Sapienza Research Highlights | Sapienza Università di Roma

The importance of the Paris Agreement for mountains and their biodiversity

Meeting the targets set by the Paris climate agreement would crucially favour the survival of carnivores and mountain ungulates. That is stated by a study carried out by the Charles Darwin Department of Biology and Biotechnology of Sapienza University of Rome and published in the journal Conservation Biology

Thursday, 22 December 2022 - 5:00pm

Spatial Transcriptomic: a state-of-the-art method that reveals fundamental information about the musculoskeletal system

A French-Italian study, coordinated by Sapienza and Sorbonne Universities, highlights the potential of a state-of-the-art method in understanding the link between skeletal muscle structure and gene expression. The work, published in the journal Cell Reports, will have significant implications in the treatment of certain traumatic diseases

Wednesday, 21 December 2022 - 2:00pm

Alzheimer's: a biosensor opens up new avenues for diagnosis and a possible therapy to combat the disease

A national study published in the journal Analytical Chemistry is working on the design of a portable, miniaturised biosensor, which can be used on a large scale to screen for a particular microRNA sequence, whose values in the blood decrease in patients with the disease

Tuesday, 29 November 2022 - 2:00pm

Neuroscience: predicting actions and reactions, the two sides of the brain have different predictive abilities

Our brains, based on the experiences we have just had, continuously formulate and update predictions about what will happen in our immediate future and then check their congruence or incongruence with what is happening in order to refine subsequent predictions. This ability is a fundamental advantage in our daily interaction with our environment. However, how does this process take place?

Monday, 28 November 2022 - 1:00pm

Tweets on climate change become a political tool

An international study published in the journal Nature Climate Change found that social platforms have been used since 2019 to counter the actions of pro-climactic political leaders through denialist tweets

Friday, 25 November 2022 - 2:00pm

Qubic, a new way to study the primordial universe

Today, Wednesday, November 23, the QUBIC (Q&U Bolometric Interferometer for Cosmology) telescope, an innovative instrument that will observe the cosmic microwave background, the residual echo of the Big Bang, from a high-altitude (5000 m) desert site in the Argentine Andes, near San Antonio de Los Cobres, is officially inaugurated in Argentina. The ceremony, which includes a visit to the telescope, will be attended by representatives of the project's funding institutions and the international scientific team

Wednesday, 23 November 2022 - 5:00pm

Ovospace is back home: Sapienza's successful experiment in collaboration with Nasa and ASI to unravel the effects of microgravity on fertility and reproduction

The experiment was launched by carrier rocket to the International Space Station to observe the effects of microgravity on the endocrine functions of bovine ovarian cells. The results will be used to understand some aspects of reproduction on Earth, but also with a view to long-duration space missions and possible human settlement on other planets

Thursday, 17 November 2022 - 2:00pm

Sapienza for inclusion: combatting weight-based bullying at school

On October 27, a team of lecturers of the Faculty of Medicine and Psychology in collaboration with the Fondazione per lo studio e la ricerca sull'infanzia e l'adolescenza and the SOS Telefono Azzurro Onlus Association launched the second phase of the project, financed by the Italian Presidenza del Consiglio

Wednesday, 2 November 2022 - 2:00pm

New guidelines on hyperparathyroidism published

Sapienza University in the team of international experts who drafted the new guidelines on hyperparathyroidism, the third most common endocrinological disease. The article is published in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research (JMBR)

Wednesday, 26 October 2022 - 12:00pm

Loneliness and memory: a dangerous combination

An international study has shown that loneliness can affect memory by reducing people's ability to recognise faces they have already seen. The research has been published in the journal Scientific Reports

Monday, 24 October 2022 - 12:00pm

"I have got butterflies in my stomach" is not just a metaphor: it is the smart pills that tell us

A new Italian study, coordinated by the Department of Psychology of Sapienza University of Rome and the IIT Neuroscience and Society laboratory, has demonstrated the existence of a correlation between the physiological state of the gastrointestinal system and body awareness through smart pills equipped with a miniaturised thermometer, manometer and acidity sensor and ingested like regular tablets. The research has been published in the journal iScience

Friday, 21 October 2022 - 12:00pm

Melanoma: national study identifies new disease biomarkers

New research coordinated by Sapienza University has identified blood microRNAs as non-invasive biomarkers for the early diagnosis of the most frequent malignant skin cancer. The study was published in the Journal of Translational Medicine

Thursday, 20 October 2022 - 2:00pm

Climate change and deforestation lead primates to a new lifestyle

Sapienza University participated in an international study which analyses the ecological and evolutionary factors that drive tree-dwelling monkeys and lemurs to the ground. The research, conducted on a large scale in primates from 3 continents, was published in the journal PNAS

Tuesday, 11 October 2022 - 9:00am

A gut molecule that increases the risk of heart attacks and strokes discovered: Sapienza research reveals

An all-Italian study, published in Nature Reviews Cardiology, sheds light on new causes of cardiovascular disease: an endotoxin from intestinal bacteria was found in the arteries of patients who had heart attacks

Friday, 23 September 2022 - 11:30am

Ionising radiation: when low doses protect DNA

A new study, coordinated by the Charles Darwin Department of Biology and Biotechnology of Sapienza University of Rome, has shown that low doses of radiation can protect chromosomes from genotoxic stress. The results were published in the prestigious journal Communications Biology

Tuesday, 20 September 2022 - 1:00pm

Homo sapiens: a new study traces the origin of the species to an isolated population of East Africa about 200,000 years ago

A recent article published in the journal Evolutionary Anthropology by researchers from Sapienza and the University of Padua addresses the current debate on the evolutionary origin of Homo sapiens. The globular shape of human crania found in Ethiopia and common to all modern humanity, suggests that the species was born from a small, isolated group

Tuesday, 20 September 2022 - 10:15am

Developmental Topographical Disorientation: who does it affect and how can it be prevented?

A new study by the Department of Psychology of Sapienza University of Rome reveals that more men than women suffer from developmental topographical disorientation, a specific developmental disorder that affects the ability to orientate oneself. The results of the research, carried out on a sample of young Italians and published in the journal Plos One, pave the way for possible prevention strategies

Wednesday, 14 September 2022 - 2:15pm

Tracking virus-transmitting mosquitoes is important. Citizens can help researchers with the Mosquito Alert app

Monitoring mosquitoes and the pathogens they can transmit, such as the West Nile virus, is vital for public and animal health. Mosquito Alert, the app through which citizens help researchers track mosquito species present in their territory, can help

Monday, 12 September 2022 - 4:15pm

Habits and customs from prehistory: baby carriers and family jewellery

The latest archaeological excavations at the prehistoric Ligurian site of Arma Veirana, northern Italy, carried out by an international team including researchers from Sapienza University, provide evidence of the use of baby carriers as early as 10,000 years ago

Thursday, 8 September 2022 - 5:00pm

Languages, agriculture and migration from the Caucasus to the Balkans: DNA fragments dating back 11,000 years complete the puzzle of several ancient human cultures

Sapienza is in the international research team completing the analysis of the genomic data of populations in the geographical region known as the 'Southern Arc'. The results of these studies, brought together in three articles published in the journal Science, shed new light on the lifestyles of the inhabitants of past societies and the spread and diversification of their languages

Wednesday, 7 September 2022 - 11:45am

The double life of chromatin proteins

A new study, coordinated by the Charles Darwin Department of Biology and Biotechnology of Sapienza University of Rome and the Pasteur Institute Italy - Cenci Bolognetti Foundation, has unveiled the dual function of dozens of chromatin proteins that not only control gene expression but also ensure that cell division takes place. The results have been published in the journal BMC Biology

Monday, 5 September 2022 - 5:00pm

arte pregiudizio intelligenza artificiale

Art and Prejudice

A new study, coordinated by Sapienza University of Rome, reveals the unconscious bias humans have towards using artificial intelligence in creating works of art. The results have been published in the journal Computers in Human Behavior

Friday, 2 September 2022 - 1:15pm

Jupiter: a dynamic planet

The gravity measurements carried out by the NASA Juno spacecraft revealed that Jupiter’s gaseous internal masses move, giving rise to oscillations of its surface, similarly to terrestrial sea waves, of 15 to 80 meters. The results of the study, coordinated by the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering of Sapienza University of Rome, have been published in Nature Communications

Tuesday, 30 August 2022 - 12:45pm

Neanderthal ancestors in Grotta Romanelli

The latest studies conducted at the prehistoric site of Grotta Romanelli by Sapienza, the University of Turin, the University of Milan and the Istituto di Geologia Ambientale e Geoingegneria (Igag) of the CNR, have backdated the basal levels of the cave deposit to around 350 thousand years ag

Thursday, 4 August 2022 - 11:45am

Postoperative delirium: risk factors identified

Sapienza University is in the research team that carried out the systematic analysis of risk factors for postoperative delirium. The review article was published in the British Journal of Anaesthesiology and the results will be used in the new guidelines of the European Society of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care (Esaic)

Monday, 1 August 2022 - 1:30pm

Innovative therapy against prostate cancer. Green light from Aifa

The TITAN project, with Sapienza as Italian coordinator, has identified a new treatment for metastatic prostate cancer. After the European and American regulatory bodies, the Italian Medicines Agency (Aifa) has also approved its prescriptibility and reimbursability

Tuesday, 26 July 2022 - 2:30pm

Understanding the mechanisms related to COVID-19 severity. The role of anti-interferon antibodies

Two new studies from Sapienza University of Rome showed that severe infections caused by the new Coronavirus are associated with the high production of antibodies capable of neutralising certain immune system modulators. The results have been published in the European Journal of Immunology and Clinical Immunology

Friday, 22 July 2022 - 12:45pm

T-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia: cells potentially responsible for disease recurrence identified

A new study, coordinated by Sapienza University's Department of Molecular Medicine and published in the journal Frontiers in Immunology, reveals one of the possible mechanisms involved in the relapse of a type of lymphoblastic leukaemia after chemotherapy. The results of the work pave the way for the development of new and alternative therapies

Wednesday, 20 July 2022 - 11:15am

When leukaemia was 'an incurable disease': the story of an all-Italian medical success

On June 23, an article was published in the New England Journal of Medicine by Robin Foà and Sabina Chiaretti of Sapienza University, tracing the milestones of the 20-year, all-Italian research that led to the radical change in the treatment and prognosis of patients with Philadelphia Chromosome–Positive Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia

Tuesday, 19 July 2022 - 12:00pm

Sapienza research into orbit with Vega-C

Mercoledì 13 luglio, alle 13.13 ora italiana, dalla base di Kourou, nella Guyana francese, sarà lanciato il razzo Vega-C dell’Agenzia Spaziale Europea (Esa). Sapienza è nei team di ricerca che hanno contribuito alla realizzazione del satellite LARES 2, del minisatellite AstroBio CubeSat e del nano-satellite GreenCube che saranno messi in orbita da Vega-C

Friday, 15 July 2022 - 12:45pm

COVID-19 vaccination: not only previous diseases and age but also sex and lifestyle influence the acquired immune response

A new study, sponsored by Sapienza and Policlinico Umberto I General Hospital, has identified demographic, clinical and social factors that interfere with the immune response following COVID-19 vaccination. The results, published in the Journal of Personalised Medicine, pave the way for customisable vaccination programmes

Friday, 8 July 2022 - 12:45pm

microrganismi intestinali cervello ambiente

Brain-environment communication. The role of intestinal microorganisms

A new study, coordinated by the Vittorio Erspamer Department of Physiology and Pharmacology at Sapienza University of Rome, has identified bacterial strains that mediate the beneficial effects of an enriched environment on central nervous system plasticity

Monday, 4 July 2022 - 12:15pm

Paediatric cancers: new biomarker that predicts their aggressiveness discovered

An international study, coordinated by the Department of Experimental Medicine at Sapienza University of Rome, has identified a biomarker capable of predicting the progression of low-grade paediatric gliomas after surgical removal

Tuesday, 28 June 2022 - 2:00pm

differenziamento motoneuroni RNA non codificante

Motor neuron differentiation: the role of non-coding RNAs

A new study, the result of a collaboration between Sapienza's Department of Biology and Biotechnology "Charles Darwin", the Italian Institute of Technology and the National Research Council (CNR), reveals the synergy between coding and non-coding RNAs in regulating motor neuron formation and opens the way to new therapeutic approaches for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. The results have been published in The EMBO Journal

Wednesday, 22 June 2022 - 12:15pm

A new treatment option effectively combats cardiac and renal complications of diabetes: beneficial effects differ according to sex

For the first time, a clinical study coordinated by Sapienza reveals that daily use of tadalafil - a drug currently used for erectile dysfunction - improves the cardiac status of male-only diabetic patients, enhancing immune and renal function in both men and women. The results are published in the journal Science Translational Medicine

Monday, 20 June 2022 - 11:30am

Summertime, mosquitoes are back: citizens join researchers in tracking them with the Mosquito Alert app

Mosquito Alert is a free app for citizens who want to collaborate in the national mosquito-tracking plan Mosquito Alert Italia, in a citizen science approach that brings citizens and researchers together. Sapienza University of Rome is coordinating the project in which other national research bodies are participating

Friday, 17 June 2022 - 1:30pm

Electric mobility and remote working reduce urban pollution

By converting just 1% of the most polluting vehicles to electric, the reduction in emissions would be equal to that achieved by converting 10% of randomly selected vehicles to electric. This is one of the results of the research published in Nature Sustainability, carried out in Florence, Rome and London by CNR-Isti and Sapienza University of Rome

