A LONG LIFE

FESTIVAL DELLA SCIENZA MEDICA

IN BOLOGNA
“Underneath the Arcades of Knowledge”

BOLOGNA, 7-10 MAY 2015

Not long after the first millennium, and within the context of a close-knit community whose vitality is evident even today, Bologna brought forth a remarkably active cultural, scientific and artistic output.  The physical layout of the town, with its many many arcades, was unparalleled and gave rise to an unstoppable source of vigour and growth.  It was here that a unique climate was able to flourish, one in which the pursuit of learning, the exchange of knowledge and opinions, and innovation developed and put its stamp on the town’s second millennium.

The birth of a modern medical school put the science of medicine, following as it did on the town’s pursuit of law and notaryship studies, at the very centre of what we can call a ‘spatial’ platform.  Shot through with history though it is, this platform nevertheless does lend itself to currentness and eagerly invites innovation.  It can and does indeed acknowledge both the joint work of brilliant minds of the past and the urban environment that connected their work, defined by the pulsing arteries of the town’s arcades.

The lively medieval city centre of Bologna will provide the backdrop, the urban context, for the first Festival della Scienza Medica (Festival of Medical Science), from 7 to 10 May, with a concluding follow-up day on 26 May.

Our aim has been to conceive and set up not only a series of events but also to map them out along a well thought out cultural route which will be physically scattered about the town centre.  This way, the charted paths and stops should make for a better and more interesting understanding of the city’s artistic, cultural and scientific clout and of the undisputed influence it wielded both at home and abroad.

The series of events are of merit in and of themselves but our main purpose was to set up a unifying timeframe,  one that can express an original way to bolster people’s appreciation for the culture of Bologna just as much as for Bologna itself.  We did not wish to furnish a quaint  ‘antiquey’ approach to the town but, rather, looked to retrieving a wide-spectrum field of knowledge in which history has played a star role – specifically the history of medicine and the current significance of state-of-the-art medicine.

Many are the institutions that can be called upon to build on this idea, starting from the universities and academies and colleges all the way to civic and non-civic museums, the Carisbo Foundation, the Genus Bononiae Foundation, and the town hall itself.  But called upon they should be in order to consolidate this idea and develop it both within the town and beyond it.  Drawing upon various historical events and facts-and-figures that are tied to the town’s cultural, scientific and artistic make-up (some better known than others) would be a good way to boost interest in the tourist sector, a good way to attract a high-level tourist experience that, over and beyond the classic Rome-Florence-Venice tour, might now aim for Bologna as a prime destination offering an unexpected variety and richness of experiences.

By connecting the historical buildings and sites in a charted network that is reflective of their particular function (scientific and museum), we are looking to create a cultural climate that can work on an annual basis, one that can express a particular and diverse annual  ‘Bologna Season’ under its arcades.

We are thus looking to working on the town itself, working on its sites and locations: a palazzo here, a hall there,  Bologna’s historical buildings and, naturally, its arcades. The arcades in particular are to be understood not just as places for pleasurable promenading or for use to get from one place to another but as ‘spaces’ that invite the forging of relationships, the exchange of facial expressions and conversation, meeting points, and halls of learning.  All of this invites a peculiar kind of narration of the many stories that go into the making of  history – in our case, the stories and perspectives of medical science.

There can be no culture in the absence of remembrance and culture is, moreover, about the sense of the passing of time.  The same goes for medical science, it needs the presence and a firm grasp of history if it is to achieve a deeper understanding and go forward.  It is by understanding its own history that this body of knowledge can develop the kind of awareness which cannot be delegated, nor should it be entrusted, to the otherwise necessary input of digital instruments.

The wide variety and availability of venues, each one selected according to its suitability for any given performance, lecture or other specific requirement, has been a great benefit.  It is indeed fitting that the town’s settings, the town’s ‘urban script’ as it were, are to serve as the backcloth for all the lectures, the telling of true stories, the performances, and medical research presentations.

Bologna can take centre stage as the natural setting for the discussion of the future of medical science, by recalling what occurred there from the XIV century onwards and how it was tightly connected to the development of its society, of the métiers and crafts as well as its industry.

And then we can get to talking about today and the scenario of a longer life, a long life that could only be wished upon until our recent past and which is now almost ‘demanded’ by society.  A society that might be at odds with having to keep up with the fast pace of cutting-edge scientific discoveries in medicine on the one hand, and, on the other, may risk losing sight of principles and contexts that are fundamental for the progress of humanity.

