Is it possible to recover genetic information from plankton samples preserved in formalin for seven years? The answer is yes. This is demonstrated by a new study resulting from a collaboration between the University of Trieste (UniTS) and the National Institute of Oceanography and Applied Research (OGS), recently published in the Journal of Plankton Research.

The study analysed samples of mesozooplankton collected in the Gulf of Trieste in 2017 and preserved in formalin for approximately seven years.

What is mesozooplankton? It refers to the community of small animal organisms that live in seawater and, although often invisible to the naked eye, play a fundamental role in marine ecosystems. It includes, for example, small crustaceans, larvae, and other organisms that form an essential component of the marine food web.

These organisms are normally identified under a microscope. This study instead applied DNA metabarcoding, extracting and sequencing genetic material from zooplankton samples collected and fixed in formalin. In practice, rather than searching for and identifying organisms one by one, the method analyses the “genetic code” present in the sample to reconstruct which species or groups of organisms are present.

Formalin damages DNA, making these analyses particularly challenging. Despite this obstacle, the researchers were able to recover a significant amount of biological information. Comparison with microscopic identification showed that the molecular method can identify a substantial proportion of the organisms present.

Historical collections as biodiversity archives

The most important finding of the study concerns future prospects. Research institutes and museums around the world hold vast historical collections of plankton, collected over decades and often preserved in formalin.

These samples could therefore represent not only archives of biodiversity observable under a microscope, but also genetic archives of marine life from the past.

Analysing them could make it possible to reconstruct how marine communities have changed over time, by comparing present-day biodiversity with that of decades ago. It could also help retrospectively identify the presence of non-native species, including during the early stages of their appearance in a given area.

The study was supported by the Interconnected Nord-Est Innovation Ecosystem (iNEST) and the National Biodiversity Future Center (NBFC)**, both funded by the European Union – NextGenerationEU under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR)**.

Aneta Aleksova, Associate Professor of Cardiovascular Diseases at the University of Trieste, has been elected to the Board of the Association for Acute CardioVascular Care (ACVC) of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) for the 2026–2028 term and appointed Co-Chair of Education, with a coordinating role in the association’s educational activities in the field of acute cardiovascular care.

The new appointments were officially announced during ESC Congress 2026, held in Munich from 28 to 31 August. Aneta Aleksova is one of the seven elected Ordinary Board Members of ACVC, the European Society of Cardiology association dedicated to the care of patients with acute cardiovascular conditions.

Following her election to the Board, ACVC President Alessandro Sionis appointed Aneta Aleksova Co-Chair of Education. During her term, the UniTS professor will contribute to coordinating the specialist training activities promoted by the association, including simulation-based and hands-on programmes such as the ACVC Simulation School and the ACVC-EAPCI Cardiogenic Shock School, a programme dedicated to the management of cardiogenic shock and organised across different levels of training. Her role will also involve collaboration with ACVC groups working in the fields of accreditation, artificial intelligence and research.

The new appointment is closely connected with Aneta Aleksova’s work at the University of Trieste in the field of simulation-based medical education. She is the Scientific Director of the University’s Centre for Medical Simulation and Advanced Training (CSMAA), where students and healthcare professionals can train in high-fidelity clinical scenarios using advanced technologies and simulation-based activities. Aneta Aleksova is also a certified instructor in Medical Simulation, Basic Life Support (BLS) and Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support (ACLS).

Aneta Aleksova has also joined the ACVC research group coordinated by Professor Karl Huber of the University of Vienna, in recognition of her research on myocardial infarction and cardiac arrest. In recent years, she has received ACVC scientific awards for studies focusing on biomarkers in myocardial infarction and prognosis. The research was carried out at the Molecular Cardiology Laboratory of the ASUGI Cardiology Complex Unit, which she leads, through national and international collaborations.

The roles entrusted to Professor Aleksova within these European networks further strengthen the standing of Cardiology at the University of Trieste and of the ASUGI Cardiology Complex Unit, directed by Professor Gianfranco Sinagra.

