The University of Trieste, thanks to the cultural preservation and outreach work of the University Museum System (SmaTS), is opening the Ducaton Gallery, a new permanent space on the first floor of the right wing of the Gorizia campus, at Via Alviano 18. The gallery is dedicated to the pictorial cycle The Lady from the Sea by Annamaria Ducaton (1936–2026).

The cycle consists of 28 canvases donated by the Trieste painter to the University in 2024, on the occasion of the centenary of its foundation.

Created between 1984 and 1985, the cycle is inspired by Henrik Ibsen’s 1889 drama of the same name. The work represents an emotional and artistic journey in which Ducaton enters into dialogue with her mother, the actress Giannina Herman Macknig, and with Ellida, the protagonist of Ibsen’s play.

The new permanent gallery was created as a tribute and a gesture of gratitude to the recently deceased artist, and enhances the connection between art, personal memory, theatre and UniTS’ cultural heritage.

The gallery will soon be open to external visitors by reservation.

Annamaria Ducaton (1936–2026)
Annamaria Ducaton grew up immersed in the artistic atmosphere of her family. As a child, she began studying piano, but after five years she gave it up to devote herself to painting. An “imaginary” artist, she held around eighty solo exhibitions in Trieste, Duino, Lignano, Udine, Gorizia, Maniago, Brunico, Dobbiaco, Steinhaus, San Bonifacio di Verona, Trento, Rome, Turin, Milan, Izola, Ljubljana, Dobrovo, Salzburg, Graz, Helsinki, Basel, Terezín in the Czech Republic, Venezuela and California. She also took part in more than one hundred group exhibitions in Italy and abroad. Her work developed through a range of themes that allowed her to explore her chosen subjects in depth and in detail, generating a significant cultural contribution that went beyond the personal sphere. Music and literature always accompanied her pictorial work.

The pictorial cycle The Lady from the Sea (1984–1985)
This series of mixed-media works by Annamaria Ducaton draws inspiration from Ibsen’s drama The Lady from the Sea, poetically intertwining personal images and universal symbols. Ducaton uses photographs of herself and of her mother, placing them within an abstract visual context characterised by fluid forms and evocative colours. Each work thus becomes a visual and textual reflection on identity, bonds and the need for freedom.

Twenty-eight of the original twenty-nine works survive and are intended to be read in an order established by the artist herself. The tension between belonging and the desire for escape lies at the heart of these works, in which the sea, evoked through undulating forms and shifting colours, represents the inner world and the hidden forces that accompany the journey of self-discovery.

Ducaton overlays symbols and images. This visual layering expresses the complexity of memory, in which past and present merge, while the face of the mother alternates with that of the artist in a dialogue that evokes both the generational bond and the conflict between what is inherited and what one seeks to overcome. Quotations from The Lady from the Sea accompany the images and intensify the sense of introspection and invisible threat.

The outlines of the figures dissolve into a surreal background, where marine forms and imaginary creatures seem to envelop and observe the characters, embodying inner fears and unspoken desires. The presence of the sea, with its call to freedom and danger, becomes a metaphor for the psychic depth in which the protagonists move.

At the heart of these works is also a reflection on female identity and autonomy. Ellida’s words express the desire to break free from constraints and affirm one’s authenticity. Visually, too, the female figures appear isolated, immersed in abstract landscapes that make them both part of and estranged from the environment around them, suggesting the duality of those seeking to discover and affirm themselves beyond imposed roles.

In summary, Ducaton’s series is an intimate and complex exploration of family relationships and identity, rooted in the poetics of Ibsen’s symbolic sea. The fusion of photography and abstraction produces a layered and vibrant image, inviting reflection on how bonds, whether familial or existential, can be both a refuge and a limit to be overcome.

22 May marks the International Day for Biological Diversity, established by the United Nations to draw attention to the value of life in its many forms and to our responsibility to protect it, including in the places we inhabit every day. For UniTS, this means recognising that biodiversity is not a silent backdrop, but a living presence that accompanies study, work and relationships: trees, wild plants, pollinating insects, birds, reptiles, fungi and many other organisms are part of the ecological quality of the university environment.

This is the context for Biodiversity @University of Trieste, the project active on iNaturalist that collects naturalistic observations made across the University’s spaces and surrounding areas. iNaturalist is an international citizen science platform that allows users to upload georeferenced observations of living organisms, support their identification through a broad scientific community, and gradually build an open and shared archive. Observations can also feed into GBIF – Global Biodiversity Information Facility, one of the main international infrastructures for open biodiversity data.