Friday, 10 June 2022 - 11:30am

Global biodiversity: how not to lose it

New research involving the Charles Darwin Department of Biology and Biotechnology at Sapienza University of Rome reveals that conservation measures are needed to halt the biodiversity crisis on 44% of the Earth's surface, or 64 million km2. More than 1.3 million km2 are in danger of being destroyed by human intervention by 2030. The study was published in the journal Science

Wednesday, 8 June 2022 - 2:00pm

Cystic fibrosis: an alternative therapy re-evaluates the role of certain substances, including turmeric extract

The results of an Italian study, published in Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences and coordinated by the Department of Experimental Medicine of Sapienza University of Rome, show how certain substances already known for their properties induce biochemical and epigenetic variations that could be involved in the pathophysiology of this disease and used as therapeutic targets

Monday, 6 June 2022 - 2:00pm

A novel sensorised artificial skin for increasingly collaborative robots

Sapienza is part of the research team that carried out a study, published in the journal Nature Machine Intelligence, aimed at improving the safe physical interaction of machines with the environment and people

Wednesday, 1 June 2022 - 10:30am

Graphene and 2D semiconductors: the perfect combination for the development of cutting-edge optoelectronic devices

A new study, coordinated by the Department of Physics of Sapienza University of Rome, discovered the energy exchange mechanism between graphene and two-dimensional semiconductors. The results, published in the journal PNAS, pave the way to optimise next-generation light detectors

Tuesday, 31 May 2022 - 12:00pm

Rounding up bacteria using computer-controlled 'sheepdogs' of light

A new study, coordinated by the Physics Department of Sapienza University of Rome, reveals how to control the spatial distribution of genetically modified bacteria by pointing at them with tiny reflectors. The results have been published in Nature Communications

Thursday, 26 May 2022 - 12:00pm

A howl from the Middle Ages

A multidisciplinary study signed by Sapienza University and the Universities of Bologna and Parma provides the most complete description of a specimen of medieval wolf in Italy

Thursday, 19 May 2022 - 11:30am

Telemedicine: an algorithm analyses patients' handwriting and provides valuable information on their health status

A new study, coordinated by the Department of Human Neuroscience of Sapienza University of Rome, has presented an innovative remote monitoring system for neurological patients based on handwriting analysis using machine learning algorithms. The results of the work have been published in the journal Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience+

Tuesday, 17 May 2022 - 1:00pm

Starlings between daring descents and breathtaking ascents: how to regulate the speed

A new mathematical model explains how individuals within a flock of birds are able to regulate their speed while maintaining coordination with the group. The study, published in Nature Communications and carried out by researchers from Sapienza University of Rome and the CRN Institute for Complex Systems in Rome, opens up new avenues toward understanding biological systems and in the applied fields of robotics and engineering

Wednesday, 11 May 2022 - 12:00pm

QUBIC, a new way to study the primordial universe

The telescope will allow researchers to observe and map the Big Bang's residual echo characteristics from the end of 2022 from a desert site in Argentina. The project, in which Italy plays a leading role thanks to the contributions of Sapienza University, National Institute of Nuclear Physics and the Universities of Milan "Statale", Milan-Bicocca and Rome "Tor Vergata", was presented in a special issue of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics

Thursday, 21 April 2022 - 11:00am

International research team detects supermassive black hole precursor lurking in archival Hubble data

An international research team comprising astrophysicists from Sapienza University of Rome and the Italian National Institute of Astrophysics, using the Hubble Space Telescope and other space and ground-based telescopes, has discovered an extremely compact dust-reddened object in the distant universe about 13.1 billion light years away from the Earth. The discovery has been published on Nature

Wednesday, 13 April 2022 - 5:00pm

Alzheimer's: a machine learning approach to identify genetic predisposition

A new Sapienza study carried out with the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) and other international research centres has assessed the possibility of predicting genetic variants associated with high disease risk using machine learning methods. The results have been published in Alzheimer's & Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment & Disease Monitoring

Monday, 11 April 2022 - 3:30pm

Improving memory is a matter of repeated training

A research team of Sapienza University of Rom has discovered that the involvement of different brain areas in memorisation is linked to how learning is distributed over time. The results of the study have, which open up new perspectives in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's, have been published on PNAS

Friday, 8 April 2022 - 12:00pm

Ischaemic heart disease: the role of sex hormones

An Italian study involving researchers from Sapienza University of Rome, assessed the impact of testosterone and estradiol levels on blood platelet activation, a process directly linked to the risk of acute coronary events. The results, carried out on a sample of over 400 patients of both sexes, were published in the Journal of Endocrinological Investigation

Monday, 4 April 2022 - 12:00pm

Norway Spruce in Scandinavia: colonisation that started more than 10,000 years ago

The recent discovery of ancient DNA remains in lake sediments at the southern edge of the Scandinavian ice cap, and attributable to Norway spruce sheds new light on forest response to past climate change dynamics. The international study, coordinated by Sapienza and Uppsala University , has been published in Nature Communications

Wednesday, 30 March 2022 - 12:45pm

COVID-19: the 'perfect storm' that increases the risk of thrombosis discovered

Two Italian studies, conducted by researchers of the Department of Internal Medicine and Medical Specialities of Sapienza University of Rome on patients with Sars Cov-2, identify a mix of factors to recognise those at increased risk of thrombosis and indications to optimise anticoagulant therapy. The results have been published on Thrombosis and Haemostasis and Haematologica

Friday, 25 March 2022 - 12:30pm

Invisible nanoparticles against tumours

An international research team coordinated by Sapienza University of Rome has developed a new type of nanoparticle for drug delivery and transport, which, thanks to a coating of human plasma proteins, can deceive the immune system and remain in the body for a long time. The results have been published in the journal ACS Nano

Tuesday, 22 March 2022 - 12:30pm

credits: Missione Archeologica nel Sahara Sapienza Università di Roma - INP, Tunis OK PROF

Tunisian Sahara unveils 300,000-year-old tools and technologies

Analyses carried out at archaeological sites discovered in the Wadi Lazalim area, southern Tunisia, help to better understand how and when modern humans may have first settled in North Africa. The results of the work, coordinated by Sapienza researchers and also funded by the Grandi Scavi di Ateneo have been published in the journal Scientific Reports

Friday, 18 March 2022 - 11:30am

The sacred pool of Ba'al: a reinterpretation of Motya’s Kothon

Archaeological investigations on the island of Motya, the Phoenician city that flourished on the cusp of western Sicily between the 8th and 4th centuries BC, have revealed a large sanctuary enclosed by a circular Tèmenos at the centre of which is a sacred pool interpreted as a 'Cothon'. The research, carried out by Sapienza and the Regional Superintendence for Cultural and Environmental Heritage of Trapani, Sicily, was published in the journal Antiquity

Thursday, 17 March 2022 - 12:15pm

Chameleon-inspired biosensor for measuring glucose levels in urine

The biosensor, designed by researchers of Sapienza University, the Italian National Research Council (CNR) and other international bodies, based on the natural nanostructured organisation of chameleon skin, may also have other fields of application, such as the monitoring of tumour markers or the specific recognition of antibodies such as anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies

Tuesday, 15 March 2022 - 12:00pm

Identifying quantum phenomena through cause-effect relationships

In order to understand the quantum relationship between two events, a team of researchers from the QuantumLab of Sapienza University developed a new method based on measuring the strength of the cause-effect relationships between variables. The technique, carried out experimentally in the University's laboratories, could be used to verify the correct functioning of new quantum technologies

Wednesday, 9 March 2022 - 12:00pm

Phlegraean Fields: new study to measure magma viscosity

An international team of researchers used synthetic magma similar to Phlegraean magma to calculate its viscosity and rate of ascent from the deepest layers of the Earth. The study results, in which Vincenzo Stagno of the Department of Earth Sciences of Sapienza University of Roma took part, have been published in Scientific Reports

Monday, 28 February 2022 - 3:45pm

Fossil of Europe's first wolf found in Rome

The enigmatic fossil found near Ponte Galeria (Rome) was analysed by a team of palaeontologists and geologists from Sapienza University of Rome and the University of Milan. 3D reconstruction of the remains identified the fossil as the oldest adult wolf (Canis lupus) in Europe, dating back some 400,000 years. The study results, which shed new light on the dynamics of the wolf's spread across our continent, have been published on Scientific Reports

Friday, 25 February 2022 - 12:45pm

Fossil pollen study redraws the extent of the Black Death in Europe

A new study, conducted by researchers from Sapienza University of Rome and the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, has shown, thanks to the analysis of fossil pollen from 19 European countries, that the terrible pandemic did not affect all regions of the old continent homogeneously. The results are published in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution

Monday, 21 February 2022 - 12:00pm

LISA and the discovery of new fundamental fields

A new study published in Nature Astronomy, carried out by a team of researchers from Sapienza University of Rome, in collaboration with Gran Sasso Science Institute, International School for Advanced Studies and the University of Nottingham, suggests a new approach for verifying the theory of general relativity thanks to LISA, the space-based gravitational wave detector that will be launched as an ESA-NASA mission in 2037

Thursday, 10 February 2022 - 5:45pm

Internet and social capital

An international study carried out by a Sapienza researcher in collaboration with Cardiff, Louvain and Pavia Universities, shows that broadband penetration has caused a decrease in civic and political engagement and participation, without compromising relationships with family and friends. The results were published on Journal of Public Economics

Tuesday, 8 February 2022 - 3:45pm

BRCA gene mutations: not only breast and ovarian cancer

A new study coordinated by Sapienza University of Rome and the University of Cambridge, and supported by the Fondazione AIRC per la Ricerca sul Cancro, has estimated on a sample of more than 5,000 families the association of mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes with the risk of developing, in both sexes, 22 types of cancer, including prostate, pancreatic and stomach cancer. The results were published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology

Thursday, 3 February 2022 - 3:00pm

Biomarkers define the immunological fitness required for clinical response to immunotherapy in cancer patients

The analysis of a specific subpopulation of immune system cells makes it possible to better identify patients who will benefit most from immunological treatments and predict therapy's clinical outcome. The results of the stud, carried out by the Laboratory of Tumour Immunology and Cellular Therapies of the Department of Experimental Medicine at Sapienza University of Rome, were published in the journal Clinical Cancer Research

Tuesday, 25 January 2022 - 12:00pm

Tartar analysis of 60 individuals living between 11,500 and 8,000 years ago reveals consumption of cereals and plants before the introduction of agriculture in Europe

The results of a study, published on eLife and carried out by an international team, coordinated by Emanuela Cristiani of the Department of Oral and Maxillo-Facial Sciences of Sapienza University of Rome, have shown that hunter-gatherers in the Balkans in the early Holocene were familiar with the consumption of wild cereals prior to their domestication

Monday, 24 January 2022 - 11:00am

Pediatric cancer treatments: new possibilities coming from RNA-based regulatory mechanism

In collaboration with the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT), a research group from Sapienza University of Rome discovered how the interaction between two specific RNA molecules sustains the growth of rhabdomyosarcoma, one of the most common malignant tumours in children. The study, funded by the AIRC Foundation for Cancer Research and published in Molecular Cell journal, opens the way to new treatments for childhood malignancies

Wednesday, 5 January 2022 - 5:15pm

New breakthrough in understanding molecular aggregates in ALS

A group of researchers from Sapienza University of Rome and the University of Perugia, in collaboration with the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT), has published a study on iScience, which sheds light on a new form of RNA and its involvement in neurodegenerative disorders such as Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. The research was supported by the European Research Council and by the AriSLA foundation

Tuesday, 4 January 2022 - 12:30pm

Cystic fibrosis: patients' respiratory cells reprogrammed to test more effective drugs

A joint study by a team of researchers from the Department of Experimental Medicine at Sapienza University of Rome, the Istituto Superiore di Sanità and the Regional Reference Centre for Cystic Fibrosis of the Lazio Region, supported by the Fondazione per la ricerca sulla fibrosi cistica (Cystic Fibrosis Research Foundation), opens the way to more effective personalised treatments to improve patients' quality of life and increase their life expectancy

Monday, 3 January 2022 - 12:15pm

Workers' psychological wellbeing during COVID-19: vulnerabilities and protective factors

A collaborative study between Sapienza University of Rome and other universities assessed the psychological costs of lockdown in workers linked to a number of determinants. The study results, published in the journal Current Psychology, provide an important basis for designing and implementing interventions to support workers in the later stages of the pandemic

Monday, 13 December 2021 - 3:45pm

Infodemic and pandemic: comparing phenomena

A team of Data Science experts comprising computational epidemiologists and WHO and CDC representatives, coordinated by Walter Quattrociocchi of Sapienza University of Rome, have published a study in the journal Cell aimed at identifying differences and interconnections between the pandemic and infodemic phenomena and understanding the evolution of public opinion and its effects on both societies and policies for pandemic management

Thursday, 9 December 2021 - 5:30pm

Two genetic mutations are responsible for the extraordinary cold resistance of the Fuegians, the ancient inhabitants of Tierra del Fuego

Analysis of the remains and genes of the Fuegians, whose skeletons are preserved at the Museum of Anthropology at Sapienza University of Rome, showed that this population's adaptation to low temperatures was determined by two particular genetic variants that may lead to an activation of brown fat. The study was published in the journal Scientific Reports

Friday, 3 December 2021 - 12:00pm

A blood sample to identify specific brain alterations underlying Down syndrome

Sapienza University of Rome, in collaboration with the Bambino Gesù paediatric hospital and Fondazione Policlinico Gemelli, have for the first time highlighted the possibility of identifying, with a simple blood sample, the specific alterations in the insulin signal in the brains of children with Down syndrome. The study was published in Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association