How can we track the behaviour of a gas once it has been injected deep beneath the Earth’s surface? This is the challenge at the heart of SBEM (Svelvik Borehole Electromagnetic Monitoring), an experimental campaign carried out in Norway by a team from the Exploration Geophysics Group of the Department of Mathematics, Informatics and Geosciences (MIGE) at the University of Trieste.

The experiment took place at the Svelvik CO₂ Field Lab, near Oslo, a research facility operated by the Norwegian research centre SINTEF and designed to test technologies for monitoring underground gas storage under controlled yet realistic conditions.

At the core of the SBEM campaign is borehole electromagnetic monitoring, a geophysical technique being tested to reconstruct the distribution and evolution of gas injected into the subsurface. This capability is crucial for the safe and economically sustainable development of both carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) and underground hydrogen storage.

An international laboratory bringing research “into the field”

The Svelvik CO₂ Field Lab serves as a bridge between laboratory research and future industrial-scale applications. The University of Trieste group was able to access the facility and carry out the experimental campaign thanks to Geo-INQUIRE (Geosphere INfrastructures for QUestions into Integrated REsearch), a project funded under Horizon Europe that facilitates transnational access to Europe’s leading geoscientific research infrastructures.

The proposal submitted by the Trieste team was selected through a competitive process under the Geo-INQUIRE call, enabling the researchers to design and carry out the experimental activities directly in the field.

From proposal to field research: training through experience

A distinctive feature of the project was the direct involvement of PhD students Elisa Ligas and Giovanni Pantaleo, who followed the entire research process: from preparing the proposal and designing the geophysical acquisition to setting up the instrumentation and conducting the fieldwork, through to data processing, analysis and interpretation.

“This project demonstrates what the University of Trieste offers its students and PhD candidates: the opportunity to design and conduct original research at the forefront of current technology, in close collaboration with international research and industrial organisations,” highlights Michele Pipan, coordinator of the Exploration Geophysics Group and of the Master’s Degree Programme in Geophysics and Geodata. “Experiences such as this one at Svelvik turn PhD students into independent researchers, ready to contribute to the technologies needed for the energy transition.”

FUSE Project (UniTS–UniUD–OGS)

Underground hydrogen storage (UHS) and natural (“white”) hydrogen resources are emerging as key components of Europe’s energy transition strategy, offering large-scale, flexible and low-carbon solutions that can help mitigate the intermittency of some renewable energy sources and strengthen energy security.

Achieving the objectives of the European Hydrogen Strategy and global net-zero roadmaps requires robust geoscientific evidence and advanced technological capabilities to identify, characterise and monitor suitable geological formations. Reducing the risks associated with subsurface operations—from technical and environmental risks to geological hazards—requires new integrated research infrastructures.

The FUSE project, launched in April 2025, addresses this need. Developed through a strategic partnership between OGS, the University of Trieste and the University of Udine, FUSE is building an open, distributed infrastructure that combines state-of-the-art geophysical instrumentation, laboratory facilities and multiscale modelling environments.

The infrastructure integrates borehole geophysical logging systems, seismic, geoelectric and electromagnetic instruments, fibre-optic and orbital-vibrator monitoring solutions, as well as airborne/drone-based magnetic and gravimetric sensing capabilities. These are complemented by advanced laboratory platforms for petrophysics and fluid dynamics.

Together, these components will enable improved imaging, experimentation and simulation of hydrogen–rock–fluid interactions in Italy and beyond.

An international study published in PLOS Medicine documents the progressive decline in stillbirth and early neonatal mortality between 1990 and 2023 across 17 low- and middle-income countries (Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Egypt, Jordan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Colombia, and Peru).

The study was conducted by Dr Mohammed Ali (World Health Organization, Geneva) and Prof. Saverio Bellizzi (United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health, Ontario, Canada), in collaboration with Prof. Luca Cegolon, Professor of Hygiene and Preventive Medicine at the University of Trieste.

Lower perinatal mortality was found to be associated with residence in urban areas, higher levels of maternal education, greater household socioeconomic status, and stronger national welfare systems. By contrast, maternal age of 30 years or older was associated with an increased risk.

Stillbirth and early neonatal mortality remain a major global health challenge, with the vast majority of cases occurring in low- and middle-income countries that rely on household surveys—such as the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS)—for their estimates, as civil registration systems are often incomplete.

