News

Cosa Sarà 2

22 October 2018

The College is delighted to announce that on Saturday the 20th of October, Collegio A Volta won the College competition organised by high-tech company FacilityLive, the Pavia City Council and the University of Pavia as part of the New Ideas Festival in Pavia from October 19th to 21st (see the earlier post in the News & Events section of the College website).

The College team included (listed alphabetically): A Armanetti (Physics, yr 1), R De Nardo (Pharmacy, yr 5), S Maurogiovanni (Biomedical Engineering, yr3), C Lucini Paioni (Management, yr 3), F Ravera (Physics, yr 1) and A Tescari (Biomedical Engineering, yr 1). Further details of the proposal that won the competition will be posted here as soon as they will be made available. The College especially pleased about the fact that four of six members of the College team are Volta freshers.  The other Colleges that took part in the New Ideas Festival were Borromeo, Cairoli and Nuovo.

Image: courtesy of Lambeth Academy, Clapham, London

Cell Division

20 October 2018

On the 30th of October 2018 Pier Paolo D'Avino, of the University of Cambridge will give a seminar entitled Unravelling cell division mechanisms to understand cancer at 2.00 pm in the College lecture theatre.  In his talk PP D'Avino will discuss the complex regulation of the cell cycle of animal cells and will highlight the different stages in which cancer cells can subvert cell cycle check points causing uncontrolled cell division and multiplication.

This is a major area of research in cancer biology, the importance of which has been recognised earlier this centrury with Nobel Pizes to P Nurse an T Hunt and confirmed by the development of new anti-cancer compounds aimed at restoring cell cycle control in cancer cells. 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.

Cancer Metabolism

20 October 2018

On the 25th of October 2018 Paolo Ceppi, of the Friedrich-Alexander University at Erlangen-Nuremberg, will give a seminar on Metabolic pathways as regulators of epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition at 2.00 pm in the College lecture theatre.  In his talk P Ceppi will connect the metabolic features, outlined iniitially by O Warburg nearly one century ago, with key biological processes of cancer cells, for example the ability of epithelial cancer cells to acquire a migratory phenotype (so-called epithelial mesenchymal transition). This is a novel and important area of research in cancer biology with major implications for cancer therapy. 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. More information about the seminar, including abstract, references and a short biography of the speaker can be found at this page.

Image. Migrating cancer cells in culture. Courtesy of S Etienne-Manneville, Institut Pasteur, Paris.

Systems Biology

20 October 2018

On the 22nd of October 2018 Peter Blattmann, of the ETH Zürich, will give a seminar entitled From big data to mechanisms. Understanding how context dependent phenotypes vary across cells at 2.00 pm in the College lecture theatre.  In his talk P Blattmann will give key examples of the reach of mass-spectrometry-based systems biology studies in order to study protein networks and cellular functions. This is an emerging field of research that will have huge impact for our understanding of key biological processes (development, differentiation, regeneration) and disease. 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.

Students Union

14 October 2018

The College invites nominations for election of the executive of the Volta Students Union for the academic year 2018/19. After further discussions with EDiSU the College has agreed to elect six students to the executive in order to comply in full with EDiSU rules (although College typically hosts more than 200 students throughout the year, the number of placements at Volta in the records of EDiSU, University and Ministry is 198 and this qualifies College for a six students executive). Any member of Volta can stand for election and College is keen to receive a number of nominations well above the number of seats in the executive as this fosters internal debate. Three out of the six seats available are assigned to undergraduate members, three to postgraduates.

Nominations should be sent by email to the College Director by Thursday 18 October. The College requests that candidates hold a public debate/assembly with all College students on Monday 22 October at 6.00 pm in the College lecture theatre ahead of election day on Tuesday 23 October. Two ballot boxes will be available at the porter's desk from 8.00 am to 7.00 pm on Tuesday 23rd for casting votes for the undergraduate and postgraduate candidates respectively with the assistance of the porter on duty. The College expects strong participation of the students' community in this exercise of democracy.

Finally the new executive will consult with members of the 2017/18 executive on key issues as the latter Committee had fewer opportunities than teh committees in earlier years to shape College policy.

Liver Cancer

14 October 2018

On the 19th of October 2018 Manlio Vinciguerra, of the Institute of Translational Medicine at Brno, Czech Republic, will give a seminar on Cancer stemness and adaptive immune evasion in hepatocellular carcinoma in the College lecture theatre. Liver cancer is a major medical issue worldwide. In his talk M Vinciguerra will discuss advances in understanding the cell(s) of origin of human hepatocellular carcinoma, the most common type of liver cancer, and how these cancer cells are able to evade the immune system. 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 and speaker can be found here.

Image: differentiating liver organoids in culture. Courtesy of Meritxell Huch, Gurdon Institute, University of Cambridge (UK).

Stem Cells

14 October 2018

On the 18th of October 2018 Virginie Sottile, of the University of Nottingham (UK, will give a seminar on Stem cell models of differentiation and regeneration in the College lecture theatre.  In her talk V Sottile will discuss advances in stem cell biology and their potential impact on the therapy of a number of major human diseases. 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 and speaker can be found here.

Image: human embryonic stem cells in culture

University Filming

11 October 2018

The University is producing a professional video on  'Life and work at the University of Pavia' that will feature prominently students' life and work.  Students are needed for this filming, and specifically:

- 20 students are needed on Friday 12 October at 3.00 pm at Biblioteca della Scienza e della Tecnica (the circular building facing the Department of Engineering),
- 10 students are needed on Friday 12 October at 5.00 pm at Kirolab (top floor, Golgi Spallanzani building, 9 via A Ferrata) and
- 30 students are needed on Saturday 13 October at 1.45 pm at the Eucentre building (a building at the back of the College, 1 via A Ferrata), .

Filming will probably require 15-20 mins (at each session) and I sincerely hope that a number of Volta students will take part in this worthwhile exercise that will promote the University across the world.  Students interested in taking part should write to the College Director who will forward their names to the staff of Servizio Comunicazione di Ateneo.College also request that students who read this post may also inform other students less prompt in reading the College web pages.

PI3-Kinase

09 October 2018

On the 11th of October 2018 Giovanni Solinas, of the of the Institute of Medicine of the University of Gothenburg Sweden, will give a seminar on PI3-Kinase in Metabolic Homeostasis and Tumour Progression at 2.00 pm in the College lecture theatre.  In his talk G Solinas will discuss the multiple and pivotal role of PI3-kinase in cell behaviour and a further and major role in cancer progression. 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 and speaker can be found here.

Image: Phosphotidylinositol

Library Support 2

06 October 2018

College recently requested its members to provide interim library support on a voluntary basis while EDiSU completes the new procedures about students' paid contributions to College teaching and services.

The College is now pleased to report that MSc student in Construction Engineering Nicolò Salis and medical undergraduate Paolo Minerba have agreed to provide library support on a volutnary basis.  Loan service will be between 6.00 and 7.00 pm in a small office on the ground floor near the director's office.  Service will start on Monday the 8th of October. College is extremely grateful to NIcolò and Paolo for this work.

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

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