Fabio Roversi Monaco
President of Genus Bononiae. Musei nella Città

THE HISTORY GAME
Three lectures to make you travel through the great epidemics of the past, from Boccaccio’s plague, to Syphilis, to the tragedy of the Spanish flu that caused more deaths than the First World War. But how can we fight epidemics? Following, we will play PANDEMIC, a cooperative board game like Monopoli and Risiko, invented in 2008, which helps one understand how diseases prevail if the vaccine’s development and the infection’s containment fail to work together. Learning as you play.

11 a.m.: HOSPITAL ROUNDS
Three beds, three patients, the same disease but different diagnosis and therapies in different historical periods. A format halfway between a lecture and a play: the audience will follow the head “physician” – like in the hospitals during morning rounds – who questions patients/students acting their own medical record. The head physician leads the audience and tells about the progress of medicine. A voyage that starts in the past and ends up in the present through an aisle of old and new patients.

NARRATIONS
Narrative medicine leads to focus again on the patient’s figure, listening to his own experience and individual history as a tool to improve the diagnostic itinerary. A format that retraces patient stories and considers the several points of view that must be evaluated: from History to Anthropology, to Literature, to Forensic Medicine, to new technologies, to the difficult relationships between scientific research and business.

POINT OF ORDER
A series of conferences concerning the complicated matters regarding the resources management, the research costs and the access to health care, the price of innovation, the government spending. A challenge for politics with a capital P.

FOCUS
An in-depth analysis on current events: vaccines, personalized medicine, sleep diseases, doctor-patient relationship, cognitive exercise and the slowing-down of ageing.

RELIGION AND THERAPY
Prayer, in the four corners of the world, has always been considered as the best therapeutic answer, the medicine for everything and for everyone: also today and for every disease. A four-episode journey through the relationship between religions and therapies.

MEDICAL DICTIONARY
We intuitively believe to know the exact meaning of some words. But what is the actual meaning of “clinical experimentation”? What is the “placebo effect”, and what are we talking about when we talk about “pain”? A pocket dictionary in the form of lectures.

MEDICINE IN PROGRESS
Like every other science, medicine is in a continuous and positive evolution, since yesterday’s discoveries are the building blocks for acquiring tomorrow’s future knowledge. The lectures offer overall insights on some of the most recent developments in bio-medical research – but also on the increasingly related disciplines, like information technology and telecommunications – foreshadowing the forthcoming future of medicine and the future relationship between doctor and patient.

MALE/FEMALE
Gender medicine is one of the new great challenges for the profession, for patients, for society. Diagnosis and therapies cannot remain indifferent to age, ethnic groups, and gender. In this first edition, we shall focus on gender differences: male vs female, from a general point of view and in more specific cases and pathologies such as “depression” and “osteoporosis”.

DISEASES
The history of the great diseases, from the past to the present times, similarities and overlapping disciplines: the relationship between diagnosis and investigative approach.

LUNCH IS READY!
Nutraceutical is one of the new and very important dimensions of the relationship between health, disease, wellbeing and prevention. A set of conferences to make a point of what we know, what we can look after, what we can prevent and what we can expect to see in the plate…of the future!

EX CATHEDRA
The keynotes lectures, dedicated to the great clinicians and scholars, following the tradition of the Alma Mater and of the first modern School of Medicine in the history of the University.

HOT OFF THE PRESS
Book presentations in San Giorgio in Poggiale.

EXHIBITIONS
During the Festival, an exhibition of “The Burns Archive” – in the Archiginnasio courtyard-, and the exhibition “Curare e guarire” – in the Atti hall of Re Enzo’s palace – will accompany the opening of San Colombano, of the Museum of Palazzo Poggi and of the Church of Santa Maria della Vita.

MEDICINE IN LITERATURE AND THEATRE
The figure of the doctor, the pain of disease, the patients’ fears and hopes revisited and reinterpreted in the pages of great Literature, opera scores and film.

CARRIED OUT BY…
A series of meeting promoted and organized by Institutes, Companies and Organizations.

Diego Ardigò

Diego Ardigò is MD PhD Project Leader, Corporate Drug Development, R&D at Chiesi Farmaceutici S.p.A.