Monday, 29 November 2021 - 12:00pm

Invasive alien mammals threaten biodiversity in Europe

International researchers led by Sapienza University of Rome and University of Vienna have sounded the alarm about the growing presence in Europe of mammals introduced from other continents, such as American mink, coypu, and squirrels. Invasive species pose a risk to the survival of many native species as well as to human health

Wednesday, 24 November 2021 - 12:00pm

Multiple sclerosis: experimental model demonstrates the role of immune response

A group of international researchers, coordinated by the Department of Clinical Internal, Anesthesiological and Cardiovascular Sciences of Sapienza University of Rome, have demonstrated for the first time how the immune response worsens the course of the disease in multiple sclerosis patients. The study results have been published in the journal Cell Death & Disease

Friday, 12 November 2021 - 12:45pm

"eReferral', the online portal for quick and easy assessment of liver transplant suitability, launched

A team of researchers of Sapienza University of Rome, in collaboration with Policlinico Umberto I General Hospital, University of Tor Vergata and Innovo Consortium of Rome, have devised a new online booking system for outpatient referrals to assess liver transplant suitability. The study has been published in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology

Tuesday, 9 November 2021 - 12:30pm

The giant hyena that could not survive climate change

Pachycrocuta brevirostris, the giant short-faced hyena widespread in the Old World during the Pleistocene, became extinct in Europe about 800,000 years ago due to climatic and environmental changes and not because of competition with other species that spread during the same period. A new study by the Department of Earth Sciences of Sapienza University of Rome, published in Quaternary Science Reviews, has revealed this

Thursday, 4 November 2021 - 12:30pm

Jupiter's Great Red Spot: an anticyclonic storm of "constrained" depth

New results from the Juno probe's measurements of the planet's gravity reveal, in a study published in the Science journal, that the Great Red Spot, although massive, is not as deep as previously thought. This discovery, made in collaboration with researchers from Sapienza's Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, could explain the reasons for its evolution and perhaps its possible future disappearance

Thursday, 28 October 2021 - 8:30pm

Shift work syndrome: increased risks for counter-clockwise rotating shifts

A research group coordinated by the Department of Psychology of Sapienza University of Rome, in collaboration with Santa Lucia IRCCS Research Institute in Rome and the University of L'Aquila, has published a study in the journal JAMA Network Open that, for the first time in Italy, documents the negative effects of anti-clockwise shift work on nurses, opening up potentially innovative prospects for work organisation in hospitals and elsewhere

Tuesday, 19 October 2021 - 3:30pm

Cuprates: strange and promising metals for future technology

A new study carried out by an international research team comprising researchers of the Department of Physics of Sapienza University, the Politecnico di Milano and the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in Grenoble, adds an important piece to the complicated puzzle of cuprates, a family of compounds that become superconductors at high critical temperatures. The paper has been published in the journal Science

Friday, 15 October 2021 - 3:30pm

A chemo-free therapeutic approach for treating childhood tumours

An Italian research team coordinated by Sapienza University of Rome has demonstred the action of a pharmacological combination against neoplasm cells activated by the MYCN oncogene. The study results, published in the journal Oncogene, open up new therapeutic prospects for numerous tumours, such as neuroblastoma and childhood medulloblastoma

Thursday, 14 October 2021 - 3:15pm

A rainbow-like spiral to boost telecommunications

Research carried out by Sapienza University of Rome, in collaboration with the University of Brescia, the Xlim Institute of Limoges in France and the Southern Methodist University of Dallas in the United States of America, has demonstrated a simple and inexpensive method for generating spiral rainbow laser beams that can be applied in various fields, from telecommunications to quantum optics. The study has been published in Scientific Reports

Monday, 4 October 2021 - 3:45pm

Right or left wing? The electricity in your brain can show your preference

A new study published in Scientific Reports, a prestigious journal of the Nature group, shows how specific electrical activity in the brain can predict one's voting behaviour. The research is the result of the work of an interdisciplinary group of neuroscientists, psychologists and political scientists, a collaboration between Sapienza University of Rome, Kingston University London, Luiss Guido Carli, University of Rome 'Tor Vergata' and the University of Melbourne

Monday, 27 September 2021 - 3:30pm

Two new galaxies formed at the dawn of the Universe and hidden behind interstellar dust discovered

The current census of the formation and growth of galaxies after the Big Bang is still incomplete. This has been revealed by an international research team, with cosmologists from the Department of Physics of Sapienza University and the Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa in Italy. The results of the study have been published in the journal Nature

Wednesday, 22 September 2021 - 5:15pm

Heavy metal pollution: if lead is in the air and smartphones, will it also end up in our bones?

Analysis of the human remains of 132 individuals who lived in various necropolises in central Italy from around 12,000 YA has allowed researchers to detect the rates of lead production and the health risks of exposure to this metal over time and compare them with those of today. The study has been published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology with the participation of researchers from Sapienza

Monday, 20 September 2021 - 12:15pm

Floating-Harbor Syndrome: a combined study approach

A team of researchers from Sapienza University and the Pasteur Institute Italy - Cenci Bolognetti Foundation used a multidisciplinary approach of reverse genetics, cell biology and biochemistry to study the physiological role of an important cellular factor, whose alteration is responsible for the onset of this rare disease. The study results have been published in the journal BMC Biology

Thursday, 16 September 2021 - 3:00pm

Sleep-wake cycle: immune cells also regulate it

An international team of researchers coordinated by the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology "Vittorio Erspamer " of Sapienza University of Rome have identified a central role in regulating the sleep-wake cycle in cells involved in the brain's immune system. The study results, published in the journal Glia, open up new perspectives for studying how the brain works

Thursday, 16 September 2021 - 12:00pm

A supplement for myotonic dystrophy

An international team of researchers coordinated by Sapienza University of Rome, in collaboration with the Pasteur Institute Italy - Cenci Bolognetti Foundation and other foreign research centres, have published a study in eLife that contributes to the understanding of the mechanisms underlying myotonic dystrophy, opening up new possible therapeutic perspectives

Wednesday, 15 September 2021 - 12:15pm

Le onde elettromagnetiche, tra cui luce, raggi X, microonde e onde radio, sono molto presenti nella vita quotidiana e si prestano a numerose applicazioni, grazie alla loro flessibilità e potenza: dalla trasmissione di informazioni e di energia ai radar, fino agli impieghi in medicina diagnostica e terapeutica. Tuttavia, le onde elettromagnetiche perdono di efficacia all’interno di alcuni materiali detti dissipativi che intralciano la loro propagazione determinandone la trasformazione in altre forme di energ

Electromagnetic waves without limits: from seabed exploration to cutting-edge diagnostics

A group of researchers at Sapienza verified in practice, and for the first time, the phenomenon of deep penetration of electromagnetic waves using easily realisable devices. The study, published in the journal Scientific Reports, opens up new perspectives for the technological development of numerous applications in imaging and spectroscopy, as well as in radar systems and medical treatments

Monday, 13 September 2021 - 11:45am

Biodiversity and climate: From Lake Ohrid the secret of forest resilience to global change

An international team of researchers coordinated by Sapienza identifies the role of the large freshwater basin located on the border between Albania and North Macedonia as a refuge area for plants and trees during unfavourable climatic phases. The research published in PNAS makes an important contribution to the analysis on forest conservation and diversification

Thursday, 9 September 2021 - 11:15am

A new frontier for optical telecommunications

A group of engineers from Sapienza, in collaboration with other universities, have discovered new properties in solitons, a particular type of light wave that can propagate indefinitely in optical fibres. The study results, presented in the journal Communications Physics, pave the way for a new type of multimode optical propagation, applicable in telecommunications and fibre lasers

Friday, 3 September 2021 - 12:00pm

COVID-19 infodemic: the role of traditional and social media

An international team of researchers, coordinated by the Department of Molecular Medicine at Sapienza University of Rome, published an editorial in the journal Clinical Microbiology and Infection on the role of the media in the COVID-19 pandemic. The article invites the scientists to take responsibility for their own communication

Wednesday, 1 September 2021 - 12:00pm

Evolutionary convergence: is diet a determining factor? Yes, but only in some species

Researchers from Sapienza has published a study on evolutionary convergence between species in the journal Evolution. The research questions the extent to which morphological convergence is common in carnivores and the possible causes, with the unexpected result that it derives from complex interactions between morphology, ecology and biomechanics

Wednesday, 1 September 2021 - 11:30am

Breast and prostate cancer in men with BRCA gene mutation: Increasingly accurate risk estimates

A new study by Sapienza University and the University of Cambridge has identified new genetic factors that modulate the risk of developing breast and prostate cancer in men carrying mutations in the BRCA genes. The research results, published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, can improve prevention and encourage early diagnosis in high-risk individuals

Monday, 9 August 2021 - 11:30am

A new pharmacological approach to reduce the progression of pancreatic cancer

Research published in the journal Gastroenterology, involving researchers from the Departments of Experimental Medicine and Chemistry and Technology of Drugs at Sapienza, has identified a potential adjuvant pharmacological strategy to conventional pancreatic cancer therapy, based on the activation of a specific enzyme involved in tumour metabolism

Wednesday, 4 August 2021 - 11:45am

Printable sensors for a patient-oriented approach

A group of researchers from the Department of Psychology of Sapienza University of Rome, the IRCCS Fondazione Santa Lucia and the University of Padova, in collaboration with BrainTrends, an Italian neuroscience and applied technology company, have developed and published in the journal Scientific Reports a new low-cost, personalised electrode system for gesture recognition which can have major applications in neurorehabilitation

Friday, 30 July 2021 - 1:15pm

In our prehistoric ancestors' tartar, the origins of agriculture in Europe

Analysis of the prehistoric tartar of 44 individuals from Italian and Balkan archaeological sites has made it possible to compare the eating habits of hunter-gatherers-fishermen from the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic periods with those of early Neolithic farmers. The study, coordinated by Sapienza as part of the ERC Starting Grant HIDDEN FOODS project, has been published in PNAS

Tuesday, 27 July 2021 - 12:15pm

Photonic artificial intelligence becomes sustainable

The Department of Physics at Sapienza University, in collaboration with the Italian National Research Council, has developed a new artificial intelligence device capable of recognising images using only the propagation of laser light in the air. Optical processor, presented in the journal Photonics Research, paves the way for 'green' machine learning technologies

Monday, 26 July 2021 - 3:30pm

Precision medicine: new nano-transporters engineered by Sapienza to target and eliminate cancer cells

A group of researchers from three different departments at Sapienza University of Rome has developed a new hybrid nanoparticle capable of effectively and selectively delivering antitumor drugs. The results of the study, which could be used to treat different types of cancer, have been published in the Journal of Nanobiotechnology

Friday, 9 July 2021 - 12:00pm

New Neanderthal fossils found in Israel: was the East so 'close' for our ancestors too?

The recent discovery at the Israeli site of Nesher Ramla of fossil remains brings to light the role of populations from the Near East in the evolution of Neanderthals. The study, which involved the Department of Environmental Biology at the Sapienza University, was published on Science, which also dedicated a cover page to it

Friday, 25 June 2021 - 11:00am

Study on a wild boar's brain from over 3 million years ago

Researchers from Sapienza discovered near Collepardo (central Italy) the most complete fossil of the neurocranium of the Sus avernensism, the small wild boar that inhabited the European continent during the Pliocene. The study, published in Historical Biology, identified unexpected similarities with some species that now inhabit only equatorial Africa and Indonesian islands

Monday, 14 June 2021 - 1:15pm

NASA chooses VERITAS: Sapienza on Venus

The space mission selected by NASA for the exploration of Venus involves the research group of Sapienza University led by Luciano Iess. VERITAS is expected to answer several questions about the evolution of this still mysterious planet that has become one of the most inhospitable places in the solar system from a past very similar to that of the Earth

Friday, 4 June 2021 - 10:45am

Andromeda at 6.6 GHz: a unique image of the Milky Way’s sister galaxy

In addition to being unprecedented, the image obtained at this frequency allowed us to define in detail the galaxy's morphology and, in particular, to identify the regions where new stars are born. The outcomes of this study, a collaboration between Sapienza and the National Institute of Astrophysics, have been published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics

Wednesday, 26 May 2021 - 12:15pm

Cosmology: the 'Hubble constant' is not actually constant

The discovery of a team of researchers from Sapienza University of Roma, the National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA) and the University of Pisa. The study, published in The Astrophysical Journal, will open the way to multiple interpretive scenarios in which modified gravity models, for example, could be tested

Tuesday, 25 May 2021 - 3:45pm

The first 3D brain organoids for studying Fragile X syndrome

The study, coordinated by researchers from Sapienza University of Rome and the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia - IIT (Italian Institute of Technology), will make it possible to study the molecular mechanism of the disease in vitro and test future drugs for this condition. The results have been published in the journal Cell Death & Disease

Monday, 24 May 2021 - 12:45pm

The origins of the Milky Way's supermassive black hole

A study from the Department of Physics at Sapienza University provides new information on the formation of the black hole at the centre of our Galaxy. The study, published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, suggests that the supermassive black hole is the remnant of a collection of lighter black holes that lost their orbital energy until they merged

Thursday, 13 May 2021 - 1:30pm

Alterations in electroencephalographic (EEG) activity during wakefulness and sleep in Alzheimer's disease

A study published in IScience and coordinated by Sapienza University and IRCCS San Raffaele Rome, in collaboration with IRCCS Fondazione Policlinico Universitario Gemelli, has highlighted for the first time specific differences in brain electrical activity during sleep that discriminate Alzheimer's disease from Mild Cognitive Impairment (or MCI) and healthy elderly

Monday, 3 May 2021 - 3:45pm

"And so we went out to see the stars again." New Sapienza study sheds light on the role of stellate cells in our brain development

A new Sapienza study has highlighted the role of astrocytes in the processes of neonatal brain development. The results published in Cell Reports allow to investigate some molecular mechanisms underlying many psychiatric disorders of neurodevelopment that occur in the perinatal period, such as autism, schizophrenia or attention deficit, and to identify potential new drugs

Thursday, 29 April 2021 - 11:30am

Dwarf elephants and giant pigeons: the rule or the exception of island-dwelling species?