The project is open to the entire community. To take part, users simply need to register for free on iNaturalist, access the Biodiversity @University of Trieste page – available at https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/biodiversity-university-of-trieste or searchable in the platform’s Projects section – and select “Join”.

The results collected so far already offer a significant picture. In just a few months of activity, thanks to the contribution of 59 students and academic staff from the University, 421 observations relating to 300 different species have been recorded: plants, insects, birds, reptiles, fungi, arachnids and molluscs. Almost 60% of the observations have already reached “research grade” level, confirming the quality of the data produced and their potential use in scientific, educational and environmental monitoring contexts.

On the occasion of 22 May, the invitation is therefore simple: to pause, look around, observe more carefully what lives alongside us and contribute to the project. Every wild plant along the edge of a path, every pollinating insect, every bird among the trees of the campus, every organism recognised and shared helps make the biodiversity of the University of Trieste more visible and strengthens the idea of an open, sustainable University.

Creating a direct connection between students and the world of educational and social work, while offering a space for dialogue between university education and Third Sector professions. This was the aim of the first meeting promoted by the Degree Programme in Education Sciences.

The initiative, held on Wednesday, 20 May at the Portogruaro campus, represented an initial pilot experience that the University intends to develop and expand in the coming years.

The event was attended by 26 organisations from the provinces of Venice, Treviso, Pordenone, Udine and Trieste, with around 70 representatives including educators, service coordinators and human resources managers. Around 200 students also took part.

The event was designed as an informal space for dialogue: along the portico of the cloister, stands were set up for the participating organisations, allowing students to engage directly with professionals in the field, learn more about the activities of educational and social services, and explore possible internship and career opportunities.

The day opened with institutional greetings from Prof. Marco Ius, internship coordinator and deputy coordinator of the Degree Programme, and Dr Massimo Forliti, Chief Executive Officer of Fondazione Portogruaro Campus ETS. This was followed by networking and discussion activities with students, which concluded with a convivial moment.

The University of Trieste celebrates the World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development: in an international and deeply open environment such as UniTS, which welcomes a significant community of students from all over the world every year, this occasion represents a valuable opportunity to reflect on the central role of dialogue in mutual enrichment and exchange.

Diversity is not only a reality to be acknowledged, but also a resource to be cultivated: it is through the encounter of different experiences, perspectives and cultural identities that dynamic, inclusive and innovation-driven academic communities are built.

In line with the spirit of the international campaign promoted by UNESCO and the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations, “Do One Thing for Diversity and Inclusion”, UniTS renews its commitment to:
raising awareness within the academic community about the importance of intercultural dialogue, inclusion and the enhancement of differences; fostering a sense of belonging to an international community that is open to dialogue and conflict resolution; combating stereotypes and prejudice by encouraging cooperation among people from different cultural backgrounds.

The Day also recalls the principles of UNESCO’s Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity (2001), which reaffirm that cultural rights are an integral part of human rights: universal, indivisible and interdependent. Every individual has the right to freely express their cultural and linguistic identity and to have its value recognized.

In a city like Trieste, historically a meeting point between different cultures, and within a University that embodies this heritage and international vocation, 21 May represents not only a celebration, but also a concrete commitment: to continue building an open and inclusive academic space capable of transforming diversity into a driver of growth, dialogue and development.

UniTS welcomed Sandra Sharry, Director of the National Research System of Panama’s National Secretariat for Science, Technology and Innovation (SENACYT).

The meeting was attended by Mauro Tretiach, Deputy Rector, and Erik Vesselli, Delegate for Technology Transfer and Relations with Research Institutions.

During the discussion, participants explored the role of SENACYT and presented Panama’s national strategy in the field of bioeconomy, aimed at economic diversification, the creation of green jobs and the strengthening of climate resilience through the development of strategic sectors such as sustainable agro-industry, bioenergy, biotechnology and innovative materials.

The possibility of funding PhD positions at UniTS reserved for Panamanian students was also discussed.

Silvia Palmisano, Director of the UniTS School of Specialization in General Surgery, has been appointed member of the European Surgical Association (ESA).

The appointment confirms the value and visibility of the Trieste surgical school within the European context, further strengthening the role of the University as a centre of excellence in medical and surgical education and research.

Founded in 1993, the European Surgical Association is one of the most prestigious surgical organizations in Europe and serves as a leading reference point for the promotion of science and research in the field of surgery. ESA plays a central role as an international forum for presenting state-of-the-art developments and the most advanced innovations in both general and specialist surgery, contributing to the continuous improvement of professional standards.

