News

College Assembly

04 October 2022

On the 3rd of October at 5.00 pm the College will hold the traditional General Assembly that opens the new academic year at Volta. The event offers an insight into College life to Volta freshers and constitutes an opportunity to reflect on the work achieved in the previous academic year, the tasks and goals of the new academic year and College development in general.  Francesco Rigano, professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Pavia and President of EDiSU, the College governing body, will attend and address the assembly.  All students are warmly invited to join. The poster of the assembly is avaialble here.  

Image
A typical Volta Assembly in the College lecture theatre from previous years.

 

Embryonic Stem Cells

26 September 2022

On the 26th of September at 5.00 pm Ryohichi Sugimura of the School of Biomedical Sciences of Hong Kong University will give a seminar entitled Spatiotemporal gene expression landscape of human embryonic organoids. A brief abstract of the seminar can be found below and the poster of the seminar is avaialble here.  

The therapeuic potential of embryonic stem cells has been studied for more than 25 years but many challenges remain before the potential of cell-based therapies is realised. Ryohichi Sugimura and his colleagues have made outstanding progress in understanding the biology of human embryonic stem cells and are bringing forward the prospect of medical application of these cells in a number of areas from regeneration to immunity and cancer.  The seminar will be of interest to all College students and will be of paramount importance to students of the Biology, Biotechnology and Medical Courses.

Image
Scanning lectron micrograph of embryonic stem cells in culture.

Abstract
We have employed novel types of stem cells to mimic the development of both embryonic and extra-embryonic tissues. We have established single-cell level spatial transcriptomics paired with scRNA-seq and imaging. The study revealed cross-talk between the placenta and neural crest. Further, we defined yolk sac hematopoiesis in our embryo models opening a venue to engineer immune cells against cancer.

 

Viruses & Health

26 September 2022

On the 27th of September an interesting workshop on Viruses and Health will take place at Collegio Nuovo.  The poster of the event is available here and students of Collegio Volta, many of whom read Biology, Biotechnology or Medicine, are warnly invited to attend.

As the recent Covid 19 pandemic has demonstrated viral disease continue to pose new and significant challenges to mankind. The study of these agent therefore is of primary importance and Collegio Volta is grateful to Collegio Nuovo for this initiative.

Image
An electron microscopy image of the Ebola virus.

 

Lifestyle, Health and College Life

31 May 2022

On June 9th Anna Odone and Stefano Cacitti will visit College and will outline a questionnaire that she and her colleagues have devised and that addresses lifestyle and health issues of students living in the Colleges of the University of Pavia. The presentation will take place at 6.00 pm in the College lecture theatre and a flyer illustrating the scope of the questionnaire and the study is available here.  All College students are invited to attend.

Lifestyle is a key health - and disease - determinant and it is important to have reliable information on the lifestyle of members of the collegiate community of the University of Pavia in order for Colleges and University to discourage practices that harm students health (unsafe sex, smoking, alcohol and drug abuse, etc) and promote practices that support healthy living and strong academic achievements.  The format of the questionnaire preserves anonimity and over 700 students from other Colleges have returned it. Collegio Volta therefore hopes that its students will participate and make a strong contribution to this valuable study.

Speaker
Anna Odone is professor of Public Health at the University of Pavia and a member of Consiglio Superiore di Sanità (Italian Ministry of Health). Stefano Cacitti is a postgraduate medical student in Public Health.

 

Gender Identity and Inclusivity

13 May 2022

The Volta Political Society has organised a major series of seminar on Gender Identity and Inclusivity with a special focus on the Italian perspective of these issues.  The seminar series will include a total of 8 speakers who will contribute to 4 double seminars on May 16th, 19th, 23rd and 26th. A more extensive introduction to the series in Italian is available below and the poster of the series is available here. Extra information about individual seminars is available in the Seminars section of the College website.  All seminars in this series will be in Italian.

The seminars will be held in the College lecture theatre at the times specified in the poster and below but can also be attended remotely through the  links below. All College students are warmly invited to attend a seminar series that addresses significant issues that impact on the personal life of a number of people, including many young people.  The College would like to express its thanks to Ludovica Ferrero, secretary of the Volta Political Society, for the outstanding commitment and resolve she demonstrated toward the organisation of this seminar series.

Schedule & Links
MP Torrioni/V Tripodi, 16 Maggio, ore 18.00
Sesso e genere tra differenze e stereotipi
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87680374287?pwd=GyaZEozTuG3Ie1RJaAN_0sHCAsqtNG.1

S Cavagnoli/F Cesarano, 19 Maggio, ore 18.00
Lingua e giustizia di genere
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81781951451?pwd=1w2nMmusEgZouR5bhEEfxIfOi8FeL_.1

AM Curti/M Misciosia, 23 Maggio, ore 18.00
Espressioni del genere: autodeteminazione oltre il binarismo
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87953649476?pwd=iAWkGcATgVW0PnHHAFBjT2IsLL1R5X.1

L Goisis/A Schillaci, 26 Maggio, ore 11.00
Riconoscimento e tutela dell'orientamento sessuale e dell'identità di genere: tra diritto costituzionale e diritto penale
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84874443234?pwd=peH-TOTd9jeiTgBqDFA1FIOvSNlO96.1