An international study published in the journal Nature, Ecology and Evolution and carried out in collaboration with Sapienza University, explains the mechanisms underlying the phenomena of gigantism and dwarfism that characterise many island species, confirming the influence of geographical and climatic factors. These include island size, temperature and seasonality

Wednesday, 21 April 2021 - 12:15pm

The 'high-tech' fangs of spitting cobras

A new study conducted by a team of researchers from various universities, including Sapienza University, has investigated the ability of these snakes to defend themselves from attackers by spraying venom from their fangs at distances of up to 3 m: the research, published in the Journal of Experimental Biology, has shown that this ability is due to the peculiar morphological characteristics of the fangs rather than the physical properties of the venom

Wednesday, 14 April 2021 - 12:00pm

Wolf: hybridisation with domestic dogs threatens species conservation

The study, carried out by Sapienza researchers, estimated a hybridisation prevalence of 70% in the Tuscan-Emilian Apennine National Park and surrounding areas of the northern Apennines, based on 152 samples collected from 39 wolves in 7 different packs. The results of the work, published in The Journal of Wildlife Management, highlight the need to curb the phenomenon to preserve the wolf's genetic integrity

Thursday, 8 April 2021 - 12:15pm

A crystal housing a three-dimensional domino effect

A team of researchers from the Department of Physics at Sapienza University and the Department of Applied Physics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem has stereoscopically imaged fractal-dimensional percolation in a crystal in real time. The discovery, published in Physical Review Letters, helps understand the behaviour of innovative materials for storing information and energy

Tuesday, 30 March 2021 - 12:00pm

Lying or telling the truth: the role of dopamine in the choices of people with Parkinson's disease

An analysis of the scientific review published by NPJ Parkinson's Disease, part of the Nature group, assessed the role of dopamine in modulating the moral choices of Parkinson's disease patients, particularly with regard to lying or telling the truth. The study was coordinated by researchers of Sapienza University of Rome in collaboration with the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia and the Fondazione Santa Lucia IRCCS

Friday, 26 March 2021 - 12:00pm

When the pardel lynx populated Europe: new evidence from southern Italy on the evolution of these short-tailed cats, now endangered

A new study coordinated by the Department of Earth Sciences at Sapienza University of Rome and the University of Perugia has shown that during the Pleistocene period, the most widespread species on our continent was the Lynx pardinus, the pardel Lynx. With its short tail but long history, this unique cat now only inhabits the Iberian Peninsula and is at high risk of extinction. The paper has been published in Quaternary Science Reviews

Tuesday, 23 March 2021 - 12:45pm

Encrypted conversations: when the laws of physics protect sensitive data

A new study coordinated by Department of Physics of Sapienza, shows how, by using a new type of photon emitter, quantum dots, it is possible to guarantee an additional level of security for data transmitted in communication channels, from telephone conversations to bank transactions. The research, published on Science Advances, involved the experimental development of the first quantum communication channel between two buildings on Sapienza's main campus

Saturday, 20 March 2021 - 10:15am

WildTrackCube-SIMBA: animal-monitoring satellite

The satellite, developed by students and researchers at the S5Lab - Sapienza Space Systems and Space Surveillance Laboratory coordinated by Fabrizio Piergentili and Fabio Santoni of Sapienza University of Rome, was launched on March 22, from the Baikonur base. The cutting-edge tracking system will allow, through the collection of health and location data, the monitoring of wildlife in Kenya's national parks and the study of animal behaviour

Thursday, 18 March 2021 - 12:00pm

Humans and macaques coexisted at Notarchirico in Italy almost 700,000 years ago

A new international study involving the Sapienza University has documented the coexistence of humans and Barbary macaques at the archaeological-paleontological site of Notarchirico, southern Italy. The work published in the Journal of Human Evolution provides further data on the palaeoecology of the primate, now widespread in North Africa and reintroduced in Gibraltar, and which in the Pleistocene occupied most of the European territory

Friday, 12 March 2021 - 11:15am

NeuroDante: an innovative and integrated approach to the study of the Divine Comedy

A neuroscientific study analyses the emotional and cognitive processes involved in the reading of the Divine Comedy. The research is part of an interdisciplinary collaboration between the Department of Molecular Medicine, the Department of European, American and Intercultural Studies, and the Sapienza start-up BrainSigns

Tuesday, 9 March 2021 - 12:15pm

A protein corona for early detection of pancreatic cancer

The possibility of detecting cancer at an early stage could come from nanotechnology: the protein corona, which allows an overall analysis, at a glance, of the entire proteome found in the plasma." The results of the study coordinated by the Department of Molecular Medicine of Sapienza University of Rome were published in the journal Cancers

Thursday, 4 March 2021 - 12:30pm

Making Sense of Testosterone and severe COVID-19

An international study coordinated by the University of Siena in collaboration with several other centres including Sapienza University of Rome shows that specific genetic variants make the testosterone receptor less functional, predisposing male individuals to develop a much more severe COVID-19 disease. The results of the work have been published on the EBioMedicine journal of The Lancet group

Tuesday, 2 March 2021 - 9:15am

Social networks: an echo chamber for controversial topics

A new Italian study involving the Department of Computer Science of Sapienza University analysed more than 100 million posts published between 2010 and 2018 on different social networks to assess how online content consumption is characterised. The paper, published in the journal PNAS, suggests that information dissemination depends as much on the dynamics of users online as on the social platform's characteristics

Wednesday, 24 February 2021 - 3:15pm

UV and optical signal challenging pulsar models

For the first time, optical and ultraviolet flashes, as well as the X-ray pulsations typical of these astronomical bodies, have been observed from a pulsar at the millisecond in its "explosive" phase. The discovery, led by researchers of the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics and also based on observations made with the Galileo National Telescope, investigates the theoretical models that describe pulsars' behaviour in binary systems

Monday, 22 February 2021 - 5:30pm

Artificial intelligence finds the "signature" of neurological diseases in the voice

Advanced voice analysis with machine learning algorithms offers new opportunities for instrumental and non-invasive investigation of neurological diseases, enabling precision medicine development. The study carried out by Sapienza University of Rome, in collaboration with I.R.C.S. Neuromed in Pozzilli, Isernia, southern Italy and the University of Rome Tor Vergata, has been published in the journal Movement Disorders

Thursday, 18 February 2021 - 10:30am

The Michelangelo effect: works of art and virtual reality enhance the effectiveness of neurorehabilitation therapies

Fondazione Santa Lucia IRCCS, Sapienza University of Rome and Unitelma Sapienza carried out a study to discover how artwork can help patients with a nervous system injury caused by a stroke to perform neurorehabilitation exercises in a virtual environment. The results of the study have been published on the journal Frontiers in Psychology

Tuesday, 9 February 2021 - 12:15pm

Parkinson's disease: new potential biomarker identified

A pilot clinical study, carried out by Sapienza University, the Italian National Research Council and the University of Rome Tor Vergata, has shown for the first time an increase in the chemokine Prokineticin 2 (PK2) in the serum of Parkinson's disease patients, suggesting a potential protective role. The work, published on Movement Disorders, identifies the molecule both as a biomarker and as a drug target to develop useful therapies for Parkinson's disease

Wednesday, 3 February 2021 - 11:00am

Identified the ALS molecular signature

A new study carried out by researchers from Sapienza University of Rome in collaboration with the Pasteur Institute-Italy laboratory has identified potential markers of the progression of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: small molecules of non-coding RNA, the microRNAs, which are often altered in certain pathological condition. The study has been published on Cell Death Discovery

Monday, 25 January 2021 - 1:00pm

Large carnivores regain territory

A new study, a collaboration between Sapienza University of Rome and the National Research Council, investigates the recolonisation of lynx, wolves and bears in several areas of Europe. The work results, published in the journal Diversity and Distributions, identify changes in land cover, human population density, and increased species protection policies as key determinants

Monday, 18 January 2021 - 12:30pm

Albumin versus Covid-19: successful clinical trial launched

While waiting for the development of a vaccine to defeat the disease, the research group coordinated by Francesco Violi of Sapienza University of Rome has begun testing the use of albumin as a support to traditional anticoagulant therapy in the treatment of thrombotic complications. The results of the study have been published in the journal Thrombosis and Haemostasis

Monday, 11 January 2021 - 10:00am

Ancient DNA tells the story of the Caribbean before the Europeans’ arrival

An international team of geneticists, archaeologists, anthropologists and physicists, involving researchers of Sapienza University, has analysed the DNA of 174 individuals who lived more than 2000 years ago on what are now the Caribbean islands. The study, published in the journal Nature, has shed light on the history of Caribbean populations before the Europeans' arrival, answering questions that have remained unanswered until now

Wednesday, 23 December 2020 - 5:45pm

The history of the populations of central and southern Andes before Spanish colonisation

Italian and Peruvian researchers, coordinated by the Department of Environmental Biology of Sapienza, started from the analysis of the dental morphology of individuals living in the areas corresponding to Bolivia, Chile and Peru more than one thousand years ago to understand the migration dynamics and the biological links of these populations before the arrival of Christopher Columbus

Friday, 18 December 2020 - 2:00pm

Delaying school entry: students' performance improves

Getting more sleep increases attention levels and improves school performance. This was demonstrated by a pilot study coordinated by the Department of Psychology of Sapienza and published on the journal Nature and Science of Sleep. The results of the research carried out on first-year high school students at the Istituto Ettore Majorana in Brindisi, Italy, suggest that postponing school entry would have a positive impact on school performance

Thursday, 10 December 2020 - 12:30pm

From the teeth of the Man of Altamura new information about Neanderthals

A collaboration between Sapienza and the Universities of Florence and Pisa deepens the knowledge of the most complete Neanderthal skeleton ever found. Given the difficulty in accessing the find in the Lamalunga cave, Apulia, Italy, it was necessary to use videoscopic probes and a portable X-ray machine. The results of the work have been published on the journal PLoS One

Thursday, 3 December 2020 - 12:00pm

Small RNA, big hopes: discovered a new molecule slows growth of aggressive lymphomas

A new study published in the journal Clinical Cancer Research, a collaboration between the Department of Experimental Medicine of Sapienza University of Rome and Harvard Medical School, has identified a molecule capable of slowing the tumour growth of lymphomas. A phase II clinical trial of the drug, developed by the US pharmaceutical company miRagen Therapeutics, will commence soon

Friday, 27 November 2020 - 1:00pm

The restless soul of the planets

Researchers from the Department of Civil, Constructional and Environmental Engineering of Sapienza University of Rome in a team with other universities (Oxford, UAE, and USF) have developed a theory to measure the turbulence of the giant planets. The study, published on the journal Geophysical Research Letters, shows that turbulence on Jupiter’s atmosphere is four times more intense than Saturn's

Monday, 23 November 2020 - 1:00pm

Molecular clock marking the growth of the plant root identified

A team of researchers from the Department of Biology and Biotechnology "Charles Darwin" has identified one of the molecular clocks that regulate the maturation of organs in plants. The study, published on the journal Current Biology, sheds new light on the mechanisms used to improve plants' adaptation to environmental changes

Thursday, 19 November 2020 - 1:00pm

Immunotherapy in lung cancer: towards personalised medicine

A new research coordinated by the Department of Experimental Medicine of Sapienza University of Rome identifies an autoantibody as a possible indicator of resistance to immunotherapy treatments in patients with lung cancer. The results of the work, another step towards personalised medicine, have been published on the EBioMedicine journal of The Lancet group

Friday, 13 November 2020 - 12:30pm

Not recognising people’s faces. Happens to more than a third of autistic people with no intellectual disability

The study, published on the journal Molecular Autism by researchers from the Department of Psychology of Sapienza University of Rome, the Institute of Science and Technology of Cognition of the National Research Council of Italy (CNR-ISTC), the Santa Lucia IRCCS Foundation, Harvard University and the University of Cambridge, is an important piece in the reconstruction of the genetic background of autism

Tuesday, 10 November 2020 - 1:00pm

A gene to defeat grey mould: the number one enemy of over 200 plant species

An international study, coordinated by the Department of Biology and Biotechnology "Charles Darwin" of Sapienza University of Rome, identifies a new gene capable of combatting the invasion of fungal pathogens and in particular of Botrytis cinerea, responsible for grey mould in numerous plant species including vines, tomatoes and strawberries. The results have been published on the journal Molecular Plant Pathology

Thursday, 5 November 2020 - 12:30pm

Neanderthals just like us: their newborns had the same weaning times as Homo Sapiens

An analysis of three milk teeth belonging to Neanderthal children who lived between 70,000 and 45,000 years ago in north-eastern Italy shows that their growth rate was very similar to ours: the discovery leads us to exclude that late weaning could be one of the causes that led to the disappearance of this human species. The study, published on PNAS, has been carried out by the Diet and ANcient TEchnology Laboratory of Sapienza

Tuesday, 3 November 2020 - 12:00pm

The second youth of muscles

A molecule capable of activating the regeneration of muscle cells up to the geriatric age has been discovered. The paper, a collaboration between Sapienza University of Rome and European and American laboratories, paves the way for new therapeutic possibilities also for people suffering from neuromuscular pathologies. The research has been published on the journal Nature Cell Biology

