events is so high in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). The research was carried out in collaboration between Giacomo Emmi, immunologist and Professor of Internal Medicine at the University of Trieste, and the research teams of Matteo Becatti, Claudia Fiorillo and Domenico Prisco at the University of Florence.

SLE is a systemic autoimmune disease that can affect several organs. In Italy it affects more than 60,000 people, mostly women of childbearing age. For those affected, the risk of arterial and venous thrombosis can be two to ten times higher than in the general population. The underlying cause is not limited to cholesterol or blood pressure, but primarily linked to the chronic inflammation characteristic of the disease.

At the centre of this process is oxidative stress, the imbalance between oxidising substances produced by our cells and the antioxidant defences that should neutralise them. In SLE patients, certain immune cells – neutrophils – are abnormally active and fuel this imbalance. In such an oxidative environment, fibrinogen, the protein forming the network of the blood clot, behaves differently: the fibres become denser and less permeable, and the clots harder to dissolve. This mechanism directly connects inflammation to thrombotic risk.

The study involved 144 adult SLE patients and 90 healthy controls. Blood analyses documented higher oxidative stress in patients and its correlation with disease activity. Tissue observations confirmed the picture: in renal biopsies from individuals with active lupus nephritis (inflammation of the kidneys), the same mechanism was evident precisely where inflammation was most intense, demonstrating that it is not only a circulating phenomenon but also causes damage at the organ level.

To confirm the causal link, the team reproduced the phenomenon in the laboratory. When fibrinogen was exposed to an oxidative environment, the clots became more compact and resistant; when a reference antioxidant was added, the effect disappeared. The sequence is thus clear: more inflammation → more oxidative stress → altered fibrinogen → clots harder to dissolve.

‘These results provide a deeper understanding of the connection between autoimmune disease and cardiovascular complications,’ says Professor Giacomo Emmi, who teaches at the Department of Medicine, Surgery and Health Sciences of the University of Trieste and is Head of the Clinical Medicine Unit and Scientific Coordinator of the local health authority (ASUGI).

‘Oxidative stress,’ explains Emmi, ‘emerges as a new potential therapeutic target. Alongside the management of traditional risk factors and disease activity, future therapies could aim to modulate these oxidative circuits to more effectively protect the heart and blood vessels of patients with lupus.’

Reference: ROS-induced modifications of fibrin clots connect immune responses to atherothrombosis in systemic lupus erythematosus, in Arthritis & Rheumatology. DOI: 10.1002/art.43371.

The new research project Be-UP, funded with €8.5 million by the Horizon Europe Programme, has now been launched. The project aims to develop new renewable polymers for the production and use of biodegradable packaging across Europe.

Coordinated by ITENE (Spain), Be-UP brings together a consortium of 17 private and public organisations from nine countries, with the University of Trieste as the only Italian university involved. Participating companies include Novamont, Particula, Hybrid Catalysis, Isotech, Aptar Group, Imerys, Innotech (Grupo Lantero), and the laboratories Polinivo, Normec, Cebimat, FTPO and IDENER. European Bioplastics and the competitiveness cluster Polymeris will ensure the dissemination of Be-UP results, with the support of the Spanish Standardisation Association (UNE).

In detail, the Be-UP project aims to develop pioneering methods for the synthesis and industrial processing (extrusion, injection moulding and thermoforming) of polyesters derived from bio-based raw materials. Be-UP will employ biocatalysts and sustainable additives, while also integrating advanced multi-object digital modelling tools to achieve simultaneously high technical performance, sustainability and biodegradability of polymers.

The Department of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences of the University of Trieste is involved in the project with a multidisciplinary team combining biocatalysis (Prof. Lucia Gardossi), computational chemistry (Prof. Emanuele Carosati) and spectroscopy (Prof. Fioretta Asaro). The research is supported by funding of approximately €330,000 over four years, enabling the activation of a research contract and a PhD scholarship. A further position will be opened in 2026.

In recent years, the UniTS team has designed and enzymatically synthesised new bio-based polyesters which, thanks to collaboration with the ecology group led by Prof. Monia Renzi in the Department of Life Sciences at UniTS, have also provided the basis for the development of rapid tests to assess the marine ecotoxicity and biodegradability of polyesters. These studies open new prospects for the rational design of environmentally sustainable polymers and demonstrate the importance of multidisciplinary collaborations in addressing the complex environmental challenges faced by science today. The results, which led to participation in the Be-UP project, were achieved thanks to two Marie Skłodowska-Curie grants (RenEcoPol and InterFACES) and to funding under the PNRR – NextGenerationEU (ICSC – National Centre for Research in High Performance Computing, Big Data and Quantum Computing, Spoke 7).

