News

Blood Stem Cells

16 November 2018

Nicola Vannini of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research in Lausanne will give a seminar on the 22nd of November 2018 entitled Metabolic modulation of hematopoietic stem cells at 2.00 pm in the College lecture theatre.  The talk will address the important - but incompletely understood link between the metabolic activity of haematopoietic stem cells and their behaviour.  All College students are invited to attend, especially those reading Medicine, Biology, Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Sciences. The poster of the lecture can be downloaded here.

Image: A bone marrow stem cell (green) and a megakaryocytic (red). Courtesy of D Zhao and Linheng Li, Stowers Institute for Medical Research.

 

 

Gene duplication

16 November 2018

On the 19h of November 2018 Giuliana Giannuzzi of the University of Lausanne will give a seminar entitled Segmental duplication in human disease, diversity and evolution at 2.00 pm in the College lecture theatre.  In her talk will discuss the evolutionary, population and medical implications of the process of duplications of chromosomal segments.

All College students are invited to attend, especially those reading Medicine, Biology, Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Sciences. The poster of the lecture can be downloaded here. Further information about the seminar, including abstract, references and a short biography of the speaker can be found at this page.

Image: Nucleotide variation among segmental duplications. From Hartasánchez et al. G3: Genes, Genomes, Genetics 4:1479-89,2014. 

 

 

Health & Safety

14 November 2018

On the 28h of November 2018 Fabio  R Collamati and Antonio R Satta, namely the EDiSU Advisor/Consultant on matters of Health & Safety and the EDiSU Health & Safety Officer will meet the Collegio Volta and Collegio Golgi freshers.  The meeting will take place at 6.03 pm in the College lecture theatre. All Volta students who entered College on or after the 1st of September 2018 must attend this meeting and EDiSU will monitor attendance.

Although the majority of Volta freshers attended a College Health & Safety meting on 2 October 2018, Collegio Volta is specially pleased to see that EDiSU is taking a pro-active role on Helth & Safety matters and requests that freshers, include ones with evening classes, attend the EDiSU Health & Safety meeting without exception.

 

 

Multi-omic Biology

13 November 2018

On the 15h of November 2018 Luca Pandolfini of Cambridge University will give a seminar entitled Multi-omic analysis of epigenetics and RNA modifications at 2.00 pm in the College lecture theatre.  In his talk L Pandolfini will discuss how a multi-omic approach may offer a powerful discovery path for studying fundamental biological processes as well as disease mechanisms.

All College students are invited to attend, especially those reading Medicine, Biology, Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Sciences. The poster of the lecture can be downloaded here. Further information about the seminar, including abstract, references and a short biography of the speaker can be found at this page.

Image: a small inhibitor of a cellular RNA molecule. Courtesy of Y Xu and colleagues at Duke University.

 

 

Harvey Medical Society

10 November 2018

Members of the College will be pleased to learn that the Harvey Medical Society has elected its new executive. The newly elected President, vice President and Secretary of the Society for the academic year 2018/19 are Maria Sampani, Shaul Gordon and Anamaria Solcan Savu respectively.

The Harvey Medical Society, the first of its kind at Pavia, aims to promote the academic and social life of the the students enrolled in the Harvey Medical Course. A large number of Harvey students live and work at Collegio A Volta and the College has made available to the the Harvey Medical Society an office from which members of the executive can coordinate and build the academic work and social initiatives of the Society, some of which will clearly be based at Collegio Volta.

 

English Courses

07 November 2018

College has received confirmation from EDiSU yesterday that the arrangements for the English Courses have been finalised. The arrangements involve a major and positive change compared to previous years, as detailed below.


Courses

Volta, the first College in Pavia to offer Courses in English language, is committed to give every College student the opportunity to learn English at level C1, a grade that opens the door to postgraduate studies at English and USA Universities and provides a strong foundation for successful applications and interviews for jobs outside Italy and in Italy that require fluency in English language.  Starting from this year the English Courses will be offered not by a private school but by the Centro Linguistico of the University of Pavia that will ensure the highest possible level of teaching. Three Courses will be offered at Collegio Volta chosen between the A1, A2, B1, B2 and C1 levels. The three levels chosen will depend upon the results of the placement tests (see below). The study of English at Volta is free as the English Courses are funded by EDiSU, as they were last year, and placement and exit tests are funded by the College itself.