However, DHS data tend to underestimate the scale of the problem and misclassify cases of stillbirth and early neonatal death, limiting their usefulness for planning maternal and child health interventions.

“Although most countries have experienced a decline in perinatal mortality, progress remains uneven and significant socioeconomic disparities persist. Strengthening maternal and neonatal health services and improving data collection systems in low- and middle-income countries remain essential to accelerate progress towards the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of reducing perinatal mortality,” state Prof. Cegolon and Dr Bellizzi.

The study, recently published in PLOS Medicine, analysed 93 DHS surveys conducted between 1990 and 2023 across 17 low- and middle-income countries, covering a total of 1,019,253 reported pregnancies among 733,181 women. Pregnancies lasting at least seven months were included, in line with the standard definition of stillbirth.

Age-specific risks of stillbirth and early neonatal death were estimated using life-table methods and a modified Gompertz-Makeham model, which is able to correct for common DHS data-quality issues, including underreporting, misclassification between stillbirths and deaths occurring on days 0–1 after birth, and age heaping at death—that is, the tendency to systematically report neonatal deaths as occurring at 7 days of age rather than on adjacent days.

Can artificial intelligence help us assess how robust a scientific finding is? This is the question at the heart of the Predicting Replicability Challenge, an international competition organised by the Center for Open Science, in which Federico D’Atri, a PhD student at the University of Trieste, took third place, receiving a prize of $3,375.

The COS competition tested automated systems designed to estimate the likelihood that a scientific finding will be confirmed when a study is independently replicated. In other words, the algorithms are asked to “predict” whether repeating a study with new data and new samples will produce similar results. Replicability is an important factor in assessing the reliability of scientific research, as it helps determine how robust a finding is and whether it can be confirmed using new data.

To generate his predictions, D’Atri developed a system based primarily on a Large Language Model (LLM) specifically adapted and trained for this task. The model analysed the full text of scientific papers, using the information they contained to estimate the likelihood that their findings would be confirmed by an independent replication.

In one of the solutions he submitted, the LLM’s predictions were also combined with those of a more traditional machine-learning model, which used structured information from the studies, including sample size, statistical significance, effect size, year of publication and research discipline.

In the final round of the competition, participants worked on studies from the Replicability Project: Health Behavior, which focuses on health-related behaviours. For each finding, they had to estimate the likelihood that it would be confirmed by an independent replication before learning the actual outcome.

“This topic stems from a long-standing interest of mine in the replicability and reliability of scientific findings, particularly in psychology and the social sciences,” explains D’Atri. “The project gave me the opportunity to explore how artificial intelligence tools can be applied to the analysis of scientific literature”.

Directly replicating a study can require considerable time and resources. This is precisely where systems of this kind could find one of their most interesting future applications. Automated predictions cannot replace actual replications, but they can provide a useful initial indication more quickly and at a lower cost, helping to identify the studies for which further verification may be most valuable.

“The result achieved by PhD student Federico D’Atri once again highlights the central role of curiosity in doctoral training,” says Professor Longo, UniTS Delegate for PhD Programmes. “Curiosity can also lead researchers to explore cross-cutting topics or areas that are not strictly connected with their own research project, as in this case, while playing a fundamental role in shaping their development as researchers”.

Determining whether a gene is mutated in a tumour may not be enough. In many cases, it is also important to know how many copies of that mutated gene are present in the cancer cells and how strongly this alteration affects the behaviour of the disease.

This is the starting point of the study led by Giulio Caravagna, Professor of Computer Science at the University of Trieste and head of the Cancer Data Science Laboratory, published in Nature Genetics. The researchers proposed a new way of reading tumour DNA that more closely reflects the true complexity of cancer: mutations are considered not only in terms of whether they are present or absent, but also in relation to the tumour's overall genomic architecture.

In cancer cells, somatic mutations - those that arise during a person's lifetime in cells other than germ cells - can combine with changes in DNA copy number. As a result, some regions of the genome may be amplified while others are lost. The combination of mutations, amplifications and losses of genomic regions gives rise to the concept of gene mutant dosage. The aim is to estimate how many mutated copies of a gene are actually present in a tumour and assess whether this information has implications for prognosis and metastatic spread.