At the conclusion of Be-UP, packaging prototypes will be produced with a high level of technological maturity (TRL7) in order to validate the materials developed. Their biodegradability will be assessed in various end-of-life scenarios, including both open natural environments and controlled conditions. The UniTS team will develop computational models capable of correlating polymer structure with marine biodegradability.

This data-driven approach will help to improve the knowledge base underpinning European regulations, support industrial competitiveness and accelerate the transition towards a truly circular bioeconomy, making a direct contribution to several European action plans and strategies, including the plastics strategy, the Single-Use Plastics Directive, the Circular Economy Action Plan and the regulation on packaging and packaging waste.

The University of Trieste hosted the presentation of the results of 3FiRES – Research on BIPV Photovoltaic Façades for Fire Spread Mechanisms, Structural Failures and Resilience Improvement Methodologies, a project carried out by the University of Trieste in partnership with the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC).

3FiRES is one of ten major projects selected under the Executive Programme of Scientific and Technological Cooperation between Italy and China, a bilateral initiative co‑funded by MAECI and MOST.

The two‑year collaboration, with total funding of €500,000, was coordinated by Prof. Chiara Bedon (UniTS) and Prof. Yu Wang (USTC).

Within the thematic area “Green Energy and related research”, 3FiRES investigated—through analytical, numerical and experimental methods—the behaviour of Building‑Integrated Photovoltaic (BIPV) façades subjected to extreme and accidental actions, in particular fire. These innovative electricity‑generating systems make a significant contribution to the sustainability of green buildings while being required to guarantee appropriate structural and architectural performance even under limiting conditions.

At the University of Trieste, the study brought together a multidisciplinary team from the Department of Engineering and Architecture (DIA), combining civil, electrical and architectural engineering expertise, with the involvement of Alessandro Massi Pavan, Vanni Lughi, Luca Cozzarini, Marco Fasan, and Adriano Venudo, alongside several early‑career researchers.

The activities included extensive experimental campaigns conducted in the DIA laboratories in Trieste and—above all—at the State Key Laboratory of Fire Science (USTC) in Hefei and the Fire Laboratory of the Slovenian National Building and Civil Engineering Institute (ZAG) in Logatec. The datasets enabled the development and refinement of finite‑element modelling strategies.

The results have been disseminated through numerous publications in leading international journals and presentations at major conferences, as well as two volumes published by EUT – Trieste University Press. A key outcome is a patent filed with the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) and granted in April 2025.

The patent concerns the prototyping of a device and experimental method for the fire testing of integrated photovoltaic glass panels, allowing multiple test parameters to be varied. Intellectual property is held by the following researchers: Prof. Yu Wang, Dr Haonan Chen, Dr Dezhi Ran, Dr Wei Chu, and Prof. Chiara Bedon.

Initial applications and results underlying the patent have been published in the International Journal of Thermal Sciences.

In a groundbreaking achievement, researchers from CNR – Istituto Officina dei Materiali (CNR-IOM), the University of Trieste, Italy, and Innsbruck, Austria, and Elettra Sincrotrone Trieste have successfully synthesized a novel two-dimensional crystalline form of diboron trioxide. This new crystal, composed entirely of structural units previously seen only in its disordered, glassy state, marks a significant scientific milestone. Published in the prestigious journal Science, the study confirms the existence of a structure previously predicted only in theory, and opening exciting possibilities for future applications of this innovative material.

Boron oxide is a critical component in the production of ultra-durable glasses, such as Pyrex, and high-performance enamels. The addition of boron trioxide enhances glass’s resistance to thermal shock and chemical reactions, making it ideal for demanding industrial and scientific applications. However, the vitrification process of boron oxide remains poorly understood, exhibiting unique anomalies compared to other oxides, like silica, which can exist in both crystalline and amorphous forms.

“The key distinction between a crystal and a glass lies in the ordered arrangement of atoms in the former, which is absent in the latter,” explains Alessandro Sala, a CNR-IOM researcher and the project’s lead designer. “Both materials typically share a basic structural unit of a few atoms, repeated throughout. In crystals, this “building block” is arranged in a precise, repeating pattern, while in glass, it is disordered. Boron oxide is an exception: its glassy phase contains a structural unit called boroxine – a ring of three boron and three oxygen atoms – that have never been observed in a crystalline form until now. Our team has achieved a world-first by creating a two-dimensional crystalline phase made entirely of these boroxine units.”