Context & Introduction
Il ciclo di seminari Identità di genere e inclusività: a che punto siamo ha come obiettivo quello di accompagnare gli studenti e le studentesse in un percorso che permetta loro di acquisire una maggiore consapevolezza rispetto al tema dell’inclusività legata all’identità di genere e all’orientamento sessuale, ad oggi questione centrale nel dibattito pubblico. Il 2020 non è stato solo l’anno della pandemia da Coronavirus. Numerosi sono stati i casi di cronaca relativi ad atti d’odio legati all’identità di genere e all’orientamento sessuale delle vittime. Perché parliamo di atti e non di crimini d’odio? Perché in Italia non vi è una legge che riconosca le aggressioni di matrice omolesbobitransfobica e legate dall’identità di genere della vittima come crimini d’odio. Questo è il motivo per cui fino a pochi mesi fa si è assistito alla discussione della proposta di legge di iniziativa parlamentare, cd DDL Zan, che ha conosciuto non pochi ostacoli. Nel mese di ottobre tale disegno di legge è stato definitivamente affossato. Questo a dimostrazione di quanto i suddetti temi siano ancora oggetto di forti resistenze. L’Associazione Studenti del Collegio Alessandro Volta insieme alla sua Political Society ha individuato quattro aree tematiche che verranno sviluppate in quattro incontri distinti: la sfera sociologica, culturale e filosofica del concetto di genere; linguaggio inclusivo e misgendering; la sfera psicologica e multidimensionale dell’identità di genere; gli aspetti legali relativi al riconoscimento e alla tutela dell’identità di genere e dell’orientamento sessuale. Il Collegio ospiterà otto relatori prestigiosi, provenienti dal panorama accademico italiano, i quali, grazie ai loro studi e alla loro esperienza, analizzeranno tali tematiche.

Giovanni Borsatti

26 April 2022

At 6.00 pm on Friday the 29th of April in the chapel of Collegio Borromeo there will be a service to celebrate the life of Giovanni Borsatti, the 6th year medical student of Collegio Borromeo and the University of Pavia who died in a mountaineering accident on the 13th of April 2022 at Piani di Artavaggio (Moggio, Lecco) in Valsassina.

Don Alberto Lolli, the dean of Collegio Borromeo, invites all members of Collegio Volta to join this service and College expects many of its students to join the dean and students of Collegio Borromeo to remember the life and work of their student and friend Giovanni Borsatti.

CAR T Cells

26 April 2022

Franco Locatelli will give the 2021/22 Marco Fraccaro lecture entitled Engineering somatic cells to cure inherited congenital disorders and neoplasia at 5.00 pm on May 11th in the lecture theatre of Collegio Cairoli.

F Locatelli is the director of the Department of Paediatric Haematology and Oncology of the Ospedale Bambin Gesù in Rome and since February 2019 he serves as Chair of Consiglio superiore di Sanità, the main advisory board if the Italian Ministry of Health on matters of Public Health. He also chaired more recently until the 30th of March 2022 the Covid-19 'Comitato Tecnico Scientifico' of the Italian Ministry of Health.

The Marco Fraccaro is given each year by a distinguished medical scientist in order to commemorate the life and work of Marco Fraccaro, a pioneer in medical genetics and medical research and professor of Medical Genetics at the University of Pavia from 1962 to 2001. The lecture is organised jointly by Collegio Cairoli, the College which M Fraccaro directed from 1971 to 2002 and Collegio A Volta.

Further information about the 2021/22 M Fraccaro lecture can be found at this page and the poster of the lecture is available at this link.

Image
Several CAR-T cells (white) attacking a cancer cell. Courtesy of Steve Gschmeissner, Science Photo Library.

College Interviews

26 April 2022

Over the next two weeks the College will interview all undergraduate and MSc students in order to review academic progress, extracurricular work and the exam plans for June/July. The interviews will assist students to focus on their current work and maximise results.

Students will be notified individually about the date and time of their interview slots.

Library Support

09 February 2022

The College has activated library support. Support will be provided by three students: Alice Bertolazzo, Nicola Loizzo and Francesca Veneziani and will take place Monday to Friday from 6.00 to 7.00 pm for the current week (9th to 13th February) and from 5.00 to 6.00 pm in the following weeks and up to the end of July. 

Alice, Nicola and Francesca can be contacted in the small office adjacent the College Board Room (the porter on duty can guide students to the office) and will be available to help with book loans or general advice on the titles available that will soon be searchable online on the College website.  Alice. Nicola and Francesca can also be reached at this This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. outside the hours in which they are at work in the office. 

Finally, the College has triggered a project of re-organisation of the two library rooms and aims to update members of Volta about the new room layouts before the Easter holiday.

Image: the JTM Needham College library (photograph by former Volta undergraduate S Tondi).

ElectroCardioGraphy

12 January 2022

Sergio Leonardi, a young professor of Cardiology at the University of Pavia will give a 6 hour course on ElectroCardioGraphy in the College lecture theatre at 6.00 pm on the 26th of January, 10th of February and 24th of February.  Lectures will be given in English and is open to all College medical students of the Golgi and Harvey Courses.

The poster of the Course is available here.  A Course synopsis and a biographical sketch of the lecturer can be found at this page.






Page 3 of 25
You are here: Home News & Events