Eugenio Aringhieri

Eugenio Aringhieri is the President of the Biotech Group of Farmindustria, and CEO of the Dompè Group.

Arnaldo Benini

Arnaldo Benini is Professor of Neurosurgery at the University of Zurich. His latest publications include Che cosa sono io Il cervello alla ricerca di sé stesso (Garzanti 2009); La coscienza imperfetta. Le neuroscienze e il significato della vita (Garzanti 2012); with Giorgio Vallortigara Cervelli divisi Solo gli esseri umani contano da sinistra a destra? (Accademia di Architettura Mendrisio 2014). Translation of Paul Thagard’s book, Il cervello e il senso della vita (Mondadori 2014). He collaborates with the cultural Sunday supplement of the newspaper Il Sole24Ore.

Michele Baccarani

Michele Baccarani is the Coordinator of the CML Working Party of GIMEMA since 1989. His research focuses on acute leukaemia, chronical myeloid leukaemia, malignant lymphomas, cellular kinetics, chemotherapy, resistance to antineoplastic drugs, bone marrow transplant. He wrote over 600 scientific publications on international peer-reviewed magazines.

Giuseppe Battelli

Giuseppe Battelli teaches Contemporary History and History of the International Relationships at the University of Trieste, where he was Department Director and Faculty Head. His most recent works include Società, Stato e Chiesa in Italia. Dal tardo Settecento a oggi (Rome 2013), and Parole e violenza politica. Gli anni Settanta in Italia (Rome 2013). He dedicated issues to the History of Bologna, like Lercaro, Dossetti, la pace e il Vietnam: “1°gennaio 1968”, and Una «guerra fredda» nel cuore dell’Italia centrista. La Bologna del cardinale Lercaro e del PCI che governa la città (1952-1956).

Franco Bazzoli

Franco Bazzoli is Professor of Gastroenterology at the University of Bologna, and Director of the Operative Unit of Gastroenterology and Digestive Endoscopy at the general hospital S. Orsola-Malpighi of Bologna since 2010; he is also Director of the Digestive System Department of the same Institute since 2014. He is honorary member of the European Helicobacter Pylori Study Group since 2012.

Fabrizio Benedetti

Fabrizio Benedetti is Professor of Physiology at the University of Turin; he is a member of the Academy of Europe and Consultant at Harvard University. His book Placebo Effects (Oxford 2008) won the prize of the British Medical Association.

Lucia Bevilacqua

Lucia Bevilacqua is Medical Doctor, Head Physician at the Hospital Ca Granda Niguarda (Milan), where she was Director of the Struttura Complessa Qualità e Sicurezza Clinica. Now she is Health Responsible of the Start up IoCA, Innovation of Care.

Luigi Bolondi

Luigi Bolondi is Professor of Internal Medicine at the University of Bologna, and President of the School of Medicine and Surgery at the same University; he is also the Director of the Operative Unit of Internal Medicine of the general hospital S. Orsola of Bologna. He published six monographs about hepatology and imagery diagnostics. He published 319 articles in international magazines reviewed by Science Citation Index.

Claudio Borghi

Claudio Borghi is Professor of Medicine at the University of Bologna since 2005, and Director of the Medicine Operative Unit of the general hospital S. Orsola-Malpighi of Bologna; he is also Director of the Specialisation School of Respiratory Apparatus Diseases, and President of the Società Medica-Chirurgica of Bologna.

Maria Luisa Brandi

Maria Luisa Brandi is Professor of Endocrinology and Metabolism Diseases at the University of Florence. She is the Responsible of the Regional Reference Centre on endocrine tumours and of the Operative Unit of Mineral and Bones Metabolism at the Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria of Careggi. She owns seven patents and she is Editor-in-Chief of the review Clinical Cases in Mineral and Bone Metabolism; she wrote over 700 publications.

Dario Bressanini

Dario Bressanini is Assistant Professor at the Department of Science and High Technology of the University of Insubria (Como). He is holder of the section “Pentole e provette” on the review Le Scienze, concerning the scientific exploration of food. He published OGM tra leggende e realtà (Zanichelli), Pane e Bugie (Chiarelettere) and Le bugie nel carrello (Chiarelettere). He is the author of the popular blog “Scienza in Cucina”. ​

Elizabeth Burns

Elizabeth Burns is creative and operative director of ‘The Burns Archive’, and director of ‘The Burns Archive Press’. She organized several exhibitions about criminology, and also the exhibitions Spirit photography and African American history. She contributed to the production of several documentaries and films, and now she is the archivist of the tv-serie HBO – Cinemax “The Knick”.