The international research team not only devised a method to synthesize this material, using platinum as a substrate, but also conducted detailed analyses of its physical properties. Maria Peressi, a professor at the University of Trieste, elaborates: “Our numerical simulations reveal that this porous material, formed by a lattice of boroxine rings, is extraordinary flexible – ten times more elastic than graphene, making it the most elastic single-layer material ever reported. This remarkable flexibility arises because the rigid boroxine rings are connected by a single oxygen atom, acting as a hinge that allows them to rotate in the plane. Experimental and simulation results also show that the material interacts weakly with its platinum substrate, suggesting it could be easily separated using conventional techniques for using in cutting-edge devices.”

Laerte Patera, a professor of University of Innsbruck, adds: “using advanced scanning tunneling microscopy in Trieste and Innsbruck, we visualized the crystalline structure of this two-dimensional material down to its individual atoms. This unprecedented resolution enables us to pinpoint the position of each atom in the lattice, offering valuable insights into how atoms reorganize during the transition from crystalline to glassy states. This capability will be transformative for future studies of material transformations.”

Andrea Locatelli, head of the Nanospectroscopy beamline at Elettra Sincrotrone Trieste, emphasizes the mix of advanced technology: “Synchrotron light was instrumental in confirming the material’s elemental composition, purity and crystallinity. We can now produce homogeneous crystals spanning tens of square microns. The synergy between experimental techniques and numerical simulations was pivotal to this project’s success. With its unique properties – a wide-bandgap semiconductor that is both highly flexible and porous – this material holds immense potential for application in fields ranging from electronics and catalysis to quantum technologies.”

Adding to the significance of this achievement, the study’s first authors, Teresa Zio and Marco Dirindin, are PhD students from the University of Trieste, specializing in experimental and theoretical research, respectively. Their contribution highlights the University’s commitment to fostering excellence in advanced research training. 

The 14th edition of Trieste Next opened today, Friday 26th September, dedicated to the theme ‘Life Within. Dialogues between Science and Technology.’ The University of Trieste is a central player in the festival, with a programme designed for the general public: from today until Sunday 28th September, UniTS will organise 18 events (six today, nine on Saturday, and three on Sunday), featuring more than fifty speakers, alongside the UniTS stand in Piazza Unità with ten interactive spaces and the ‘UniDiversitas’ information point.

Two international headline events are on the programme: David Quammen this evening at Teatro Verdi, and Nobel Laureate Brian K. Kobilka tomorrow evening on the same stage.

In the opening panel, Rector Donata Vianelli, taking part in her first Trieste Next as head of UniTS, reaffirmed the importance of a systemic and open approach:
 ‘Innovation does not come from individuals alone; it comes from the system – universities, institutions and businesses working together in open networks, with multidisciplinarity and both national and international openness. Only in this way does research stop being self-referential and translate into real solutions for the territory and for society.’

The first day’s programme includes events on cities in transition and inclusive tourism, followed by sessions on nuclear fusion and safety in research. In the evening, the stage will host the performance ‘Storie dentro’ and the encounter with David Quammen at Teatro Verdi.

On Saturday 27th September, the schedule covers generative artificial intelligence and algorithmic transparency, energy between myths and realities, dialogue between African traditional medicine and research, advanced microscopy (All-Micro), the ‘environmental plate’ (an interdisciplinary round table that, starting from the leftovers of a dinner, brings together statistics, economics, psychology, viticulture and Slow Food to balance taste, sustainability and health), glaciers and life between science and mountaineering, through to space robotics, culminating in the special evening event with Brian K. Kobilka at Teatro Verdi.

Sunday 28th September will close the programme with sessions on community justice, neuroscience and music, and ‘care-based tourism.’

At its stand in Piazza Unità, UniTS presents a showcase reflecting the breadth of its expertise: from journeys into space with ASTREO to quantum science; from health – with a focus on chronic pain and digital rehabilitation – to restorative justice; from comparative law to marine sciences and geosciences; from ‘Rogue AI’ (distinguishing safe from deceptive generative AI) to the chemistry of future materials; and from merit and community with Collegio Fonda to the UniDiversitas information point.

In this light, Trieste Next is the ideal environment for the University of Trieste to put this approach into practice:
 ‘Trieste Next is our ideal training ground: three days of dialogue and debate to analyse problems from different perspectives and build shared solutions. A research festival that is also a multicultural and multidisciplinary crossroads, where each participant contributes an essential part to improving people’s lives and our future,’ concluded Rector Vianelli.

All UniTS events

Mattia Zulianello, Associate Professor in the Department of Political and Social Sciences at the University of Trieste, has won the 2025 Santoro Prize, awarded during the conference of the Italian Political Science Association held in recent days at the University of Naples Federico II.

The prize recognises the most interesting unpublished paper among those presented at the previous year’s conference, which brought together more than 700 Italian and international scholars. The award, which Zulianello shares with his co-author Mirko Crulli (LUISS Guido Carli, Rome), concerns the article The populist radical right and climate change: a demand-side perspective, published in the journal Environmental Politics.