Its members come from leading European academic and medical institutions and represent excellence in the field, sharing knowledge, experience and research outcomes at an international level.

A day dedicated to togetherness and to the inclusive power of sport, in a fascinating setting where the value of teamwork was cultivated and strengthened paddle stroke after paddle stroke.

On Saturday 15 May, in the Venetian waters facing San Giobbe, with snow-capped mountains in the background, the second edition of Lion Explorer took place: an initiative dedicated to dragon boating and organised by Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, in collaboration with Iuav University of Venice and CUS Venezia.

Among the nine University Sports Centres taking part was also CUS Trieste. The participating universities competed on a 150-metre racecourse aboard dragon boats, vessels with a dragon-shaped head and tail, crewed by teams of 12 members each.

After the Dragon Eye Dotting Ceremony, a traditional Chinese ritual performed to bring good fortune to the boats, the competition got underway. In the first round, Trieste finished in second place, behind Insubria and ahead of Udine, while in the second round CUS Trieste had to give way to Padua and Trento. In Final C, Trieste finished second behind Bari, but ahead of Tirana.

The final ranking saw CUS Venezia take first place, followed by Padua, Vienna, Trento, Insubria, Udine, Bari, Trieste and Tirana.

The CUS Trieste team, largely made up of athletes from the volleyball teams and all experiencing a dragon boat for the first time, was composed of:

Viviana Boria (Psychological Sciences and Techniques), Giacomo Camata (Computer Engineering), Stefano Cardu (Electronic and Computer Engineering), Chiara De Vidovich (Primary Education Sciences), Claudio Ellero (Geosciences), Gianmaria Palma (Physics), Tommaso Piscitelli (Mathematics), Isabella Ramani (Mathematics), Marco Stevanella (Civil and Environmental Engineering), Marta Tomasella (Psychological Sciences and Techniques), Michela Sofia Venerus (Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Technologies) and Anna Zanardi (Economics, Business and Management).

Alongside the team, among the accompanying staff, was also the Vice-President of CUS Trieste, Renato Pelessoni, who commented on the day as follows:

“For the second time, we took part in Lion Explorer with great enthusiasm, with a team of six female and six male students from the University of Trieste, who competed in dragon boat races for the first time. For our student-athletes, it was a wonderful opportunity to get to know other universities, share experiences and build new relationships. At CUS Trieste, we strongly believe in the value of days like these, where sport proves once again to be an ideal tool for personal growth. I would also like to highlight the warm welcome and excellent organisation provided by the nautical section of CUS Venezia and by all the organisers: as CUS Trieste, we will draw inspiration from this experience to further improve the Dragon Boat event that we organise every October during Barcolana week in Trieste.”

The two-day Lion Explorer event concluded on Sunday 17 May, with students exploring Venice and its lagoon aboard the dragon boats, including a stop and visit to the island of Burano.

Dr Antonella Muzzo, research fellow at the University of Trieste, has received the ASCPT Presidential Trainee Award, a prestigious recognition granted by the American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics (ASCPT) to early-career researchers who have distinguished themselves for scientific excellence.

Each year, the Scientific Program Committee selects the highest-scoring abstracts submitted by clinical pharmacologists and translational researchers in training, granting them special recognition as part of the Society’s Annual Meeting.

The award was granted for the doctoral research project carried out at the Department of Medical, Surgical and Health Sciences of the University of Trieste and at IRCCS Burlo Garofolo, under the supervision of Professors Marianna Lucafò, Giuliana Decorti and Gabriele Stocco.

The work was presented as a poster entitled “Thiopurine treatment responses in pediatric inflammatory bowel disease are determined by a newly identified TRIM32-cGAS-STING pathway: a pharmacokinetic study in organoids”.

The project also involved the Department of Life Sciences, with which Professors Lucafò and Meroni and Dr Lazzari are affiliated.

The study provides an integrated analysis of the molecular and pharmacokinetic mechanisms that regulate the response to thiopurines in paediatric patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), using an innovative, patient-specific preclinical model: intestinal organoids derived from patients affected by IBD.

For the first time, the research demonstrates that thiopurines exert direct pharmacological effects on intestinal epithelial cells, in addition to their well-known systemic immunosuppressive actions. The findings also highlight significant interindividual variability in treatment response, mainly determined by pharmacokinetic factors.

At the intestinal cell level, thiopurines show an anti-inflammatory effect by acting on specific molecular mechanisms involved in inflammation, including the TRIM32-cGAS-STING and NF-κB/p65 pathways.

Overall, these findings contribute to the development of personalised therapeutic strategies and to the identification of new potential therapeutic approaches in the paediatric field.