Friday, 30 October 2020 - 11:45am

A new study reveals how our ancestors learned to preserve food more than 300,000 years ago

A team of researchers of the Department of Ancient World Studies of Sapienza, in collaboration with Tel Aviv University (TAU), discovered how, since the Lower Palaeolithic, a community of hominins living in Qesem Cave (Israel) used wood ash to preserve food and other perishable materials. The study has been published on the journal PLoS One

Thursday, 29 October 2020 - 12:45pm

The Achille's heel of SARS-CoV-2 identified and hit

A new study coordinated by Sapienza, in collaboration with other Italian universities, has identified a new molecular target to control the infection of different strains of coronavirus, including SARS-CoV-2. The results, published on the journal Pharmacological Research, pave the way for innovative strategies for the medical treatment of this type of viral infection

Wednesday, 28 October 2020 - 12:00pm

Living neural networks for cancer treatment

An all-Italian research group, coordinated by the Department of Physics of Sapienza University of Rome has developed an artificial intelligence system which, by incorporating the tumour into a neural network, can monitor the metabolism and growth of cancer cells and, in a completely non-invasive manner, the effects of chemotherapy. The results have been published on the journal Communications Physics

Monday, 26 October 2020 - 12:45pm

A "safety net" for biodiversity

A new contribution published on Science highlights the need for multiple approaches to set achievable goals in 2030 and 2050 by the UN Convention on Biological Diversity. The paper required the involvement of over 60 researchers coming from 27 countries, including Carlo Rondinini of the Department of Biology and Biotechnology "Charles Darwin"

Friday, 23 October 2020 - 12:15pm

How Apennine groundwater signals earthquakes on the other side of the world

A new study, a collaboration between Sapienza University of Rome, the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology and the National Research Council, has detected some variations in groundwater levels in central Italy, which can be traced back to distant earthquakes that have occurred even on other continents. The results of the work have been published on the journal Scientific Reports

Wednesday, 21 October 2020 - 12:00pm

In the "double" soul of water lies the secret of its electrical properties

A new study coordinated by Sapienza, in collaboration with the Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA), and The National Research Council (CNR), has experimentally demonstrated that the polarizability of water is influenced by its particular structure, which in liquid form is a mixture of two fluids of different densities. The paper has been published on the journal Physics Letters A

Tuesday, 20 October 2020 - 12:15pm

Covid-19 and diabetes: the risk of a worse prognosis of SARS-CoV-2 infection increases not due to a single factor, but to the simultaneous presence of several cardio-metabolic risk factors

The Sapienza hospitals, Umberto I "Policlinico" General Hospital and Sant'Andrea Hospital in Rome and Santa Maria Goretti Hospital in Latina, have analysed the population with diabetes affected by Covid-19, identifying a plurality of risk factors the common denominator of which is insulin resistance. The results of this new study have been published on Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice and Cardiovascular Diabetology

Friday, 9 October 2020 - 1:00pm

Evolutionary dynamics and biodiversity: new discoveries from Europe's oldest lake

The researchers of the Department of Environmental Biology have taken part in a new international study which has highlighted how the ongoing climate changes are also a danger to an ancient and resilient ecosystem such as Lake Ohrid, a reservoir of biodiversity for our continent. The outcomes of the study which could have a strong impact for future research on biodiversity have been published on the journal Science Advances

Thursday, 1 October 2020 - 1:45pm

Metallic hydrogen: a step towards the first room-temperature superconductor

The Department of Physics of Sapienza University of Rome is at the forefront in the worldwide challenge of hydrogen metallization. The study, carried out in collaboration with the universities of Trento and the Basque Country, is aimed at developing new highly efficient tools for electronics and the energy sector. The paper has been published on the journal Nature Physics

Tuesday, 29 September 2020 - 10:45am

Food and Covid-19: preventive and co-therapeutic support strategies

The researchers of the Department of Chemistry and Technology of Drugs of Sapienza, in collaboration with the University of Naples Federico II, and the Mediterranea University of Reggio Calabria, have highlighted the adjuvant role of some micronutrients against SARS-CoV-2 infection and the potential of active components as possible drug precursors. The review has been published on Foods journal

Thursday, 24 September 2020 - 12:30pm

Fabiana ramulosa: a plant against antibiotic resistance

A multidisciplinary team of Sapienza has identified a molecule of the shrub native to the mountain slopes of Chile and Argentina as a natural ally against antibiotic resistance. The antimicrobial action of the plant was discovered using bioinformatics approaches and biological screening. The results of the research have been published on the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy

Thursday, 17 September 2020 - 12:30pm

The most ancient European Acheulean stone artefacts were discovered in Notarchirico, Basilicata, Southern Italy. The discovery moves the origin of the technique to 700 thousand years ago

An international team of researchers, including scholars from the departments of Earth Sciences and Ancient World Studies of Sapienza, has found chipped stone tools dating back to the Acheulean culture of the Lower Paleolithic, in the Notarchirico archaeological site in Basilicata, Southern Italy. These tools allow the researcher to move back in time the origin of the Acheulean in Europe. The results of the study have been published on Scientific Reports

Wednesday, 16 September 2020 - 12:15pm

28 safe and sound! How conservation policies have prevented the extinction of many endangered mammals and birds

Sapienza University of Rome participated in a new international study that analysed the impact of conservation programs from 1993 up to the present day. The results, published on Conservation Letters, showed that at least 28 species of birds and mammals, including the Przewalski's Horse, the Iberian Lynx, the Puerto Rican Amazon and the Black Stilt, have been saved from global extinction

Wednesday, 16 September 2020 - 11:30am

Latent autoimmune diabetes in adults: guidelines to recognise it and manage it

An international panel of diabetes and metabolism experts from around the world, including Raffaella Buzzetti of the Department of Experimental Medicine of Sapienza University of Rome, has drawn up a "consensus statement" on the treatment of LADA. The paper has been published on the Diabetes journal of the American Diabetes Association

Wednesday, 16 September 2020 - 10:00am

Milkomeda: the future "supergalaxy"

A new international study, coordinated by a team of the Department of Physics of Sapienza University of Rome, carried out sophisticated numerical simulations to predict the cosmic times in which our galaxy will collide with Andromeda until it merges into a single "supergalaxy". The results, which have shed new light on the fate of our star system, have been published on the Astronomy and Astrophysics journal

Monday, 14 September 2020 - 12:45pm

The psychology of rules: the COVID-19 case

A new study, coordinated by the Department of Psychology of Sapienza University of Rome, investigated the psychological processes and social conditioning that have led people to respect the rules of quarantine and social distancing imposed by the Government in response to the Coronavirus emergency. The research, carried out on a sample of 1,520 individuals from all over Italy, has been published on the Frontiers in Psychology journal

Monday, 14 September 2020 - 12:15pm

Children in the water one million years ago: human fossil footprints discovered in a prehistoric river in Melka Kunture

At the site of Melka Kunture, Ethiopia, the archaeological mission of Sapienza University of Rome has brought to light, among the hundreds of fossil footprints left between 1.2 million and 850,000 years ago, the oldest child footprints known to date. The study, which offers a rare image of childhood during the most remote prehistory, has been published on the journal Quaternary Science Reviews

Saturday, 12 September 2020 - 12:15pm

Discovering the Chemistry and Mineralogy of the Earth's interior through the study of super-deep Diamonds

Vincenzo Stagno of the Department of Earth Sciences of Sapienza University of Rome is part of the international team who carried out the study published on PNAS and which provides unique information about the chemical and mineralogical composition of the Earth's interior starting from a microscopic sequence of minerals discovered inside a diamond

Monday, 17 August 2020 - 3:00pm

The Arrival of the Longobards in Italy: a Biomolecular Analysis

A new study coordinated by the Laboratory of Paleoanthropology and Bioarchaeology of Sapienza has reconstructed the dynamics through which the Longobards arrived in our peninsula after the fall of the Roman Empire and settled on the territory. The results, published on Scientific Reports, were obtained through biomolecular analyses on teeth and bones of individuals found in the Longobard necropolis of Povegliano Veronese, Italy

Wednesday, 29 July 2020 - 12:00pm

Nox2: target of COVID-19 identified

A new study carried out by Sapienza University and Policlinico Umberto I Hospital in Rome has discovered the mechanism of action of SarsCov2 and identified the chain of reactions underlying the severe damage to the cardiorespiratory system found in patients. The results, published on Redox Biology journal, open up the prospects for new therapies

Monday, 27 July 2020 - 11:30am

Seven million years ago the African crocodile crossed the Atlantic and colonised the New World

A team of Italian researchers have been able to identify the Saharan reptile as the ancestor of today's American crocodiles thanks to a 3D reconstruction of the remains of the crocodile's skull found in As Sahabi (Libya) and preserved for almost a century at the University Museum of Earth Sciences (MUST) of Sapienza University of Rome. The results of the study have been published on Scientific Reports journal

Friday, 24 July 2020 - 11:45am

I can see it in your eyes! Oculomotor behavior tracks the effect of ideological priming on deception

A new Italian study, coordinated by a research team from the Department of Psychology of Sapienza University, has analysed the influence that faces and words of politicians can have on the moral behaviour of "undecided" voters. The oculomotor behaviour of a sample of people with no specific ideological beliefs was analysed during the study. The results have been published on the journal Scientific Reports

Monday, 20 July 2020 - 12:30pm

The two shapes of water

For the first time, a numerical study, a collaboration between Sapienza University of Rome and Princeton University, shows the existence of two different shapes of water, i.e. two distinct liquid phases that at very low temperatures separate, floating one on top of the other. The work, published on the journal Science, breaks new grounds for understanding the mysteries surrounding the liquid of life

Friday, 17 July 2020 - 11:30am

Observing the aggregation of proteins in vivo: a new synthetic system shows the "secret" mechanisms of cells

An international research team with a strong contribution from Sapienza University has developed a synthetic system that allows the in vivo study of protein aggregation in cells. The study, published in the Nature Chemical Biology journal, breaks new ground in terms of understanding a mechanism that, if not working properly, can cause the onset of serious diseases

Tuesday, 14 July 2020 - 12:00pm

Mutations in BRCA genes and tumours: men also at risk

A new international study coordinated by the Department of Molecular Medicine of Sapienza University and also supported by the AIRC Foundation (Italian Foundation for Cancer Research), has shed light on the cancer spectrum occurring in men with mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes. The results have been published on the JAMA Oncology journal

Friday, 3 July 2020 - 12:00pm

Wolf-dog hybridisation in Europe: a risk to biodiversity

Risk of loss of the genetic identity of wolf populations due to hybridisation with dogs and urgent necessity of appropriate measures for the proper management of the phenomenon: these are the main points of a new international research supervised by the Department of Biology and Biotechnology of Sapienza University of Rome and recently published on the journal Biological Conservation

Thursday, 25 June 2020 - 12:00pm

Sexual harassment and precarious employment

International research reveals how workers in precarious employment are more exposed to unwanted sexual behaviour and harassment in the workplace than their colleagues in non-precarious settings. The study, which included the analysis of a sample of 63,966 employees, was coordinated by the Department of Psychology of Sapienza and published on PLoS ONE

Saturday, 20 June 2020 - 12:15pm

lancusi_rappresentazione etaghas dipinta - enhanced

Farming in the Sahara desert is possible: the dawn of agriculture in the Libyan desert

A new study carried out by "Missione Archeologica nel Sahara" (Archaeological Mission in the Sahara) of Sapienza University, in collaboration with the Department of Antiquities of Tripoli, and the Italian Universities of Milan and Modena-Reggio Emilia, revealed the existence of cultivation techniques performed by Tuareg people in mountain areas of the Sahara desert. The research has been published on Antiquity journal

Tuesday, 16 June 2020 - 12:30pm

Highly superior autobiographical memory: the mechanism regulating the brain of people "who do not forget" unveiled

A new Italian study, coordinated by the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology "Vittorio Erspamer" of Sapienza University, reveals the existence of a brain area which allows people with Highly superior autobiographical memory to "date" their memories. The results, which open new frontiers for research on neurorehabilitation of memory in patients with central nervous system injuries, have been published on Cortex journal

Monday, 15 June 2020 - 12:00pm

Social Sciences and Humanities

When Elephants lived in Northern Europe

The Department of Ancient World Studies of Sapienza University was party to the finding of an almost complete prehistoric elephant's skeleton and several footprints on the surrounding ground. The remains discovered at the Schöningen archaeological site, Germany, date back 300,000 years and reveal a different scenario for northern Europe at that time

Monday, 25 May 2020 - 1:00pm

Physical Sciences and Engineering

A star-shaped Prototype for future Quantum Networks

The QuantumLab young researchers, coordinated by Fabio Sciarrino from Sapienza University of Rome, created the first quantum network able to generate nonlocal correlations among 5 separate laboratories. This setup may be employed to create new communication and cryptography protocols. The article has been published on Nature Communications

Wednesday, 20 May 2020 - 1:30pm

Life Sciences

Predicting plant behaviour through mathematical modeling

It is one of the few computational models which, by reproducing the activity of several genetic networks, is able to make predictions actually verifiable at a later stage. The study, coordinated by the Department of Biology and Biotechnology "Charles Darwin" of Sapienza University in collaboration with Utrecht University, has been published on Developmental Cell journal

Monday, 18 May 2020 - 12:30pm

Life Sciences

A New Ally for Binge Eating Disorder

A new Italian study carried out by a team of researchers from Sapienza University of Rome and the University of Camerino has identified a new molecule, Oleoylethanolamide, as novel treatment to prevent and tackle binge eating disorder. Results have been published on the prestigious scientific journal Neuropsychopharmacology

