AIRC Foundation supports Italian oncology research for 2026 through different types of grants that aim to make the national research ecosystem more competitive. This year, the University of Trieste benefits from two grants that support ongoing efforts to apply artificial intelligence to genomic and clinical data for a better understanding of how cancers evolve and how they respond to therapies.

Prof. Giulio Caravagna, Professor of Informatics at the Department of Mathematics, Computer Science and Geosciences (MIGe), is the recipient of a one-year Bridge Grant (almost €100,000), which comes at the end of the five-year My First AIRC Grant and allows the continuation of the work. The project — Characterising genotype and phenotype clonal evolution to response to therapy with Artificial Intelligence  — focuses on the analysis of clonal evolution in leukemia, in collaboration with the Oncological Reference Centre (CRO), Aviano, San Raffaele Research hospital and, in this new phase, with Area Science Park. The group will use tools developed in the first project to study the processes that drive the development of leukemia and to develop innovative methods to support increasingly targeted precision medicine strategies.

AIRC also renews its support for Alice Antonello, who is in the second year of the three-year project Dissecting the role and mechanisms of chromosomal instability in cancer evolution using Artificial Intelligence , which will receive a total of over €100,000. Research focuses on the application of artificial intelligence methods to DNA data to clarify the link between the occurrence of specific mutations and exposure to mutagenic agents: This is a crucial step to better recognise risk factors and guide prevention and intervention strategies.

The announcement of AIRC funding coincides, as usual, with Le Arance della Salute (oranges for research), the initiative that combines fundraising and public awareness on the importance of prevention through healthy living. On Saturday, 24th January, thousands of volunteers will be in the squares with small nets of red oranges, jars of jam and honey; along with solidarity products, a special publication will also be available to help citizens distinguish false information from science-based content, debunking myths about nutrition, physical activity and lifestyle.

In Trieste, stands will be set up on Via Dante (at the corner of Via San Nicolò), Piazzale Rosmini, Campo San Giacomo and the Torri d’Europa shopping centre.

From the Roman ports of Aquileia and Tergeste to shipbuilding in Monfalcone, from ‘multicultural’ Trieste to the memories of the two World Wars in Gorizia, up to the history of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region: seven talks to span two millennia of transformations, frontiers and coexistence in the Venezia Giulia area.

These and related themes are at the centre of ‘Ports, Peoples and Societies in a Borderland’, a public seminar series promoted by the Department of Humanities (DiSU) at the University of Trieste and supported by the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region. Opening on Wednesday 21st January, the series explores the history of Venezia Giulia through migrations, identities and memories.

The initiative is itinerant and will consist of six public talks, covering four cities in Friuli Venezia Giulia - Trieste, Gorizia, Grado and Ronchi dei Legionari – with the aim of engaging a broad audience in some key aspects of the long-term history of Venezia Giulia in our region. 

‘The six talks,’ explains Tullia Catalan, Professor of Contemporary History at the University of Trieste and project lead, ‘will bring together historians and specialists from different disciplines to discuss themes such as the port systems of the area from Roman origins to the present, the social, national and linguistic borders typical of a borderland, the memories of the two World Wars, and the economic transformations and migratory flows past and present.’

These are themes in which the University of Trieste is also engaged internationally through Transform4Europe, the European alliance of universities that UniTS helped found and which highlights the role of universities in borderlands.

Institutions in the region have actively contributed to the organisation of the talks. ‘Trieste, Grado, Ronchi and Gorizia offered to host and promote the events,’ notes Catalan, ‘a sign of the strong relationships that the University of Trieste has built over the years with the cultural institutions of the Venezia Giulia area.’

The concluding talk, dedicated to the creation and development of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region, will take place in Trieste on 17th April 2026 and will be organised in collaboration with the Department of Humanities and Cultural Heritage at the University of Udine.