To address this question, the research team developed INCOMMON - INference of COpy number and Mutation Multiplicity in ONcology - an open-source computational method that estimates the number of mutated copies of a gene and mutation multiplicity from targeted sequencing panels routinely used in clinical oncology.

One of its most significant features is the ability to derive new information from data already generated during diagnostic workflows. INCOMMON uses advanced statistical inference and machine-learning models to interpret the results of clinical molecular tests in the light of large collections of tumours sequenced at whole-genome level.

“INCOMMON represents a new approach to obtaining higher-resolution analyses than current standards, without changing the type of data generated. This new opportunity reveals features of oncogenic processes that may prove relevant from a prognostic and predictive perspective,” explains Giulio Caravagna.

In the study, supported in part by the AIRC Foundation for Cancer Research, the researchers analysed more than 60,000 clinical patient samples, covering 39 different cancer types and over 500,000 mutations. By stratifying more than 20,000 patients according to the mutant dosage of different oncogenes and tumour suppressor genes, the team identified 46 cancer-specific biomarkers associated with overall survival.

The most significant finding is that 13 of these biomarkers, across 12 cancer types, would not have been detected using conventional models based solely on whether a gene is mutated or not. Gene mutant dosage can therefore reveal prognostic signals that a simpler reading of tumour DNA may miss.

The findings also provide new insight into the metastatic behaviour of tumours. In particular, the researchers identified 26 biomarkers recurrently associated with metastatic spread in 10 cancer types, as well as 20 biomarkers whose presence predicts a tumour's tendency to spread to specific organs in five cancer types.

“The data collected in this study show that genomic information already contained in molecular analyses routinely performed in clinical practice can be reinterpreted with far greater precision using advanced statistical inference and machine-learning systems,” says Nicola Calonaci, an AIRC-funded postdoctoral researcher at the University of Trieste and co-first author of the paper.

“One particularly interesting aspect is that gene mutant dosage seems to capture biological properties of tumours that do not emerge when mutations are treated simply as present or absent,” adds Eriseld Krasniqi, a medical oncologist at the IRCCS Regina Elena National Cancer Institute in Rome, a University of Trieste PhD candidate and co-first author of the paper. “This is especially relevant to the study of metastasis, where it has historically been very difficult to identify genomic features that distinguish primary from metastatic tumours.”

“This research is an excellent example of how collaboration between highly specialised clinical centres and computational research groups can translate into knowledge that benefits cancer patients,” says Giovanni Blandino, Scientific Director of the IRCCS Regina Elena National Cancer Institute (IRE) in Rome. “IRE's participation in a study of this scale reflects our commitment to working at the frontier of translational research, where clinical expertise meets the most advanced technologies for genomic data analysis. Extracting new information from molecular tests already available in clinical practice is one of the most promising directions for precision oncology, and an area in which we intend to continue investing.”

The work also opens the way for future studies integrating information on the treatments received by patients, to determine whether gene mutant dosage has not only prognostic value but also predictive value for response to specific therapies.

Further validation will be required before any potential clinical implementation. The direction indicated by the research is nevertheless clear: to make better use of information already available in molecular data, in order to understand disease evolution and contribute to the development of new biomarkers for precision oncology.

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STUDY PUBLISHED IN NATURE GENETICS, 31 JULY 2026

Gene mutant dosage is associated with prognosis and metastatic tropism in 60,000 clinical cancer samples

Nicola Calonaci1,†, Eriseld Krasniqi2,†, Daniel Colic3, Stefano Scalera4, Giorgia Gandolfi1, Salvatore Milite5, Konstantin Bräutigam6,7, Andrea Sottoriva5, Trevor A. Graham6, Leonardo Egidi8, Biagio Ricciuti9, Marcello Maugeri-Saccà10, and Giulio Caravagna1,11

1 Department of Mathematics, Informatics and Geosciences, University of Trieste, Italy
2 Phase IV Clinical Studies Unit, IRCCS Regina Elena National Cancer Institute, 00144 Rome, Italy
3 Institute for Research in Biomedicine, Barcelona, Spain
4 Clinical Trial Center, Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Division, IRCCS Regina Elena National Cancer Institute, Rome, Italy
5 Computational Biology Research Centre, Human Technopole, Milan, Italy
6 Centre for Evolution and Cancer, Institute of Cancer Research, London, United Kingdom
7 Institute of Medical Genetics and Pathology, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland
8 Department of Economics, Business, Mathematics and Statistics “Bruno de Finetti”, University of Trieste, Italy
9 Lowe Center for Thoracic Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
10 Division of Medical Oncology 2, IRCCS Regina Elena National Cancer Institute, Rome, Italy
11 Area Science Park, Trieste, Italy
† These authors contributed equally.