Electric boating is today an increasingly strategic meeting point for engineering expertise, sustainability and industrial innovation.

Against this backdrop, the University of Trieste took part in the sixth edition of Villa d’Este Style Electric Yachting in Cernobbio, on Lake Como, an event dedicated to the development of electric technologies applied to sustainable navigation.

Representing UniTS were Giorgio Sulligoi, Director of the Department of Engineering and Architecture, and Vittorio Bucci, Coordinator of the Degree Programme in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering, together with a delegation of students from programmes most closely connected to energy, naval engineering and technologies applied to mobility. Among them were also members of two of the University’s student teams: UniTS Racing Team, engaged in the development of electric car prototypes for university competitions, and Audace Sailing Team, active in the design of innovative and sustainable boats.

The experience is part of UniTS’s broader commitment to enhancing its student teams as spaces for applied learning. It also represents an opportunity to encourage, in the future, the creation of a new student group capable of bringing together the expertise of UniTS Racing Team and Audace Sailing Team.

“Electric boating,” underlines Giorgio Sulligoi, “is a rapidly expanding sector. At UniTS, we have been working for many years on electric applications in the naval and boating fields, integrating multidisciplinary expertise ranging from onboard electrical systems to the design of innovative solutions for the maritime sector.”

Monitoring the progression of advanced cutaneous melanoma through a simple blood draw or urine sample, in order to obtain information that can help personalise therapies and make them less invasive for patients. This is the goal of EXOMEL, the new research project coordinated by the University of Trieste, which will study the use of liquid biopsy to monitor a form of cancer in which the ability to observe disease progression accurately can have a significant impact on therapeutic decisions.

The project, entitled “Exosomal microRNA from liquid biopsy for the monitoring and personalisation of treatments for advanced cutaneous melanoma”, aims to develop and validate innovative diagnostic technologies, shared among the clinical centres involved, to make treatments increasingly targeted, effective and tailored to the characteristics of each patient. The most innovative aspect concerns the use of urine samples as a form of liquid biopsy: EXOMEL will study exosomes, small vesicles involved in communication between cells, and the microRNAs they carry, with the aim of identifying a combination of biological signals that may help distinguish patients who respond to immunotherapy from those who do not.

EXOMEL is funded by the Interreg VI-A Italy–Austria 2021–2027 cross-border cooperation programme, with support from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), for a total amount of 572,055.59 euros. The project, which will end on 31 March 2028, confirms the value of international cooperation in cancer research, bringing together healthcare institutions, universities and technological expertise from Italy and Austria.

The University of Trieste acts as lead partner and coordinates the project activities through its Department of Medicine, Surgery and Health Sciences, involving a research team composed of Serena Bonin, Iris Zalaudek, Ilaria Gandin and Gabriele Grassi.

The partnership also includes the South Tyrol Health Authority, with the hospitals of Bruneck and Bolzano, an Italian small and medium-sized enterprise, and the University Clinic of Dermatology and Allergology of Paracelsus Medical University in Salzburg.

“At the heart of EXOMEL,” explains Serena Bonin, lecturer in Technical Sciences of Laboratory Medicine at the University of Trieste and principal investigator of the project, “is the development and validation of liquid biopsy, a diagnostic approach that makes it possible to obtain relevant information about the disease from biological samples that are easy to collect, such as blood or urine. Today, plasma liquid biopsy is used mainly in research to detect circulating tumour DNA, that is DNA carrying tumour-specific mutations. However, this approach requires the mutations to be monitored to be already known. With EXOMEL, we instead want to study the microRNAs contained in exosomes, vesicles through which cells communicate with one another, to verify whether a combination of them can help discriminate between patients with advanced cutaneous melanoma who respond to immunotherapy and those who do not.

At present,” Bonin adds, “there are no predictive biomarkers used in hospital practice to systematically guide these therapeutic choices. For this reason, the aim of the project is to contribute to the development of tools that are more accessible, repeatable and potentially useful for the personalisation of treatments.”

During the project, liquid biopsy technology will be extended to the study of urine samples and applied in the clinical centres involved through the development of common and standardised protocols. This step will make it possible to test the robustness of the approach in different clinical settings, harmonise diagnostic practices among the partner healthcare facilities and foster the creation of a stable collaborative network between Italy and Austria.

The expected results may also have an impact beyond the strictly academic and clinical fields. EXOMEL may contribute to the development of new diagnostic tools based on liquid biopsy, opening up possible prospects for technology transfer and industrial valorisation of research, including through the interest of companies active in the biomedical and diagnostic sectors.