Stanley B. Burns

Stanley B. Burns is an American Ophthalmologist and Medicine Historian. He is Clinical Professor of Medicine and Psychiatry at the NYU Langone Medical Centre. In 1975 he started to collect medical pictures and two years later he inaugurated ‘The Burns Archive’. He was the author of several catalogues and curator of many exhibitions for some of the most important Museums of the world. He contributed to the production of several documentaries and films, and now he is the official historical consultant of the tv-serie HBO – Cinemax “The Knick”.

Saverio Campanini

Saverio Campanini teaches Hebrew at the University of Bologna (branch of Ravenna). His research focuses on History of Jewish mystique, its academic analysis and its reception in the Christian field, above all during the Renaissance. He is now dealing with the critical edition of some Jewish cabalistic texts.

Giorgio Cantelli Forti

Giorgio Cantelli Forti is Professor of Pharmacology at the University of Bologna and he is the President of the Società Italiana di Farmacologia (SIF). He is author of 682 publications (250 works in extenso on Italian and foreign reviews, 39 book chapters, 53 act of conventions, 16 short communications and 324 communications at national and international conventions).

Mauro Capocci

Mauro Capocci is Assistan Professor of History of Medicine at the University La Sapienza of Rome. He collaborated with the Istituto dell’Enciclopedia Italiana “G. Treccani”, “Galileo” (www.galileonet.it) and “Sapere”. He published his own researches on several international reviews and in 2014 he edited, with Gilberto Corbellini, Le cellule della speranza (Codice Edizioni). He collaborates with “Le Scienze” and the “Ciclofficina Centrale di Roma” (www.ciclonauti.org).

Achille Patrizio Caputi

Achille Patrizio Caputi is the Director of the Operative Unit of Clinical Pharmacology at the Azienda Ospedaliera Universitaria “G. Martino” of Messina, and he is the Responsible of the Centro Referente per la Segnalazione Spontanea delle sospette reazioni avverse da farmaci of Sicily. Since January 2015, he is the President of the Foundation Basilicata Ricerca Biomedica (BRB).

Maurizio Castorina

Maurizio Castorina is the CEO of the pharmaceutical company Zambon; he was a chief officer at Takeda in Italy since 2002 and he was Regional Vice President (RVP) for Southern Europe and Turkey.

Elena Cattaneo

Elena Cattaneo is Professor at the University of Milan, where she is Director of the Laboratorio di Biologia delle Cellule Staminali e Farmacologia delle Malattie Neurodegenerative – Department of Biosciences. She published over 150 manuscripts on peer-reviewed scientific magazines (like Science, Nature, Nature Genetics, Nature Neuroscience, Journal of Neuroscience, JBC). She is Senator in order since 2013.

Mauro Ceruti

Mauro Ceruti is Professor of Science Philosophy and Director of the Department of classical, humanistic and geographical studies at the Libera Università di Lingue e Comunicazione – Iulm. Some of his books, translated in many languages, are La nostra Europa (Raffaello Cortina) (with Edgar Morin); Il vincolo e la possibilità (Raffaello Cortina); La sfida della complessità (Bruno Mondadori) (with Gianluca Bocchi). His last book is La fine dell’onniscienza (Studium 2015).

Marco Ciardi

Marco Ciardi is Associate Professor of History of Science at the University of Bologna. Some of his latest publications are Terra. Storia di un’idea (Laterza, 2013); Galileo e Harry Potter. La magia può aiutare la scienza? (Carocci, 2014).

Franco Citterio

Franco Citterio is Associate Professor of Surgery at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore of Rome, and Responsible of the Unit of liver transplantology at the Policlinico Gemelli of Rome; he is also President of the Società Italiana dei Trapianti d’Organo. He wrote over 200 publications.

Lucio Cocco

Lucio Cocco is Professor of Human Anatomy at the University of Chieti, and Professor of the same discipline at the University of Bologna since 1990. He is the Director of the Laboratorio di Trasduzione del Segnale at the Department of Biomedical sciences at the University of Bologna and he is Editor-in-Chief of the series Advances in Biological Regulation, Elsevier Publ.

