06 February 2019

The first meeting of the Idea Centre, a new, collaborative research initiative will take place in the College lecture theatre on the 6th and 7th of February 2019.  The new Centre aims to foster collaborations between scientists at the University of Pavia and at Scuola Normale in Pisa in the areas of Drug Discovery and protein engineering, especially Antibody Engineering.

This is a major area of research for both the University of Pavia and Scuola Normale and further information about the scope of the meeting and the Centre can be found at this page. The poster of the lecture can be downloaded here.  All College students are invited to attend, especially students of Biology, Chemistry and Medical Courses.

Image: A drug-like small molecule. Courtesy of the FDA Group.

 

 

 

 

05 February 2019

A two-day colloquium promoted by Collegio A Volta, the University of Pavia and Scuola Normale in Pisa  will take place on the 6th and 7th of February in the College lecture theatre and will highlight a series of new research projects in the areas of Drug Discovery and Protein Engineering to be carried out under the mandate of a new Collaborative Research Centre named Idea.

The development of new therapeutics - whether small molecules or proteins  - is a complex and multistage process that involves expertises in biology, chemistry, biophysics, etc. Further, it requires considerable financial investment in order to enable adequate characterisation of the therapeutic target, screening and selection processes of the primary drug candidate, optimisation of key properties such as affinity and specificity ensuring adequate therapeutic, extensive pre-clinical testing and, finally, clinical trials in humans assessing safety and efficacy.

Both the University of Pavia and Scuola Normale in Pisa have considerable expertises in several of the above areas and have strengthened their research potential by building new research facilities and acquiring new and powerful instrumentation essential for research in Drug Discovery and Protein Engineering, These new facilities and this new nstrumentation includes high-speed compuiter clusters, both in Pavia and Pisa, extensive facilities for cell biological research (super resolution microscopes, cell analysers and cell sorters), electron microscopes for both cell and tissue analysis and for structural studies, mass and nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometers and instruments for in vivo imaging (both magnetic resonance imaging and micro computer tomography).

The colloquium will discuss ongoing and new research projects and will offer the opportunity to frame new collaborative projects in these areas between the Univetrsity of Pavia and Scuola Normale in Pisa in years to come. The poster of the colloquium can be downloaded here and all College students are warmly invited to participate. 

Image: the first crystal structure of an important class of therapeutic proteins: a monoclonal antibody (PDB accession 1IGT). 

05 February 2019

EDiSU, the governing body of Collegio A Volta and ten further Colleges at the University of Pavia, has promoted an important one-day meeting in Milan about the role of the Colleges in University life and education.  The meeting, whose full title is I Collegi Universitari. Un'eredità per il Futuro, will address past history as well as present and future roles of residential Colleges in University education. It will focus in the first instance the history and work of the Colleges of the University of Pavia and Università Cattolica of Università in MIlan but will also include presentations about the role of the Colleges in Universities abroad including Cambridge and Yale. A broad discussion about the future of the Colleges in the Italian University system will take place in the final part of the meeting.

All College students are invited to attend this meeting. The poster of the meeting can be found and downloaded at this page. 

Image: Collegio P Fraccaro, one of the eleven Colleges governed by EDiSU in Pavia.

 

 

 

 

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