Tuesday, 12 May 2020 - 12:30pm

Social Sciences and Humanities

Sloth does not fear time: traces of a 35-million-years evolutionary history in modern specimens

A team of paleontologists of Sapienza University described, through tomographic analysis of the skull, a Pleistocene giant sloth, and identified the common features shared with the living species from the Central and South American tropical forests. The study has been published on the journal Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution

Wednesday, 6 May 2020 - 3:30pm

Life Sciences

Genome's dark side affects muscle formation

A study of Sapienza University in collaboration with the Italian Institute of Technology sheds new light on the lesser-known part of our genetic makeup, highlighting the action mechanism underlying a non-coding RNA molecule in muscle tissue formation. The article is on the cover of the June 2020 issue of EMBO Reports journal

Monday, 4 May 2020 - 1:30pm

Physical Sciences and Engineering

Solid Earth tides move continents

Astronomical forces, such as solid Earth tides, play an active role in plate tectonics. These are the outcomes of research carried out by Sapienza University of Rome, the Italian Space Agency and the Italian National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, published on the journal Earth Science Reviews

Thursday, 30 April 2020 - 1:30pm

Social Sciences and Humanities

Natural laboratories on the coast of Ischia indicate how our seas will be in the future

A new Italian study of the Department of Environmental Biology of Sapienza University of Rome and the "Anton Dohrn" zoological station in Naples, has observed and assessed the effects of ocean acidification on seagrass on the coast of Ischia, Italy. The results, published on Marine Mediterranean Science journal, will be applied and spread on a large scale

Thursday, 23 April 2020 - 12:45pm

Life Sciences

Natural killer cells of the immune system as an underlying cause of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

Three departments of Sapienza University of Rome have coordinated and collaborated in a new international study that proves, for the first time, the involvement of Natural Killer cells (NK) in the early stages of ALS. The study, published on Nature Communications journal, suggests a new possible therapeutic target for the development of specific therapies

Friday, 17 April 2020 - 12:00pm

Physical Sciences and Engineering

The first micro-garden in orbit for growing vegetables in space

It is called GREENCUBE, the project coordinated by the Department of Astronautical, Electrical and Energy Engineering of Sapienza University in collaboration with the National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA) and which aims to develop new technologies for human colonization of the moon

Thursday, 16 April 2020 - 3:45pm

Life Sciences

Alzheimer's disease: a new biomarker for diagnosis?

An international study coordinated by Sapienza University of Rome, has identified in a DNA epigenetic modification, the non-CpG methylation, a role in the neurodegeneration process underlying the disease. The outcomes, published on Epigenetics journal, indicate the mechanism as a possible biomarker for diagnosis and the development of new therapies

Wednesday, 8 April 2020 - 10:00am

Life Sciences

Multiple Sclerosis: using machine learning models to predict the course of the disease

A multidisciplinary study, involving four different departments of Sapienza University of Rome, identified a new paradigm aimed at predicting the medium-term course of multiple sclerosis by using machine learning algorithms and data already available in clinical routine. Results have been published on the journal PLoS ONE

Tuesday, 24 March 2020 - 12:15pm

Ancient migrations: Steppe and Iranian-related ancestry’s genes in the DNA of Sicilians, Sardinians and other Mediterranean islands populations

A new international study, in partnership with Sapienza, recreates the post-Neolithic migration dynamics in the western Mediterranean islands and reveals new data about the genetic history of their inhabitants. The results, which pave the way for future studies on migrations during periods of high commercial intensity, have been published on Nature Ecology & Evolution Journal

Friday, 28 February 2020 - 11:00am

A record superconductor thanks to quantum physics

A recent study coordinated by the Department of Physics at Sapienza University of Rome, has shown that it is possible to exploit the quantum fluctuations of protons to stabilize the crystalline structure of superconducting hydrogen compounds. The results, published on the journal Nature, open new perspectives for efficient energy transport

Thursday, 27 February 2020 - 12:00pm

Autoimmune diabetes of adulthood: retina and kidneys at risk

The results of a clinical trial performed on more than 5000 patients over 30 years, has demonstrated that latent autoimmune diabetes of adults (LADA) may cause serious microvascular complications and, therefore, entails severe consequences for visual and urinary apparatuses. The research, a scientific collaboration between Sapienza University and Oxford University, has been published on The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology journal

Wednesday, 26 February 2020 - 1:30pm

People of the Sahara used to be Fishermen

A new research reveals a prevalence of fish in the diet of the inhabitants of the Sahara 10,000 years ago casting new light on the gradual drying up of the region. The study, published on Plos One journal, was coordinated by the Department of Ancient World Studies of Sapienza University of Rome, in partnership with the University of Milan, and the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences of Brussels

Thursday, 20 February 2020 - 11:00am

Environmental change and pandemic risk: the answer is sustainable development

A new international paper, coordinated by the Department of Biology and Biotechnologies Charles Darwin of Sapienza University of Rome, examines the interactions, so far underestimated, between human impact on the environment and emerging infectious diseases. The opinion article has been published on the journal PNAS

Saturday, 15 February 2020 - 12:00pm

A “battery charger-like” Medicine to switch off Tumors

A new study coordinated by the Department of Molecular Medicine of Sapienza University of Rome in cooperation with Istituto Pasteur Italia, and Italian Institute of Technology, has proved, for the very first time, how phenformin displays potent anticancer activity in different pediatric tumors. The results have been published on the journal Cell Reports

Wednesday, 12 February 2020 - 12:00pm

White Shark: Old and Precious Inhabitant of the Mediterranean Sea is now Endangered

For the first time a study conducted by Sapienza University of Rome along with Stanford University, Virginia Tech University, and several Italian research institutes specialized in the field, estimated the abundance and the distribution of the predator throughout the Mediterranean Basin. The results, underlining a severe drop in the population in the last few years, have been published on Fish and Fisheries journal

Friday, 31 January 2020 - 2:00pm

Organoids (in vitro brains) to study pediatric brain tumors

The study, coordinated by the University of Trento and carried out with Sapienza University and Ospedale pediatrico Bambino Gesù in Rome and Irccs Neuromed, will open new perspectives of research, as the large-scale production of in vitro tumors could make it possible to perform large drug screenings to identify new brain cancer drugs. The results of the collaborative research effort have been published in Nature Communications

Friday, 31 January 2020 - 1:00pm

Myocardial Infarction: a novel role of gut microbiota

For the first time, a new Italian study proves that a gut microbiota, i.e. Escherichia Coli, is detectable in the circulation of patients with myocardial infarction and concentrates in coronary thrombi favoring thrombus growth. These data, published on the European Heart Journal, open new therapeutic perspectives including the development of a vaccine against Escherichia Coli

Monday, 13 January 2020 - 12:00pm

Targeted Drug Delivery: How to Exploit Cavitation to Promote Permeability of Blood Vessels and Focus on Diseased Tissues

A new collaborative research project between Sapienza University, the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) and the Temple University in Philadelphia has engineered a blood vessel and applied an innovative integrated system to measure the permeability of its endothelium. The methodology allows targeted drug delivery to curtail toxic effects on the organism. The results have been published on Small journal

Wednesday, 18 December 2019 - 1:00pm

Coaching Empathy: From Imitating to Sharing Emotions

A recent study conducted by the Sapienza Department of Psychology, in collaboration with the Fondazione Santa Lucia IRCCS, has devised new ways to reinforce the automatic imitation of emotions. The results, published on Cortex, could be helpful with autistic and schizophrenic individuals

Monday, 9 December 2019 - 3:00pm

Simulating Life in Space to Understand Life on Earth

A new study performed by four departments at Sapienza University, together with the University of Campania and the ISS employed a highly innovative system to analyse the effect of the absence of gravity on cell life. The results, published on Nature NPJ Microgravity, reveal the importance of biophysical factors in the definition of new therapeutic strategies against cancer

Friday, 29 November 2019 - 1:00pm

We Can Now Bio-Print Neurons

The study, published on the Journal of Clinical Medicine, is the result of a collaboration between Sapienza University and the Italian Institute of Technology that has allowed researchers to generate 3D models of neural tissue from human stem cells. The model can be used to model diseases and screen drugs

Thursday, 21 November 2019 - 1:00pm

A New Lizard Discovered on the Pontine Islands

A New Lizard that has been living undisturbed in the Pontine Islands for two million years has been identified by a research group headed by the Sapienza Department of Biology and Biotechnology. The new species has been found on the Islands of Ponza, Gavi, Palmarola and Zannone

Monday, 18 November 2019 - 2:00pm

Synergy Grant for the First all-Italian Project on the Diagnosis and Control of Neurodegenerative Diseases

The project ASTRA received a Synergy Grant from the European Commission and is the only all-Italian project in its category. The study will focus on the formation of protein aggregates in neuronal tissue, which are at the root of diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

Wednesday, 13 November 2019 - 2:00pm

All Roads Lead to Rome

An international study analysed ancient DNA to shed light on 12,000 years of migrations and diversity, identifying the presence of Anatolic, Iranian and Ukrainian forebears through the genetic profile of ancient Romans. The research was the cover story for the November 2019 issue of Science

Friday, 8 November 2019 - 11:00am

A Cosmological Revolution: Is the Universe Really Flat?

During the analysis of data provided by the Planck Satellite, an international research team coordinated by Sapienza University discovered significant discordances that could undermine our current cosmological model and induce us to radically change our beliefs on the structure and geometry of the universe. The results of the study have been published on Nature Astronomy

Thursday, 7 November 2019 - 1:00pm

Coated Nanovectors Remain in the Organism for Longer. New Outlooks for Tumour Therapies

A Sapienza research team, in collaboration with Michigan State University, the University of Technology of Graz in Austria and the Centre for Life Nano Science at the Italian Institute of Technology, has revealed that coating drug nanovectors allows them to trick the immune system a remain the organism for longer. The results have been published on Nature Communications

Wednesday, 23 October 2019 - 2:00pm

The Interaction between Metabolism and Genetics in Stem Cells

An international review published on Stem Cell Reports with the contribution of the Department of Anatomical, Histological, Medical Legal Sciences and Locomotor Apparatus at Sapienza University has investigated the effects of the interaction between metabolic and genetic regulation in the life of stem cells

Wednesday, 9 October 2019 - 12:00pm

Physical Sciences and Engineering

Hydrogen Bubbles: A novel Mechanism for Light Generation from Crystals

A recent study developed by Sapienza University in collaboration with the CNR and the Australian National University has revealed that the formation of highly pressurized hydrogen bubbles can be exploited to modify the physical and structural properties of two-dimensional semiconducting crystals for opto-electronics and photovoltaic ends. The results have been published on Advanced Materials

Friday, 27 September 2019 - 11:00am

Life Sciences

Colorectal Cancer: Identification of a New Therapeutic Target

A study recently conducted by the Sapienza Department of Molecular Medicine in close collaboration with the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) has identified a new molecular mechanism that can affect the development, progression and chemoresistance of colorectal cancer. The results of the study have been published on Cancer Research

Monday, 23 September 2019 - 12:30pm

Social Sciences and Humanities

Wilderness Areas Halve the Risk of Species Extinction – The Importance of Wilderness for Safeguarding Global Biodiversity

A study conducted by an international team, coordinated by a researcher from the Sapienza “Charles Darwin” Department of Biology and Biotechnology proves that Wilderness areas, where human impact is absent or minimal, play a fundamental role in the conservation of biodiversity. The results have been published on Nature

Thursday, 19 September 2019 - 12:00pm

Physical Sciences and Engineering

Beauty is Subjective According to Algorithms

A team of researchers at the Sapienza Department of Physics has proposed an innovative method of analysis that employs algorithms to investigate the facial characteristics on which perceived beauty depends. The results of the study, published on Scientific Reports, point to the subjective nature underlying aesthetic criteria

Tuesday, 17 September 2019 - 2:00pm

Social Sciences and Humanities

Where were the Indo-Europeans From? Sapienza Participated in the Largest Study on the Ancient DNA of Central and Southern Asian Populations

The vastest research on human DNA ever performed and the first genome of an individual from the Ancient Indus Valley Civilisation reveal an unprecedented fact: the changing descent of Central and Southern Asian populations over time. Twenty-two percent of the newly sequenced genomes have been extracted from the skeletal materials of 116 individuals belonging to Sapienza collections

Friday, 6 September 2019 - 1:00pm

Physical Sciences and Engineering

Charge Fluctuations: A New Property of Superconductors

An experiment conducted at the ESRF European Synchrotron by the Milan Polytechnic, the National Research Council, Sapienza University of Rome and the Chalmers University of Göteborg has revealed a new characteristic of cuprates, superconductors at high critical temperatures. The study has been published on Science

Thursday, 5 September 2019 - 12:30pm

Social Sciences and Humanities

The Mediterranean Region at Danger of Drying Up: the Explanation from the Past concerns Global Climate

An all-female team from the Sapienza Department of Environmental Biology participated in a new international study that has reconstructed the history of climatic change in the Mediterranean area based on the analysis of sediments in one of Europe’s oldest lakes (1,360,000 years old). The results have been published on Nature

Wednesday, 4 September 2019 - 3:00pm

Life Sciences

New Light Shed on the “Dark Side” of the Genome

A review article signed by Sapienza University, in collaboration with the Universities of Bari and Naples, provides an original interpretation of what has been traditionally considered the less “noble” part of our genome. The article has been published on Trends in Genetics