The paper analyses the relationship between populist radical right parties and climate change from a perspective that has so far received little attention: voter demand. The investigation is based on the most recent data from the European Social Survey (2020–2022) covering 22 EU and OECD member states.

The results show that voters of the populist radical right are, on average, less concerned about climate change than other voters, even when socio-demographic variables are taken into account. Moreover, the political context emerges as a key factor: climate scepticism is stronger in countries where green parties are more influential, where environmental issues are more prominent in the political system, and where PRR parties take more openly anti-environmental positions. By contrast, in the absence of these conditions, hostility towards environmental policies tends to diminish.

The research also stands out for its attention to possible alternative directions of influence between voting behaviour and climate attitudes, and for the adoption of innovative methodological strategies already tested in international comparative studies. The prize jury highlighted the scientific robustness and originality of the work, which opens up new perspectives in the study of the relationship between the populist radical right and climate change.

A new composite material, based on the interaction between cerium oxide and carbon nanostructures, has been developed in a study coordinated by the University of Trieste and the University of Bologna and published in Advanced Functional Materials. The material has demonstrated the ability to convert CO₂ electrochemically with high energy efficiency, while using a significantly reduced amount of catalytically active components.

Carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas and a direct driver of global warming, is at the centre of international research efforts towards a net-zero economy. Electrocatalysis is one of the most promising strategies for transforming CO₂ into products useful to industry, while also contributing to the decarbonisation of production processes.

As Michele Melchionna, Professor of General and Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Trieste, who co-authored the study with Giovanni Valenti of the University of Bologna, explains ‘The catalytic conversion of CO₂ is one of the most interesting and relevant challenges in the current scientific landscape and must be integrated into sustainable processes such as photocatalysis or electrocatalysis. This requires the development of rather complex catalytic materials, since the efficiency of CO₂ chemical conversion critically depends on a precise balance of the catalyst’s properties. For this reason, a highly effective strategy is to exploit the appropriate interfacing of multiple phases, as in our project.’

Paolo Fornasiero, Professor of General and Inorganic Chemistry at UniTS and co-author of the study together with UniTS researcher Miriam Marchi, highlights another key aspect of the work: ‘In a politically unstable context, where the extraction and distribution of strategic chemical elements are heavily dependent on geopolitics, it becomes increasingly important to maximise catalytic efficiency and material stability, thereby reducing the quantities needed to achieve performance that is industrially acceptable.’

The study also involved research groups from the University of Padua and the San Sebastián CIC biomaGUNE research centre and was carried out with the support of several projects, including the European H2020 Decade project and the Italian PRIN-PNRR ECHO-EF and PRIDE projects. 

Link to the article

The University of Trieste is one of five of research institutions participating in the INSIDE oceanographic mission (Unravelling the lithosphere-asthenosphere system of the Tyrrhenian back arc basin through geological, petrological and geophysical data, integration and geodynamic modelling), a campaign coordinated by the national research centre (CNR) that brings together an international team aboard the research vessel, the Gaia Blu. The campaign aim is to improve knowledge of the Tyrrhenian seabed and the underlying geological structures. 

Some of the most important activities include the measurement of terrestrial heat flow and the application of advanced seismic imaging techniques. The latter of which allows researchers to obtain high-resolution images of the bathymetry and seabed, making it possible to identify active faults, recent sedimentary deposits and ongoing deformations. Heat flow measurements, on the other hand, mean the heat rising from the Earth's mantle towards the seabed can be quantified. This is a decisive parameter for assessing the thermal state and tectonic activity of the basin.

The new data acquired is unprecedented in its accuracy and will offer new insights into the thermodynamics of the Tyrrhenian region and its relationship with seismic and volcanic phenomena.

On board the Gaia Blu are Prof. Magdala Tesauro, professor of Solid Earth Geophysics, and research assistant Dr Racine Abigail Basant, both from the Department of Mathematics, Computer Science and Geosciences. The Trieste group contributes to the choice of data acquisition points, data collection and laboratory analysis. 

'The interpretation of these results,’ emphasises Prof. Tesauro, 'will allow us to estimate the physical properties of the crust and upper mantle of the Tyrrhenian basin, achieving one of the main objectives of the project.’

The INSIDE mission is coordinated by Dr Maria Filomena Loreto of the Institute of Marine Sciences of the National Research Council (CNR-ISMAR) and involves the participation of UniTS, the Department of Earth, Environmental and Life Sciences at the University of Genoa (DISTAV), the Rome2 INGV section on 'Geomagnetism, Aeronomy and Environmental Geophysics', and the Université de la Sorbonne (UPMC, Paris).

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.’