You are here: / News

14th Arturo Falaschi Lecture

On Wednesday, July 1, at 11:00 a.m., IGM will host the 14th edition of the Arturo Falaschi Lecture, an event dedicated to the memory of the Institute’s first director. The lecture will be delivered by Professor Vincenzo Costanzo, a researcher at IFOM (The AIRC Institute of Molecular Oncology) and a faculty member at the University of Milan.

The title of the talk is “Guarding the Nascent Genome: a Journey through DNA Replication Stress in Vertebrates.”

The event is also part of the activities of the PhD Program in Genetics, Molecular and Cellular Biology.

Flyer

Biomedical Campus Retreat

On 16 and 17 June 2026, the Biomedical Campus Retreat will take place. This event offers an important opportunity for scientific exchange within the entire Cravino Campus community, bringing together research groups from the Department of Biology and Biotechnology, the Department of Molecular Medicine of the University of Pavia, and the IGM-CNR for two days dedicated to discussions on topics in biomedicine.

The rich program will be hosted at the University of Pavia’s Central Campus on Strada Nuova, specifically in the Aula del ’400 and the Aula di Disegno.

Structured into eight thematic sessions, the programme clearly reflects the interdisciplinary nature of the meeting. IGM personnel and junior researchers are strongly represented, with several short talks scheduled across both days. On the first day, presentations will feature Chiara Barzan (“A novel regulatory circuit required for tumor angiogenesis and cancer growth”), Laura Zannini (“Exploring the nucleolar function of TSPY-Like 2”), Nadia Tagliaferri (“From Repeat Expansion to DNA Repair Defect: Unraveling the Molecular Basis of CANVAS”), Luca Zardoni (“Mechanisms of RNA:DNA hybrid-driven DNA damage”), and Gaia Veniali (“Exploring the role of skin tumor microenvironment in 3D NER-deficient models”).

The same day will also feature a keynote lecture by Fabrizio d’Adda di Fagagna (“Telomere biology in health and diseases”).

On the second day, IGM researchers will continue to showcase their work, with talks from Donata Orioli (“NER-defective disorders, from patients to molecular mechanisms”), Francesca Brevi (“Proteostasis perturbation and the integrated stress response contribute to trichothiodystrophy”), Adelaide Riccardi (“Targeting a Deubiquitinating Enzyme Attenuates DNA Damage Accumulation in Cellular Models of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis”), and Giorgia Zadra (“Uncovering systemic-tumor metabolic crosstalk in prostate cancer microenvironment remodeling to inform combination therapies”).

The full programme is available on the event website: Biomedical Campus Retreat | Dipartimento di Biologia e Biotecnologie “Lazzaro Spallanzani”

IGM GUEST SEMINAR SERIES: Laura Surace, 06/15/2026

On June 15th, 2026, at 02:30 PM, the seminar titled “Metabolic Programming of Innate Lymphocytes in health and during tumor development” will be held in the Falaschi Lecture Hall at the Institute of Molecular Genetics “Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza” of the CNR in Pavia.

Speaker: Laura Surace, Ph.D

Assistant Professor for Tumor Immunometabolism
Medical faculty, University of Bonn

 

Biography

“After a training in molecular biology and biochemistry at the University of Pavia, I joined the ETH/UZH PhD Program in Zürich (Tumor Immunology – van den Broek lab). I was awarded 2 fellowships (SNSF, Marie Curie) for my PostDoc at Institut Pasteur (Human Immunology – Di Santo Lab). I moved to the University of Bonn mid-2021 first as research associate to join the COVID consortium in the Wilhelm lab (Metabolic Physiology and Dietary Immunology) and then I became a group leader beginning of 2023. In August 2024, I was promoted to Assistant Professor for Tumor Immunometabolism (tenure-track to full Prof.) at the Medical Faculty of the University of Bonn.”

FLYER

IGM Retreat 2026

On 6 and 7 May 2026, the IGM Retreat 2026 was held in Pontenure. The event was designed to foster internal discussion, provide scientific updates, and share the Institute’s organisational perspectives. The programme brought together the Institute’s management, research staff, and technical-administrative teams over two days featuring presentations, discussions, and informal networking opportunities.

IGM GUEST SEMINAR SERIES: Andrea Bellati, 04/29/2026

On April 29, 2026, at 12:00 PM, the seminar titled “La divulgazione della scienza e le vitamine per le idee” will be held in the Falaschi Lecture Hall at the Institute of Molecular Genetics “Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza” of the CNR in Pavia.

Speaker: Andrea Bellati
Science Communicator, Podcaster, Author

Please note: the seminar will be held in Italian.