Tuesday, 3 September 2019 - 12:00pm

Life Sciences

An Innovative Drug Treats High Triglyceride Levels in a Rare Genetic Disease

Sapienza University recently participated into an international study that has demonstrated that volanesorsen reduces the risk of acute pancreatitis, a possible cause of death in many patients affected by Hyperchylomicronemic Syndrome. The study has been published on the New England Journal of Medicine

Thursday, 8 August 2019 - 12:30pm

Life Sciences

Precision Medicine in Oncology: A New Therapeutic Target Identified

A study conducted by the Sapienza Department of Molecular Medicine in collaboration with the Rome “Bambino Gesù” Paediatric Hospital has revealed a new molecular mechanism to block the growth of tumours characterised by alterations to the Hedgehog Signalling Pathway, which is involved in the development of numerous forms of cancer

Monday, 5 August 2019 - 12:45pm

Life Sciences

Messenger RNA Acts as a Chaperone to Protect Cells

A recent study coordinated by the Sapienza "Charles Darwin" Department of Biology and Biotechnology, in collaboration with the Barcelona Centre for Genomic Regulation and the University of Frankfurt, has revealed a hitherto unknown function of messenger RNA. In certain cases, just like molecular chaperones, it blocks the formation of toxic aggregates. The results of the study have been published on Nature Communications

Friday, 2 August 2019 - 12:00pm

Social Sciences and Humanities

The oldest lunar calendar is a pebble engraved 10,000 years ago, found in the Alban Hills near Rome, Italy

The earliest known lunar calendar, dating from the Upper Paleolithic, has been discovered on a pebble found in the Alban Hills. The results of the study, coordinated by Sapienza University of Rome, have been published in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports

Tuesday, 23 July 2019 - 12:00pm

Physical Sciences and Engineering

Anomalous Wave Discovered Coming from Andromeda

An international research team led by Sapienza University has revealed an anomalous emission of microwaves coming from the Andromeda Galaxy via astrophysical observations carried out with the 64-meter Sardinia Radio Telescope. The work, which allows to observe Andromeda in its entirety for the first time, has been published on Astrophysical Journal Letter

Tuesday, 18 June 2019 - 12:15pm

Social Sciences and Humanities

More Dogs, Fewer Wolves - A Threat to Biodiversity

A new international research project in collaboration with the “Charles Darwin” Department of Biology and Biotechnology at Sapienza University has studied the growing risk of hybridization of wolves and dogs. The project results and an appeal to the scientific community for a shared management of the issue have been published on Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution Journal

Thursday, 30 May 2019 - 12:15pm

Life Sciences

New Acquisitions on the Mechanism of Genetic Inheritance Associated with the X Chromosome

A new study, coordinated by Sapienza in collaboration with the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, the Centre for Genomic Regulation Barcelona, Queen Mary University of London and the California Institute of Technology, sheds light for the first time on the biological mechanism of inactivation of the sex chromosome X at the base of genetic inheritance. The results are published in the journal Nature Structural&Molecular Biology

Thursday, 23 May 2019 - 1:30pm

Physical Sciences and Engineering

How to Improve the Efficiency of Perovskite Solar Cells

Two innovative studies conducted by the Sapienza Interdepartmental Research Centre on Nano-technology Applied to Engineering have identified the strengths and critical issues of photovoltaic cells based on hybrid perovskites to increase their efficiency. The results of both studies have been published on the Journal of Materials Chemistry A

Tuesday, 7 May 2019 - 1:15pm

Life Sciences

Multiple Sclerosis and Circadian Clock: Possible Link Discovered for the Onset of the Disease

A team of researchers from the Department of Biochemical Sciences "A. Rossi Fanelli" defined for the first time the variation of light/dark alternation as a trigger for uncontrolled immune responses, the basis of many autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis. The study, which opens new clinical perspectives, has been published in the journal Amino Acids

Tuesday, 23 April 2019 - 12:00pm

Physical Sciences and Engineering

The Solid Heart of Mercury has Been Discovered: the Internal Structure is Similar to the Earth's

The study led by Sapienza University and conducted at the NASA Goddard Space FIight Center revealed the presence of a solid part in the internal structure of Mercury, which represents 50% of the entire core. This finding, published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, can offer a contribution to deepen the knowledge of our planet

Thursday, 18 April 2019 - 12:00pm

Life Sciences

Rejuvenating Muscles: Sapienza Researchers Characterized the Molecular Mechanisms to Block Muscle Ageing

A Sapienza Research team, in collaboration with the Italian Pasteur Institute, Catholic University of Rome and the Jackson Laboratory (USA), have identified the mechanism through which two molecules can slow down the decline of muscle mass and strength associate with ageing. The results of the study have been published on Aging Cell

Wednesday, 17 April 2019 - 12:15pm

Physical Sciences and Engineering

Artificial Intelligence: New Resource for the Investigation and Development of Quantum Information

The results of an international collaboration among the Quantum Lab of the Physics Department of Sapienza University, the University College London and the University of Texas at Austin, have experimentally shown for the first time, how machine learning techniques can be used to improve our knowledge of the nature of quantum states. This study was published in Science Advances

Friday, 12 April 2019 - 12:30pm

Social Sciences and Humanities

Pleistocene Mammal Teeth Reveal the Climate of the Past. Nutrition habits point to an increase in seasonality after the glaciation 900,000 years ago

An international team, coordinated by the Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont (ICP) and the Sapienza Department of Earth Sciences, has analysed the nutritional habits of Pleistocene mammals by analysing fossil teeth. The results, which provide new information on the consequences of the great climactic changes, have been published on Quaternary Science Reviews

Tuesday, 9 April 2019 - 2:15pm

Life Sciences

Parasitoid Insects, the Sentinels of the Environmental Quality of Rome

The research of a team from the Department of Biology and Biotechnology "Charles Darwin" of Sapienza, in collaboration with the University of Padua, is the first to provide ecological data on the conservation status of these insects, which are essential for maintaining good environmental quality in large metropolis. The results have been published in the journal PLoS ONE

Thursday, 4 April 2019 - 1:00pm

Social Sciences and Humanities

Disorientation as a Sign of Cognitive Decline: the Spatial Memory Deficit is Associated with Pathological Aging

A new study coordinated by the Departments of Psychology and Human Neuroscience has investigated which cognitive processes linked to the ability to orientate in the environment are involved in pathological aging and in some neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's. The results have been published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease

Tuesday, 2 April 2019 - 12:45pm

Life Sciences

Fighting Physical Inactivity and a Sedentary Lifestyle to Improve the Lives of Patients With Type 2 Diabetes

A new research coordinated by Giuseppe Pugliese of Sapienza University observed, with an experimental study, that behavioral changes can be maintained in the long term and turn into relevant clinical advantages in patients with type 2 diabetes. The results were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association

Monday, 25 March 2019 - 12:45pm

Life Sciences

A Metabolic Switch Blocks the Fuel of Cancer Cells

An international study conducted by the Department of Biochemical Sciences “A. Rossi Fanelli” has identified a specific enzyme with the ability to stimulate the proliferation of cancer cells by binding to RNA molecules. The results, published on the journal Nucleic Acids Research, opens up new therapeutic routes in the field of chemotherapy

Wednesday, 20 March 2019 - 1:30pm

Life Sciences

A Potential Risk Factor for Alzheimer’s Identified in the Herpes Simplex Virus

The research project, coordinated by the Department of Public Health and Infectious Diseases at Sapienza University in collaboration with the CNR, the Sacred Heart Catholic University and IRCCS San Raffaele Pisana, suggests that herpes simplex virus may be a risk factor for the onset of Alzheimer’s disease. The study, which opens new routes for prevention and therapy, has been published on PLoS Pathogens

Monday, 18 March 2019 - 12:00pm

Physical Sciences and Engineering

Induced Seismicity: How it Works and How to Reduce Hazard

A new research project developed by researchers at the Sapienza Department of Earth Sciences has improved our knowledge of the dynamic of earthquakes generated by the reintroduction of wastewater fluids into the subsurface during the extraction of hydrocarbons. The results, which are fundamental for the development of activities that will help in reducing the hazard of induced seismicity, have been published on Science Advances

Friday, 15 March 2019 - 12:00pm

Life Sciences

Protecting Animal Culture, a New Strategy for Species Conservation

The social life of animals represents a real expression of culture: this is what was stated by a new international study in which Paolo Ciucci of the Charles Darwin Department of Biology and Biotechnology participated. The results of the research, published in the journal Science, can support the planning of concrete protection interventions and the development of adequate and effective conservation policies

Tuesday, 12 March 2019 - 1:15pm

Life Sciences

Magnetic Fields for Muscular Atrophy: New Method Slows Down Muscle Decline and Improves Functionality

For the first time, four Departments of Sapienza have experienced the application of the magnetic field on the muscles of patients suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), highlighting the positive effects of stimulation. The results, which open new perspectives to combat muscular atrophy, were published in the journal Scientific Reports

Monday, 11 March 2019 - 1:00pm

Life Sciences

Sapienza Researchers Find the Key that Grants Iron Access to Cells

Thanks to the revolutionary technique of cryogenic electron microscopy, a group of researchers from the Sapienza “A. Rossi Fanelli” Department of Biochemistry and the IIT@Sapienza Lab observed how the mechanism through which cells incorporate iron is the same used by viruses to infect them. The results, published on Nature Communications, pave the way to the development of precision drugs against viruses and tumours

Friday, 8 March 2019 - 11:15am

Social Sciences and Humanities

GiochiAMO: A Programme to Promote Children’s Health through Play

The “Promotion and Prevention” Research Group, led by Giuseppe La Torre of the Sapienza Department of Public Health and Infectious Diseases, has developed “GiochiAMO,” an innovative model to promote health in primary school through the the transmission of knowledge and engaged learning through ludic activities such as cards, board games and active games into the didactic programme

Tuesday, 26 February 2019 - 12:00pm

Life Sciences

Identified Proteins Working two Jobs

Two proteins involved in mRNA splicing have a second job. During cell division, when splicing is interrupted, they directly mediate chromosome segregation to the daughter cells. The study, which could identify new anti-tumor targets, has been conducted by researchers at Sapienza University and at the Institute of Molecular Biology and Pathology of the CNR in Rome. The results have been published in the journal eLife

Thursday, 21 February 2019 - 12:00pm

Life Sciences

Neurodegenerative diseases: Discovered the Role of RNAs in Toxic Protein Aggregates

The result, published in the journal Cell Reports, reveals that specific RNAs are involved in Fragile X Tremor Ataxia Syndrome, a degenerative disease that affects the nervous system. The study conducted by Sapienza researchers and the Center for Genetic Regulation in Barcelona, can improve our understanding of complex diseases by providing hopes for new treatments

Wednesday, 13 February 2019 - 1:00pm

Physical Sciences and Engineering

Innovative Applications of Nanoporous Materials for the Environment: From Water Purification to Rechargeable Mechanical Batteries

A research Group, coordinated by Carlo Massimo Casciola of the Sapienza Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, has employed advanced molecular simulation techniques to design nano-structured materials with controllable wetting or drying behaviour. The study, published on ACS Nano, represents a significant step forward in the engineering of porous materials for energetic and environmental applications

Tuesday, 12 February 2019 - 2:45pm

Social Sciences and Humanities

Am I Dreaming or Awake?: the Dreamlike Experience of Narcoleptics

A team of researchers from Sapienza and the University of Bologna has identified the neural substrate of dreams in people affected by narcolepsy. The results of the study, which confirms for the first time the existence of shared brain mechanisms of the dream in both Non-REM and REM stages, have been published in the journal Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology

Monday, 4 February 2019 - 3:00pm

Life Sciences

Fight Against Cancer: The Discovery of a New Target Involved in the Tumoral progression

The research, conducted by the "Charles Darwin" Department of Biology and Biotechnology at Sapienza in collaboration with the Italian Institute of Technology, has identified a specific circular RNA with a crucial role in the development of rhabdomyosarcoma, a childhood tumor that affects skeletal muscle. The research, which opens up new perspectives for the treatment of cancer, has been published in the journal Oncogene

Thursday, 31 January 2019 - 3:00pm

Physical Sciences and Engineering

Stepping Back 110 Million Years in Time to Study the Signs of Ageing on Materials Elasticity

An international research project coordinated by Sapienza University has revealed how the elastic properties of amorphous systems evolve over time. The results, which have been published on The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters, were obtained by “rejuvenating” an amber fossil and bringing it back to the moment of its formation

Tuesday, 29 January 2019 - 3:00pm

Physical Sciences and Engineering

Saturn Formed First, and Rings Came Long After

Saturn’s rings formed only 100 million years ago, when dinosaurs roamed the Earth. The new findings of Sapienza’s researchers, now published on Science online edition, are the last gift of Cassini before its final plunge in atmosphere of Saturn.