Programme

21st January at 16:30, Civico Museo Sartorio, Sala Costantinides (Largo Papa Giovanni XXIII, 1), Trieste
Discovering the ancient world: the Roman ports and peoples of Aquileia and Tergeste
with Fulvia Mainardis (UniTS), Emanuela Murgia (UniTS), Monica Chiabà (UniTS) and Tullia Catalan (UniTS)

The speakers will retrace the Roman origins of the two ports and their commercial role through the archaeological evidence of Trieste and Aquileia. They will discuss life in the two ports, maritime trade and the various peoples who passed through the region, bringing new languages, cultures and knowledge.

25th February at 16:30, Civico Museo Sartorio, Sala Costantinides (Largo Papa Giovanni XXIII, 1), Trieste
The rich and the poor in Trieste from the Middle Ages to the contemporary era
with Miriam Davide (UniTS), Andrea Scartabellati (independent researcher), Antonio Trampus (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice) and Tullia Catalan (UniTS)

Local society and its population will be examined across different periods through the lenses of social justice, philanthropy and charity, with attention to everyday life and the needs of a multi-ethnic and multi-religious population. The focus will also include key institutions such as the Istituto Generale dei Poveri, tracing its transformations from the Habsburg to the Fascist period and its current role within contemporary welfare.

4th March at 16:30, Consorzio Culturale del Monfalconese, Conference Room (Piazza Unità d’Italia, 24), Ronchi dei Legionari
Shipbuilding and the city: the Monfalcone shipyard from the nineteenth century to today
with Massimo Degrassi (UniTS), Giuseppe Grimaldi (UniTS), Giulio Mellinato (University of Milano-Bicocca) and Tullia Catalan (UniTS)

This talk retraces the relationship between the shipyard and the city from the Habsburg period to the present. Through labour history, the evolution of urban space linked to the shipyard and the history of migration, the speakers will trace the transformation of Monfalcone into a key contemporary site of global labour dynamics.

5th March at 16:30, Sala del Consiglio Comunale di Grado (Municipio, Piazza Biagio Marin, 4), Grado
Grado between Austria and Italy: the making of a seaside tourist resort
with Massimo Degrassi (UniTS), Luciano Cicogna (Municipality of Grado), Paride Camuffo (independent researcher) and Tullia Catalan (UniTS)

Grado’s attraction as a tourist destination dates back to the nineteenth century, when it became a seaside health resort and summer retreat for the Austrian bourgeoisie. This led to the architectural transformation of its urban spaces, the organisation of summer social life and, over time, to its development as a seaside destination to the present day. Grado therefore offers a contemporary example of sustainable tourism, grounded in its long-standing history as a holiday resort.

30th March at 16:30, Musei provinciali di Gorizia, Conference Room (Borgo Castello, 13), Gorizia
Monuments, museums and the memory of the two World Wars in Gorizia
with Massimo Baioni (University of Milan), Massimo Degrassi (UniTS), Alessandro Cattunar (Associazione Quarantasettezeroquattro) and Tullia Catalan (UniTS)

Gorizia was deeply scarred by the violence of the two World Wars, which left material and intangible traces of its past. Today the city is a symbol of the fruitful and peaceful relations between Italy and Slovenia, and the border has become a space of cultural crossings, also through the various museum exhibitions on both sides of the border. The talk will explore these themes through a range of perspectives.

1st April at 16:30, Civico Museo Sartorio, Sala Costantinides (Largo Papa Giovanni XXIII, 1), Trieste
Multicultural city, ‘quintessentially Italian’ city, city of science: Trieste between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries
with Luca Giuseppe Manenti (Manlio Cecovini International Disclosure Society for Historical, Social and Ethical Studies), Tullia Catalan (UniTS), Elisabetta Vezzosi (UniTS) and Alessandro Carrieri (UniTS)

The great Habsburg port, crossroads of cultures and religions, underwent profound change after the World War I, with major population shifts driven by migration flows and a policy of mass nationalisation promoted by the Italian government of the time. For decades the border with eastern Europe became a wall, strongly opposing Slovenians and Italians. This tense climate persisted after the World War II and began to ease only in the 1960s and 1970s, thanks in part to the role of culture and science in the city, which acted as bridges to the East during the Cold War.