DOI: 10.1038/s41588-026-02666-z

The 14th edition of the Ciamician Summer School, organised by the University of Trieste’s Department of Engineering and Architecture, has come to an end. Nineteen students and PhD candidates from seven countries gathered at Passo Monte Croce Comelico, in the heart of the Dolomites, to explore key aspects of the energy transition alongside leading experts in the field.

Selected from around forty applications submitted by candidates from Italian and European universities, the participants followed an interdisciplinary programme focusing on the main challenges of decarbonisation: sustainable construction materials, renewable energy sources, the evolution of the electricity system, sustainable mobility, critical raw materials, and the economic, social, geopolitical and regulatory implications of the energy transition.

The Summer School brought together 22 lecturers from Italian and European universities, research institutions and companies, including University College London, the Technical University of Munich, Hasselt University, the Polytechnic University of Milan, the University of Padua, the University of Salerno, Area Science Park and CNR-INM. The opening lecture was delivered by climatologist Filippo Giorgi, one of the authors recognised with the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The speakers also included internationally renowned experts Paul Ekins of UCL and Carlo Bottasso of TUM.

Six participants received scholarships covering their registration fees thanks to the support of Edilgroup, a holding company committed to developing sustainable solutions for the construction sector, a strategic industry for reducing CO₂ emissions and achieving the objectives of the energy transition.

Named after Trieste-born chemist Giacomo Ciamician, one of the first scientists to recognise the potential of solar energy, the Summer School was established in 2010 and co-founded by Maurizio Fermeglia, Rector Emeritus of the University of Trieste, who recently passed away. This year’s edition was dedicated to his memory.

Fabrizio Sors, tenure-track Assistant Professor of General Psychology at the Department of Life Sciences of the University of Trieste, has been elected to the Managing Council of the European Federation of Sport Psychology (FEPSAC).

FEPSAC brings together researchers, practitioners and institutions active in research, education and the application of sport psychology to physical activity and human performance. Through conferences, working groups, publications and educational initiatives, it supports scientific exchange and collaboration across the field.

During his term, Sors will take part in the work of the Managing Council and in the Federation’s initiatives, contributing in particular to collaboration between researchers and practitioners, interdisciplinary exchange and the dissemination of scientific knowledge.

The appointment builds on Sors’s previous involvement in the European scientific community. At the time of his election, he was serving a second term as coordinator of the Research Department of the European Network of Young Specialists in Sport Psychology (ENYSSP), a European network of early-career researchers and practitioners that works with FEPSAC on research and education. The new role may also strengthen links between the Federation’s activities and the sport psychology research developed in Trieste.

The University of Trieste played a leading role in the success of iNEST – Interconnected Nord-Est Innovation Ecosystem, one of the major Innovation Ecosystems funded under Italy's National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), which has now concluded having fully achieved all of its project objectives. The final report by the independent scientific reviewers confirms the successful completion of all planned activities, recognizing the initiative's significant scientific, economic, and societal impact.

The University of Trieste played a key role in Spoke 8, dedicated to maritime, marine, and inland water technologies, developed in collaboration with the Alto Adriatico Technology Hub, the Eastern Adriatic Sea Port Authority, OGS - Istituto Nazionale di Oceanografia e di Geofisica Sperimentale, and the Universities of Padua, Trento, Ca' Foscari Venice, and IUAV University of Venice.

The project addressed some of the most pressing challenges related to environmental sustainability and climate resilience in the Upper Adriatic region, leveraging the area's extensive scientific expertise while promoting knowledge transfer to industry.