Friday, 18 January 2019 - 10:00am

Life Sciences

The Neanderthal from Altamura: On the Shoulders of the Past

An international research team coordinated by Sapienza showed, through the reconstruction of the scapula with 3D imaging techniques, that a skeleton of the species Homo neanderthalensis, the most ancient and complete ever found, presents characteristics of the shoulder that distinguish it from the other Neanderthals as well as from our species Homo sapiens. The study is published in the journal Quaternary Science Reviews

Thursday, 20 December 2018 - 3:00pm

Physical Sciences and Engineering

Soft Matter: The Microscopic Properties of Polymeric Spheres from Futuristic Applications

A new theoretical model, supported by experimental evidence was developed by researchers from the Physics Department of Sapienza in collaboration with the Institute of Complex Systems of the Cnr and the University of Lund (Sweden). The study, which sheds new light on the microscopic properties of soft colloidal particles and their possible use, has been published in the journal Nature Communications

Wednesday, 28 November 2018 - 1:00pm

Physical Sciences and Engineering

An enormous refractive power of disordered perovskite is discovered

A research team led by Eugenio Del Re and Fabrizio Di Mei from the Physics Department of Sapienza in collaboration with Aharon J. Agranat from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem has found in the material an enormous refractive index able to transmit visible light. The research has been published in Nature Photonics and paves the way to new innovative applications

Wednesday, 24 October 2018 - 12:15pm

Physical Sciences and Engineering

Destination Mercury: Sapienza en route with the BepiColombo Probe

The on-board Mercury Orbiter Radioscience Experiment (MORE) has been developed by a team guided by Sapienza Professor Luciano Iess. The tool, which will measure the gravity and orbit of the planet nearest the Sun, will provide a new and advanced space navigation system and will search for any violations to Einstein’s General Relativity Theory

Friday, 19 October 2018 - 1:15pm

Life Sciences

First Occurrence of the Short-faced Giant Bear Found in Italy

A group of researchers at the Department of Earth Sciences and the Sapienza Museum Network have discovered the first Italian fossils of Agriotherium, an enormous Pliocene-era bear, who lived over 3 million years ago, at Collepardo in the Province of Frosinone (central Italy). The study has been published on the Italian Journal of Geosciences

Thursday, 20 September 2018 - 3:30pm

Physical Sciences and Engineering

Painting with Photosensitive Bacteria

By using a genetically modified strain of Escherichia coli, researchers at the Sapienza Department of Physics and the National Research Council (CNR) Nanotechnology Institute were able to use genetically modified bacteria as a "living" paint

Tuesday, 14 August 2018 - 12:00pm

Physical Sciences and Engineering

Dark Matter: The PADME Experiment at the Starting Blocks

The PADME experiment, conducted by the Sapienza researchers and the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), is about to start the data collection phase at the Frascati National Laboratories. The detector is dedicated to the search for the “dark photon”, a hypothetical particle similar to the photon of the electromagnetic force, but with a small mass

Tuesday, 4 September 2018 - 1:15pm

Physical Sciences and Engineering

Forecasting Economic Growth with Complex Systems Physics

An article published on-line on Nature Physics addresses a new method to forecast GDP growth that integrates and supports the forecasts made by the International Monetary Fund. The new method envisages economic growth as a physical system, whose dynamic processes can be forecast by analysing product export data via techniques derived from the Physics of Complex Systems

Wednesday, 8 August 2018 - 3:00pm

Life Sciences

The Two Lives of the Antlion

An international research team led by ‘Sapienza’ University of Rome and the University of Genoa, discovered fossil antlion larvae dating back to the mid-Cretaceous. The study shed new light onto the evolution of lacewings and it has been published on Nature Communications

Wednesday, 22 August 2018 - 9:45am

Life Sciences

A Genetic Basis for Stress and Disease

The work, coordinated by Lucia Piacentini and Arianna Rinaldi at the “Charles Darwin” Department of Biology and Biotechnology at Sapienza University, suggests a genetic basis for diseases caused by strong emotional stress. The results of the study have been published on Stress, the International Journal on the Biology of Stress

Friday, 3 August 2018 - 12:30pm

Life Sciences

The Return of the Salvan, the "Little Elf of the Maritime"

First results of the study on a small green beetle believed extinct from over a century has been found last year from a Sapienza team of researchers in the Cuneo area. The research is associated with the finding of the species and sheds light on important aspects of its ecology, biogeography and conservation biology. The study has been published on the journal Insect Conservation and Diversity

Tuesday, 31 July 2018 - 1:15pm

Physical Sciences and Engineering

Autocatalysis: The Chemical Reactions that Originated Life

By using a physical approach, we introduced a new perspective to look at autocatalytic reactions which are behind physical and biological systems. The results have been published in Nature Communications

Monday, 23 July 2018 - 2:00pm

Physical Sciences and Engineering

A backlight view at Galaxy Clusters: OLIMPO

OLIMPO is an innovative mm-wave telescope built by a team of the Sapienza Physics Department, in collaboration with other international universities and research institutes. The instrument has been launched in near space from the Arctic, last July 14th, and will produce unprecedented accuracy observations of galaxy clusters

Monday, 16 July 2018 - 3:00pm

Life Sciences

A New Therapeutic Strategy for Cancer

The research project coordinated by Sapienza in collaboration with the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre (BIDMC) of the Harvard Medical School, opens a new therapeutic approach to the treatment of tumours caused by infections. The results of the study have been published on Leukemia

Thursday, 12 July 2018 - 1:00pm

Social Sciences and Humanities

Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory

The study, which is experimentally held at the Rome Fondazione Santa Lucia, IRCCS , and published on the authoritative Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America(PNAS), involved various research centres, including the Italian Istituto Superiore di Sanità, University of Perugia, University of California – Irvine and Sapienza University

Tuesday, 10 July 2018 - 1:15pm

Life Sciences

The Giant Sloths of the Pleistocene

A new study coordinated by the Department of Earth Sciences at Sapienza University, in collaboration with a research team from the CONICET - National Research Council of Argentina, sheds new light on the ecological and evolutionary elements of the giant sloth, a mammal that lived in South America over ten thousand years ago, during the Pleistocene. The results of the study were published on The Science of Nature and Journal of Mammalian Evolution journals

Monday, 2 July 2018 - 3:00pm

Social Sciences and Humanities

Ultracentenarians: age goes up, but not the risk of dying

A new demographic study conducted by the Sapienza Department of Statistics focused on the mechanisms that underlie human longevity and estimated, for the first time and with great precision, the death rate for extremely old individuals. There is no increased risk of mortality for the pioneers of longevity, those individuals aged over 105. Indeed, their risk of death does not tend to increase, but rather remains constant. The surprising results of this research, published on Science, will drive studies concerning evolutive theories of senescence

Thursday, 28 June 2018 - 8:00pm

Social Sciences and Humanities

The social nature of abstract concepts: why when we think about fantasy and freedom we pre-activate the mouth

A joint team of Sapienza and Cnr has published a study on the elaboration of abstract concepts demonstrating the involvement of the motor system linked to linguistic production

Monday, 18 June 2018 - 3:00pm

Social Sciences and Humanities

Last Dinner on Noah's Ark: a new software application reconstructs the diets of humans and animals based on dental wear

MicroWeaR, developed by an international team directed by researchers at the Sapienza Department of Earth Sciences, is a cutting-edge tool that rapidly provides precise information on the diet, morpho-mechanics and, in general, biological characteristics of extinct animals. The study, which illustrates this tool’s many functions, has been published on Ecology and Evolution

Wednesday, 20 June 2018 - 2:00pm

Social Sciences and Humanities

Unveiled the giant cheetah identikit: the predator which lived 1,5 milion years ago

Less agile than the cheetah, but powerful as a panther and with the weight of a lion: the peculiarities of the ancient feline emerged from the analysis of the skull performed with a particle accelerator at the European synchrotron radiation facility (ESFR) in Grenoble, with the collaboration of Sapienza. The study has been published in the journal Scientific Reports

Tuesday, 29 May 2018 - 1:15pm

Social Sciences and Humanities

Bipedalism and dental occlusion

A new Sapienza study, conducted in collaboration with the universities of Napoli and Firenze, suggests that the acquisition of the erect posture during human evolution has affected dental occlusion. The research has been published in Scientific Reports

Friday, 25 May 2018 - 12:00pm

Physical Sciences and Engineering

Shining light with bidimensional materials: graphene-based laser

Patent for a microscope for biomedical applications and article in the journal Nature Communications for a Sapienza research team

Wednesday, 16 May 2018 - 12:00pm

Social Sciences and Humanities

The story of a Lombard warrior dated to the VI century: the amputated forearm and a blade as a prosthesis

Preserved at the “G. Sergi "della Sapienza, the body of the warrior, who lacks the right hand, the wrist and part of the forearm, is an important testimony of perfectly healed amputation and modern care practices

Thursday, 12 April 2018 - 3:00pm

Life Sciences

Pediatrics: "PANS/PANDAS" Syndrome Associated with an Alteration of Gut Microbiota

Tuesday, 10 April 2018 - 4:00pm

Life Sciences

Red Light at the Pediatric Brain Tumor

A study by Sapienza and the Italian Institute of Technology has discovered and demonstrated how mutations against a protein, which acts as a growth inhibitor factor for nerve cells, can lead to the development of medulloblastoma. The results of the work have been published in Nature Communications

Wednesday, 4 April 2018 - 3:00pm

Life Sciences

NG Detectors, the Innovative Sapienza Startup, Realizes a Device for the Rapid Diagnosis of Breast Cancer

The application, which uses the Sapienza GonioProbe patent, has been recognized by the Italian Patent Competition, the competition that rewards the best projects in the Life Science and Digital fields

Tuesday, 27 March 2018 - 2:00pm

Life Sciences

Genes Implicated in Brain Aging Identified

A team of researchers from Sapienza and the Babraham Institute of Cambridge identified over 250 genes involved in brain aging. These include the Dbx2 gene responsible for slowing down the growth of neural stem cells. The study has been published in the journal Aging Cell

Monday, 19 March 2018 - 12:30pm

Social Sciences and Humanities

Marsa. Abu Tbeirah, A Harbor in the Waters of Sumer

For the first time the excavation of a Sumerian port dating back to the 3rd millennium BC was addressed, thanks to the archaeological campaign conducted in southern Iraq, directed by Licia Romano and Franco D'Agostino

Friday, 16 March 2018 - 3:00pm

Physical Sciences and Engineering

Flexible and wearable metamaterials set a new frontier for many applications: from biomedical to safety and security

Un team di ricerca della Sapienza ha verificato, grazie a una innovativa catena di misura, le elevate prestazioni dei metamateriali che assorbono i raggi T. Lo studio è stato pubblicato sulla rivista Scientific Reports

Friday, 16 March 2018 - 12:00pm

Social Sciences and Humanities

The Sahara was green and populated: the genomic tale of the human evolution

An international research group coordinated by Sapienza has used an innovative DNA sequencing technique to reconstruct the evolution of the human species within the African continent. The results have been published in Genome Biology

Tuesday, 27 February 2018 - 3:00pm

Social Sciences and Humanities

The human footprints from Gombore II-2 (Melka Kunture, Ethiopia)

The exceptional find has very few precedents: very rare sites with human footprints older than 300,000 years. For the first time the footsteps have been found in an archaeological site in which the daily activities are documented as a whole

Friday, 16 February 2018 - 2:00pm

Physical Sciences and Engineering

La Sapienza nello spazio con un satellite internazionale

Consegnato all’Agenzia spaziale giapponese il primo satellite del Kenya, costruito da un gruppo di studenti della Sapienza e dell'Università di Nairobi. Sarà lanciato in orbita nei prossimi mesi

Thursday, 8 February 2018 - 2:00pm

Social Sciences and Humanities

Cultivated, but not domestic. In the prehistoric Sahara the earliest forms of storage and cultivation of wild cereals

The search for an Italian team of archaeologists and botanists, coordinated by Sapienza and the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, tells of forms of prehistoric cultivation, hitherto unknown, in Saharan Africa around 10,000 years ago. The study has been published in Nature Plants

Tuesday, 30 January 2018 - 11:00am

Physical Sciences and Engineering

Glassy light observed

A research group from Sapienza, Isc-Cnr and the University of Jerusalem observed a new phase for light propagation characterized by typical properties of the glassy state. The research has been published in Nature Communications

Tuesday, 5 December 2017 - 12:00pm

Physical Sciences and Engineering

simulazione di dinamica molecolare di acqua

Designing Nanoporous Materials for Energy Applications

A Sapienza study, funded by the Advanced ERC Grant, investigates the use of nanoporous materials to optimize the compactness and efficiency of energy storage devices. The results have been published in the journal PNAS

Tuesday, 21 November 2017 - 12:30pm

Life Sciences

From Plant to Human: a New Mechanism Involved in Stem Cell Differentiation Possibly in Common with Human Stem Cell has Been Reveled

A research team led by Sapienza has developed a computational model capable of understanding an important mechanism underlying plant differentiation. The study has been published in PNAS

Thursday, 16 November 2017 - 1:00pm

Life Sciences

At the Origin of ALS a Miscommunication Between Muscle and Nerve

A new piece has been added to the complicated puzzle for understanding the peripheral nerve degeneration mechanism in neuromuscular pathologies such as ALS and aging. The study, coordinated by Sapienza, is published in Antioxidant and redox signaling (Ars)

Physical Sciences and Engineering

Onda e particella: i due volti della fisica quantistica per la prima volta connessi con l'azione a distanza tra fotoni

Nel Quantum Information Lab della Sapienza, in collaborazione con l’Università di Palermo, è stata osservata per la prima volta la connessione di due aspetti fondamentali del mondo quantistico: la duplice natura onda-particella dei fotoni e la loro correlazione a distanza. Lo studio, che porta con sé anche nuovi possibili risvolti tecnologici, è pubblicato su Nature Communications

Monday, 30 October 2017 - 12:00pm

Social Sciences and Humanities

Il professor Manzi esamina il cranio di Ceprano

Ceprano: the last common ancestor

Important scientific innovations concern the "man of Ceprano": the 400 thousand-year-old fossil skull has now been reconstructed with sophisticated digital techniques and could be the last common ancestor between the Neanderthal man and our species

Monday, 30 October 2017 - 1:45pm

Social Sciences and Humanities

RESEARCH - The teeth of a prehistoric fetus give us information about the last months of a mother and child, who lived 27k years BP

Sunday, 27 August 2017 - 10:00pm

Social Sciences and Humanities