17th April at 16:30, FVG Region building, Tessitori multimedia room (Piazza Guglielmo Oberdan, 5), Trieste
Friuli Venezia Giulia 1963-2025: the creation and history of a special-statute region
with Raoul Pupo (UniTS), Igor Guardiancich (University of Padua), Patrick Karlsen (UniTS), Tullia Catalan (UniTS), Elena D’Orlando (University of Udine), Andrea Tilatti (University of Udine) and Andrea Zannini (University of Udine)

The concluding talk focuses on the creation and subsequent development of Friuli Venezia Giulia as a special-statute region, established by constitutional law on 31st January 1963. It will examine both the legal aspects of the region’s formation and the historical reasons underlying its establishment.

An agreement has been signed between UniTS, ISPRA (Italian Higher Institute for Environmental Protection and Research) and the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region for the creation of the ‘Cividale’ CARG sheet, as part of the national programme for creating a Geological Map of Italy. 

A CARG sheet refers to a portion of the national territory, corresponding to a defined cartographic area, for which an official geological map of Italy is produced at a 1:50,000 scale, accompanied by a database and an explanatory report.

The CARG Project is a national programme coordinated by ISPRA aimed at creating and updating the official Geological Map of Italy. Activities include detailed geological surveys, stratigraphic and structural analyses, and the organisation of data in a national geological database.

The products of the CARG Project constitute a fundamental knowledge for spatial planning, for supporting sustainable development policies and for preventing and mitigating natural risks, especially hydrogeological and seismic risks. The maps are used by public bodies, local administrations and professionals as a technical reference for land management, infrastructure design and environmental protection.

The agreement is part of a broader framework of activities carried out by UniTS over the last four years as part of the CARG Project. During this period, two other CARG sheets have been completed or are currently in progress: ‘Trieste–Caresana’ and ‘Gorizia’. The total funding for the three sheets coordinated by the University is around €1,700,000, coming largely from ISPRA and partly from the FVG Region.

The scientific director of the projects coordinated by the University of Trieste is Lorenzo Bonini, associate professor of Geology at the Department of Mathematics, Computer Science and Geosciences (MIGe).

‘Architecture and city. Learning from European Capitals of Culture’ can be downloaded free of charge from the Trieste University Press (EUT) catalogue https://eut.units.it/en/catalogo/architecture-and-city-learning-from-european-capitals-of-culture/10053

The volume explores forty years of the European Capital of Culture Programme as a tool for urban transformation and regeneration: this is the first organic attempt to ‘line up’ the European Capitals of Culture from Athens in 1985 to Nova Gorica/Gorizia in 2025 by systematically comparing them and highlighting the relationship between the Programme, related event, outcomes and, above all, legacy, i.e. their urban and architectural heritage. 

Between case studies, essays and mappings, the UniTS authors Thomas Bisiani, Sonia Prestamburgo and Adriano Venudo tell how architecture, temporary events, art, cultural events and strategies can generate new urban futures.

A collective and interdisciplinary journey that explores the image of the city and designs its evolving reality.

‘Architecture and city. Learning from European Capitals of Culture’ is the result of the teaching and research activities developed in the RRR Lab (2023-2024 and 2024-2025 academic years), with the contribution of the COLGO! and VAGO student associations.

The fifth edition of the Ingenio al femminile Award, a celebration of female talent, has selected UniTS PhD student Giulia Saccomano as winner of the ‘Best doctoral thesis’ category for her work ‘From pixels to diagnosis: applications of X-ray Virtual Histology (XVH) in clinical pathology’.

Supported by the Italian National Council of Engineers and designed to foster women’s talent and representation in engineering, this year’s award is inspired by the theme ‘Artificial Intelligence meets the challenges of 2050’.