Spoke 8 focused on five strategic research areas: marine ecosystem biology; the management of physical and chemical hazards and their impact on the hydrosphere; sustainable coastal transport; integrated land-sea planning; and the development of the Upper Adriatic Digital Twin. By integrating environmental data, predictive models, artificial intelligence algorithms, and advanced visualization systems, the project developed innovative decision-support tools with significant benefits for the sustainable management of coastal areas.

Alongside its research activities, the project placed strong emphasis on technology transfer. In this context, it developed a digital platform designed to connect researchers, businesses, and investors, as well as a scientific and technological information service aimed at disseminating funding opportunities, research results, and best practices across the ecosystem.

A central hub for these activities was the Lab Village, hosted at the Urban Center in Trieste. Conceived as a meeting place for researchers, companies, startups, and public institutions, it was established to accelerate innovation processes and foster new collaborations.

More broadly, iNEST's achievements highlight both the scale and the effectiveness of the initiative. Over nearly four years of activity, the ecosystem produced 977 scientific publications, involved 517 researchers, supported 99 projects dedicated to early-career researchers, and, through 35 cascade funding calls, financed more than 200 projects carried out by companies, SMEs, public bodies, and regional administrations.

The 10th Symposium of the International Association for Lichenology – IAL10, the world’s leading scientific meeting devoted to lichenology, opened today, Monday 27 July, at the University of Trieste. Organised every four years by the International Association for Lichenology, the symposium is being held in Italy for the first time and is bringing researchers from around the world to the University’s Piazzale Europa campus.

Lichenology is the scientific study of lichens, complex organisms that develop through a stable association between a fungus and one or more partners capable of photosynthesis. Found in a wide variety of environments, including some of the most extreme regions on Earth, lichens provide an important model for understanding the mechanisms of symbiosis, adaptation and evolution. Their sensitivity to environmental conditions also makes them valuable tools for monitoring air quality and ecosystems, while their interaction with rocks, buildings and monuments is studied in the field of cultural heritage conservation.

The scientific proceedings, which began today in Building H3, will continue until Friday 31 July. The programme includes five plenary lectures, more than twenty thematic sessions, four workshops, oral presentations and poster sessions. Contributions explore the latest developments in genomics and other “omics” sciences, taxonomy and systematics, symbiosis biology, ecophysiology and biodiversity. Considerable attention is also being devoted to the effects of climate change, ecosystem conservation, the monitoring of urban and natural environments, and the relationship between lichens and historical monuments and buildings.

The plenary lectures are being delivered by Nina Gunde-Cimerman of the University of Ljubljana, Pavel Škaloud of Charles University in Prague, Theo Llewellyn of Imperial College London, Daniel Stanton of the University of Minnesota and Gulnara Tagirdzhanova of Stockholm University. Their presentations address topics including symbioses capable of developing in extreme environments, ecological and evolutionary parallels between lichens and corals, the genetic mechanisms underlying the production of protective substances, lichen responses to climate change and the molecular interactions between the different organisms involved in lichen symbiosis.

The local organisation is coordinated by academics from the Department of Life Sciences at the University of Trieste. The symposium president is Lucia Muggia, Professor of Systematic Botany, while Mauro Tretiach, Professor of General Botany, serves as vice-president. The scientific and organisational secretariat also includes Stefano Martellos, Professor of Systematic Botany, and Fabio Candotto Carniel, Professor of General Botany. The Trieste team is working alongside a national organising committee and an international scientific committee composed of experts from Europe, Asia, Australia and the United States.

Trieste’s bid was selected in 2021 during the previous edition of the symposium, which was held online. The decision recognised the long-standing contribution of the University’s research group to Italian and international lichenology, as well as the city’s geographical position, multicultural character and particularly extensive network of scientific institutions.

The programme is complemented by scientific field trips devoted to observing lichens in their natural environments. Two itineraries took place before the symposium, crossing the south-eastern Alps and central Italy. A further excursion is scheduled from 1 to 3 August in the Italian and Slovenian Classical Karst, with stops including the Val Rosandra Nature Reserve, the Škocjan Caves area, the Trnovo Plateau and the Duino area.

The full programme and further information are available on the official IAL10 website.