Flyer

Giovanni Maga Memorial Day

Read more

Giulia Bastianello (IGM-CNR) Awarded the Maga Prize

During the Annual Conference of the CNR Department of Biomedical Sciences, the Giovanni Maga Prize—a distinction dedicated to young researchers who have distinguished themselves through the quality and originality of their scientific contributions in the research areas pertaining to the Department- was awarded. The initiative aims to promote emerging talent and to support the development of new generations of scientists in the spirit of scientific excellence. The evaluation criteria included originality, international relevance, potential applications, and the overall quality of the candidates’ scientific curricula.

The 2026 Edition Winners
The prize was awarded to two young researchers: Carla Lucia Esposito (IEOMI-CNR) and Giulia Bastianello (IGM-CNR). The research work presented by Bastianello focuses on the following topic: “Mechanisms leading to oncogene amplification and aneuploidy in response to mechanical stress.” The Director and the entire community of the “Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza” Institute of Molecular Genetics extend their warmest congratulations to both recipients.

In Memory of Giovanni Maga
The ceremony also provided an opportunity to commemorate Giovanni Maga, in whose honor the prize was established. Maga served as Director of IGM-CNR and subsequently as Director of the Department of Biomedical Sciences. His scientific and personal legacy was recalled during the event by Giuseppe Biamonti, former Director of IGM and of the Department of Biomedical Sciences. “Giovanni Maga’s legacy has profoundly shaped Italian and European biomedicine. A rigorous scientist and a visionary Director of the DSB-CNR, he promoted a vision of research that was open, interdisciplinary, and capable of addressing global health challenges,” said Giuseppe Biamonti. “The prize that bears his name was created to nurture young researchers’ talent and to stimulate innovative solutions at the heart of molecular biology and viral replication mechanisms, in line with the scientific horizon that he himself helped to define.”

The Prize Awarded by IGM
The prize is part of a broader set of initiatives promoted in memory of Giovanni Maga, including one launched by the “Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza” Institute of Molecular Genetics, directed by Marco Foiani. “In collaboration with the Maga family and the publisher Zanichelli, IGM has established this year a prize intended for young researchers working in the field of molecular virology or nucleic acid enzymology,” explains Institute Director Marco Foiani. “The award will recognize the best scientific paper published in an international journal between 2022 and 2025.”

 

IGM GUEST SEMINAR SERIES: Mariano Barbieri, 01/16/2026

THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED

On January 16, 2026, at 02:30 PM, the seminar titled “Systematic in-silico reconstruction of altered genomic landscapes in cancer” will be held in the Falaschi Lecture Hall at the Institute of Molecular Genetics “Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza” of the CNR in Pavia.

Speaker: Mariano Barbieri, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Researcher, Institute of Pathology
University Medical Centre, Göttingen, Germany

 

Biography

Mariano Barbieri has a long-standing experience and publication record in the field of genome structure-to-function relationships. During his PhD in Fundamental and Applied Physics at Napoli University “Federico II” (2010–2013) and his post-doctoral period at the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) in Berlin (2013–2016), he applied tools from the Statistical Mechanics of Polymer Solutions to the study of chromatin–protein interactions with Prof. Mario Nicodemi (“Federico II”) and Prof. Ana Pombo (MDC & Humboldt University Berlin), in order to investigate the connection between genome spatio-temporal organization and transcription regulation in mESC and through differentiation (Barbieri et al. PNAS 2012; Barbieri et al. Nat Str & Mol Bio 2017).

Thanks to funding from the Berlin Institute of Health, their jointly experimental and computational approach provided one of the first mechanistic models of the formation of regulatory contacts in terms of spontaneous phase separation driven by chromatin’s epigenetic state (e.g. histone and RNAPolII post-translational modifications).

Since 2021, he has joined Prof. Argyris Papantonis’ team at the Pathology Department of the University Medical Centre in Goettingen (UMG), to continue the study of genome organization and dynamics from the perspective of aging, pathology, and cancer in human and patient-derived cells (Zhang et al. Nat Gen 2023; Xie et al. Nat Comm 2023; Karpinska et al. Nat Str & Mol Bio 2025).

In the period 2017–2020, he paused his academic career to experience the R&D industry environment, working as a Credit Risk Associate and Risk Analyst at Morgan Stanley Inc., where he applied the theory of stochastic processes to pricing projections of financial products. This experience also strengthened his attitude towards risk and project management (and had him married along the way).

Recently, he secured funding from the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the Else Kröner-Fresenius Foundation (EKFS) for the study of the relationship between genome structural variants and altered cis-regulatory element interactions in cancer.

DOWNLOAD