The motivation reads:

‘Traditional histopathological examination provides two-dimensional images due to histological samples’ cut plane. XVH, on the other hand, is a technique that allows high-resolution, non-destructive three-dimensional observations while preserving the structure of the organ under examination. The research work involved the integration of advanced deep learning algorithms to manage and analyse large XVH datasets. Automated organ segmentation in XVH images improves the identification of critical characteristics such as cell architecture and the margins of a tumour mass, while also being able to accurately calculate the values of prognostic markers without the need to physically dissect the affected part. The research has led to the integration between clinical diagnostic imaging of the Department of Pathological Anatomy of Trieste’s hospital and physical-experimental imaging of Elettra Sincrotrone Trieste, and the application of AI algorithms, in collaboration with the Computational Pathology Group at Radboud UMC (Netherlands), to improve the automatic segmentation of tumour masses and overcome the limits of traditional histopathology.’

After 15 years of research, including three dedicated to the collection of non-profit funding, the MirtaRett project coordinated by Enrico Tongiorgi (UniTS Department of Life Sciences), finally enters clinical practice with the administration of the first therapy to a young patient at the Gaslini Hospital in Genoa.

In February 2025, the Italian Pharmaceuticals Agency (AIFA) received the positive opinion of the National Ethics Committee for Paediatric Studies and thus gave the green light to the first worldwide trial on Mirtazapine in Rett Syndrome, a serious neurological disease that affects almost exclusively girls.

The clinical study, coordinated by the University of Trieste, will initially extend to 15 young patients and will take place in the main Italian reference hospitals for Rett Syndrome. The trial is fully covered by non-profit funds.

The project is supported by the unconditional contribution of Angelini Pharma SpA, Fondazione Canali Onlus, Fondazione Ico Falck and Fondazione Amadei and Setti. In addition to the pharmacological experimentation, the project also provides for the continuous monitoring of patients' vital parameters, such as breathing, heart rate and blood oxygenation. For this purpose, smart T-shirts are used, already distributed to hospitals in Genoa, Siena, Messina and Milan. Originally developed for monitoring athletes, these T-shirts are made of cotton woven with nanofibres capable of detecting the weak electrical signals of the human body and are tailor-made for each patient by the Italian company AccYouRate Group.

What is Mirtazapine?

Mirtazapine is a commercially available drug, therefore more easily accessible and sustainable. To facilitate its intake, a European company has been identified that can produce it in liquid formulation, a solution that is not widespread since the drug is normally marketed globally as tablets. ‘Our laboratory at UniTS Department of Life Sciences was the first in the world to demonstrate that mirtazapine, despite being an antidepressant, acts on broader mechanisms and can improve breathing, motor control, sleep quality and social communication in patients with Rett’s syndrome,’ explains Prof. Tongiorgi.

Access to the trial is open to new patients

In Friuli Venezia Giulia it is estimated that there are three or four girls affected by the syndrome who are not currently included in the study, but the prospects remain encouraging. ‘We hope that the health facilities in the region will also be able to participate in the trial,’ Tongiorgi said.

To ensure the scientific validity of the study, it is necessary to reach a total of 54 patients aged between 5 and 40 years, divided into the ranges 5-10, 11-17 and 18-40 years. Approximately one third have been recruited so the search for new participants is still open.

Improve comfort on board, resetting the vibro-acoustic footprint to protect the marine environment and ensure the wellbeing of passengers and crew. These are the ambitious objectives that kicked off the research and development project ‘SilentShip - Acoustic Black Holes, a new frontier for silent ships’.

The initiative, strategic and co-financed by the Regional ERDF Programme of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region, sees the Department of Engineering and Architecture (DIA) of the University of Trieste as a scientific partner, alongside industrial leaders such as Fincantieri and Esteco, with the management support of MareFVG. The project leader is Consorzio Servizi Navali e Industriali - CSNI.

The key to innovation lies in Acoustic Black Holes (ABH), devices based on a particular geometry and applied to parts of the structures. In practice, these geometries cause vibrations to ‘concentrate’ there: mechanical energy slows down and is more easily dissipated by dedicated materials or treatments. This is why ABHs are described as real ‘wells’ of vibrational energy. The use of this technology makes it possible to design light and sustainable solutions to limit the propagation of vibrations generated by the main machinery and, consequently, to contain the noise perceived on board and radiated outwards.