Placement Tests

Students who entered College on or after 1 September 2017 have to enter an online placement test in English language. Exceptions are three categories of students, namely:  (i) members of Volta whose native language is English,  (ii) students who hold a C1 or higher (C2) certification in English in a recent IELTS examination and,  (iii) students whose level of English is below a C1 but who opt to enter the College-based French or German language Courses in 2018/19 because they plan to apply for an Erasmus fellowship and placement at a French or German University.

In summary, as discussed at the time of admission, every student who gained a placement in College on or after 1 September 2017, needs to attend one of the language Courses throughout the year. Although the College holds partial data on students who fall in categories (ii) and (iii), these students are asked to confirm their certification and/or the choice of the French or German Courses with a brief email to the College Director before Friday 9th of November 2018 in order to finalise the lists of students entering the English placement test during the weekend (Saturday/Sunda 10/11th of November) and enable these students to sit the test starting from Monday the 12th of November.  The placement test in use at Volta is the Oxford Online Placement Test (OOPT) developed by Oxford University and delivered by Oxford University Press. A number of students who entered College in 2017/18 sat the placement test last year. These students are requested to resit the test in order to assess the degree of improvement in their level of English as a result of the Course they attended last year.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Finally, all students admitted to Volta before 1 September 2017 are welcome naturaly to sit the placement test and enrol in the English Courses. These students however will not be entered by default and need to confirm their intention to enrol in the English Courses with an email to the College Director before Friday 9th of November 2018. All students due to sit the placement test will receive an email from Oxford University Press confirming the availability of the test and details for access.


Classes

Upon completion of the placement tests and analysis of test results, College will be in the position to confirm the levels of the three Courses offered  at Volta in 2018/19 as well as the day(s) of the week, time and rooms in which the Courses will take place.

 

Study Plans

05 November 2018

College requests all undergraduate students and all students of MSc Courses (Lauree Magistrali) to submit their study plan (an example of the format required is available here, students who have difficulties in producing this file from their page should seek help from fellow students who know what to do.

Students should also list in their email which exams they plan to sit at the end of semester 1. Students unsure about the possibility of sitting specific examination(s) should list these examinations and indicate that the sitting is probable as opposed to certain.

College requires this information by Monday the 12th of November. Students unable to supply this information by this date  should write to the College Director and explain the reason for the delay.

Welcome Day

05 November 2018

The Chancellor of the University and the EDiSU President would like to offer their welcome to all students of the University of Pavia living and studying in EDiSU Colleges.  The meeting will take place on the  29th of November at 6.30 pm and will also involve a testimony by a former College student.

This is a nice social event and an opportunity to meet students from other Colleges. Members of Collegio Volta therefore are stroungly encouraged to participate.

 

Consulta dei Giovani

03 November 2018

Ilaria Cristiani, a professor at the Department of Construction Engineering and a key member of local government (she is Head of the Departments of Environment, Innovation, Education and Youth Policies of the Pavia City Council) has launched Consulta dei Giovani, a new think tank to advise Council on youth policies.

In a further positive development, Ilaria Cristiani has opened the membership of the think tank to College students and thus I am tabling the item for discussion at the first meeting of the newly elected executive committee of the Volta Students' Union (VSU) next week. I would be grateful, in the mean time, if all College students could take time to read through the papers defining the constitution, rules and application for membership of Consulta dei Giovani.  Members of Volta are given the opportunity to play an important role in shaping youth policies in Pavia through Consulta dei Giovani and hopefully will take this opportunity in order to deliver ideas and proposals.

Image: a debate of the UK Youth Parliament Members debate in the House of Commons / Source: Parliamentary Copyright

Mechanosensation

31 October 2018

On the 14th of November 2018 Marco Lolicato of the University of California San Francisco will give a seminar entitled A structural approach to mechanosensation at 2.00 pm in the College lecture theatre.  In his talk M Lolicato will discuss the strategies available for the study of the structural basis of mechanosensation, the process that enable living cells to sense and respond to the physical environment in which they live. 

All College students are invited to attend, especially those reading Medicine, Biology, Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Sciences. The poster of the lecture can be downloaded here. Further information about the seminar, including abstract, references and a short biography of the speaker can be found at this page.

Image: a cell response to a change in the physical environment.

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