Within the project, the Department of Engineering and Architecture will play a crucial role ranging from theory to experimentation. The research team is led by Giada Kyaw Oo D'Amore, junior researcher at DIA, as scientific project manager and UniTS coordinator and includes Prof. Marco Biot, Prof. Mitja Morgut and Giovanni Rognoni, research assistant at DIA.

UniTS researchers will focus on developing advanced numerical models and performing complex simulations aimed at identifying the most effective ABH geometries and the essential parameters to optimise them. These analyses will also produce useful guidelines to establish where to place prototypes on naval structures to obtain the maximum effect.

The research group will also provide a fundamental contribution in the validation phase, in fact it will design and conduct progressive tests, from the laboratory to naval mock-ups, up to the tests on board the ship. These activities will be used to detect the real stresses that vibrations generate, so as to insert them accurately in numerical models. Tests will also be used to verify the effectiveness of the solutions identified on the computer and to refine the prototypes, ensuring that the expected performance in simulation is confirmed even under operational conditions.

Finally, the commitment of the DIA will extend to sustainability and open innovation aspects. The team will carry out Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) of the developed product and will conduct studies to apply Open Innovation solutions consistent with the philosophy of Company 5.0, in which technological progress is oriented both towards improving quality of life and reducing environmental impacts. The Department will also contribute to the definition of the technical specifications of the product and the production process.

The ‘SilentShip’ project has a total funding of € 1,366,685.17, with a regional contribution of € 822,016.20 and EU co-financing of € 328,806.48. The budget available to the UniTS team amounts to € 418 130.20, confirming the importance of the research work carried out by researchers at the University of Trieste.

With a duration of 42 months, the project aims to set a new technological frontier in the naval sector, making vessels not only more comfortable for humans, but also more respectful of the marine environment.

Artificial intelligence capable of translating international guidelines for the treatment of hepatitis C into clear clinical responses consistent with the most up-to-date standards: this is the focus of an international study led by Mauro Giuffrè, PhD student at the University of Trieste (Department of Medicine, Surgery and Health Sciences) and researcher at the Yale University School of Medicine, validated by the same authors of the European guidelines for the treatment of the disease.

Hepatitis C is an infection caused by HCV, which affects the liver and can develop into chronic forms with serious complications, such as cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. According to the World Health Organisation, around 58 million people worldwide live with chronic infection and there are over 1.5 million new cases each year. WHO has set an ambitious goal of eliminating hepatitis C as a public health threat by 2030, aiming to reduce new infections by 90% and deaths by 65%.

The development of innovative tools based on artificial intelligence, such as that presented in the study by the University of Trieste, plays a key role in pursuing these objectives: Improving adherence to therapeutic guidelines and facilitating access to appropriate care even in contexts with limited resources are concrete steps that can contribute to achieving global targets.

Significant improvements in clinical accuracy

The team developed and tested two innovative approaches to specialise GPT-4 in HCV management. On the one hand, they developed a retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) system that integrates European guidelines in real time which has been tested in two variants (RAG-Top1, which retrieves the single most relevant paragraph, and RAG-Top10, which retrieves the ten most relevant paragraphs). On the other hand, they developed a supervised fine-tuning (SFT) training of the language model on the guidelines’ contents.

The results exceeded all expectations: compared to 36.6% of the GPT-4 base model, the RAG-Top10 model achieved an accuracy of 91.7% in expert evaluations, RAG-Top1 81.7% and the SFT model 71.7%, thus achieving significant improvements compared to the standard model.

A novel validation system that includes guideline extenders and clinical experts

What makes this study particularly relevant is the applied validation methodology, a new entry in the scientific literature. Two separate groups of evaluators were recruited. The first group consisted of four expert hepatologists, selected from the lead authors and chairs of the HCV guidelines of the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL), the leading European experts in the treatment of hepatitis C and the drafters of the international guidelines.

A second group of hepatologists was added from a tertiary reference centre (Humanitas Hospital, Rozzano), ensuring a double perspective of evaluation between guideline theorists and clinical

practitioners in the field. This approach allowed us to obtain what the researchers themselves define as ‘an evaluation that approaches the gold standard in defining the accuracy of the outputs.’

Towards responsible integration of AI in medicine

The findings open up concrete perspectives for the use of artificial intelligence in clinical decision support. Both RAG and SFT significantly improve the performance of Large Language Models (LLMs) in managing hepatitis C through guidelines, improving not only the accuracy and clarity of responses, but also the selection of therapeutic regimens in clinical scenarios. The study represents a significant step towards what the authors call ‘the safe integration of Generative Artificial Intelligence into clinical practice’, confirming the potential of specialised and expertly validated language models as concrete decision support tools in medicine, particularly valuable in highly complex contexts such as the management of chronic liver diseases. The research, presented in the article From Guidelines to Real-Time Conversation: Expert-Validated Retrieval-Augmented and Fine-Tuned GPT-4 for Hepatitis C Management, published on Liver International, was supported by Nicola Pugliese and Alessio Aghemo (Humanitas University), bioengineers from the University of Trieste Simone Kresevic and Milos Ajcevic (Department of Engineering and Architecture) and an international network of hepatologists and artificial intelligence specialists, including Dennis L. Shung (Yale), Francesco Negro (University Hospitals of Geneva), Massimo Puoti (Niguarda General Hospital; University of Milan Bicocca), Xavier Forns (Hospital Clínic Barcelona; IDIBAPS; CIBERehd) and Jean-Michel Pawlotsky (UPEC/INSERM; AP-HP Paul Brousse, Paris).

A study conducted by UniTS professors Luca Cegolon (also working at ASUGI Hygiene and Preventive Medicine Department) and Francesca Larese Filon (ASUGI Occupational Medicine Department) has just published in the international scientific journal Contact Dermatitis (Wiley). The researched was focused on contact allergy to 5% nickel sulfate in 31,948 patients who underwent patch tests in Triveneto from 1997 to 2023.

Nickel is the most frequent cause of contact allergy, a hypersensitivity that can develop after repeated and prolonged skin exposures to allergens.

In 1994, EU Directive 94/27/EC restricted the use of nickel in jewellery and other consumer products that may come into contact with human skin.

Although this measure has led to a progressive reduction in nickel awareness in Europe, the benefit has mainly been seen in younger generations. Older people, on the other hand, who were sensitised before the entry into force of the Directive, contribute to the prevalence of nickel contact allergy at the global level.

In detail, the geographical distribution of nickel awareness is heterogeneous and tends to be higher in Mediterranean countries than in Northern Europe, probably due to a late and less stringent application of the European Directive.

Outside the European Union, specifically in North America and Japan, there continues to be a higher and increasing prevalence of nickel sensitisation over the years, due to the lack of restrictive legislation in this area.

The University of Trieste study points out that the prevalence of nickel sensitisation was 26.1% during the study period (1997-2023), followed a progressively decreasing time trend and was significantly lower in males. The trend also revealed an inverted U-shaped trend with respect to the year of birth among women, falling from 35.70% in those born between 1955 and 1964 to 46.24% in those born between 1965 and 1974, to 41.36% among those born in 1975-1984.

The inverted U-shaped pattern of positive reactions to patch tests by year of birth reflects nickel exposure and sensitisation in women aged 20 to 50 years, prior to the entry into force of the European Directive.

As regards the work performed by the persons surveyed, there was a significantly higher prevalence of positive reactions to the patch test among traders, while it was lower among pensioners and housewives. A higher prevalence of positive reactions among traders could reflect prolonged exposure in professions involving coin manipulation, while age-related immunosenescence could explain the lower prevalence of sensitisation in pensioners and housewives.

Although decreasing over the years, the prevalence of positive reactions to nickel has nevertheless remained higher than that of the northern European countries, probably due to a late and less rigorous application of the aforementioned European Directive. Other factors that may contribute to the higher prevalence of sensitisation in Mediterranean countries than in Northern Europe include social trends that have prompted Italian women to use nickel-containing jewellery products early, and higher ambient temperatures that facilitate the release and penetration of allergens into human skin from nickel-containing products.