Maria Conforti

Maria Conforti teaches Medicine at the University La Sapienza of Rome. Her research focuses on the Italian Medicine of Modern Age, analysed from the point of view of its communicative and practical aspects.

Fiorenzo Conti

Fiorenzo Conti is Professor of Human Physiology at the Università Politecnica of the Marche, and Director of the Centro di Neurobiologia dell’invecchiamento of the IRCCS INRCA (Ancona). His research focuses on the molecular organization of the cerebral cortex and its alterations in neuropsychiatric diseases. He is the President of the Società Italiana di Neuroscienze.

Gilberto Corbellini

Gilberto Corbellini teaches Bioethics and History of Medicine at the University La Sapienza of Rome, and he is the Director of the Museo di Storia della Medicina. He collaborates with the supplement Domenica of the Sole24Ore and he published ten books, like EBM. Medicina basata sull’evoluzione (Laterza 2007), La razionalità negata. Psichiatria e antipsichiatria in Italia (with G. Jervis, Bollati Boringhieri 2008), Perché gli scienziati non sono pericolosi (Longanesi 2009), Scienza, quindi democrazia (Einaudi 2011), Tutta colpa del cervello. Introduzione alla neuroetica (with E. Sirgiovanni, Mondadori 2013), Storia e teorie della salute e della malattia (Carocci 2014).

Giorgio Cosmacini

Giorgio Cosmacini is a doctor, graduated in Philosophy and he is also an independent teacher of Medical Radiology. He was Head Physician at the Istituto Scientifico Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico (Milan), and he teaches Theory and History of Health at the University of Milan, and History of Medicine and History of Science at the Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele of Milan. Among his latest publications, can be quoted: Medicina e Rivoluzione (Cortina, 2015), La scomparsa del dottore (Cortina, 2013).

Lorenzo d’Avack

Lorenzo d’Avack is Professor of Law Philosophy at the Faculty of Law of the University Roma Tre. He is a lawyer since 1972 and Barristers of the Supreme Court since 1972. Among his latest publications can be quoted: Il progetto filiazione nell’era tecnologica. Percorsi etici e giuridici, Giappichelli (Turin, 2014) and Verso un antidestino. Biotecnologie e scelte di vita (Giappichelli, Turin, 2004).

Yves Dauvilliers

Yves Dauvilliers is Professor of Neurology and Physiology at the University of Montpellier and he is Director of the research activity of the Laboratory of research on sleep. He is Director of Sleep Disorders Centre, Department of Neurology, Gui de Chauliac Hospital of Montpellier; he is a member of the Clinical Research Department, University Hospital of Montpellier and a member of the Editorial Board of Sleep Medicine and Sleep. He wrote over 190 works published on national and international reviews.

Emilia Grazia de Biasi

Emilia Grazia de Biasi is senator since 2013, and she is President of the Commissione Igiene e Sanità of Palazzo Madama. Her research focused on many aspects concerning health, in particular the problem of the gambler diseases and experimentation on animals.

Giovanni De Girolamo

Giovanni De Girolamo is Scientific Director of the IRCCS of Brescia, and Professor of the School of Psychiatry at the University of Pisa. He is the Responsible of several welfare structures.

Michele De Luca

Michele De Luca is Professor of Biochemistry, Director of the Centro di Medicina Rigenerativa “Stefano Ferrari” and Director of the Centro Interdipartimentale Cellule Staminali e Medicina Rigenerativa of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia. He is also Scientific Director of the Società Holostem Terapie Avanzate Srl.

Roberto Defez

Roberto Defez is a Researcher of Microbial Biotechnologies at the IBBR of the CNR. He specialized at the Pasteur Institute (Paris). He has a blog about GMOs: salmone.org. He wrote Il Caso OGM (2014, Carocci Editore).

Simona Dei

Simona Dei graduated in Medicine and Surgery, and specialized in Neurological Sciences. She is General Director of the Local Health Centre of Siena. She has a wide hospital and territorial management training. She is author of over 11 publications since 2007.

Giuseppe di Pasquale

Giuseppe di Pasquale is Director of the Operative Unit of Cardiology at the Ospedale Maggiore of Bologna and Director of the Medical Department of the Bolognese Local Health Authority. He wrote over 442 scientific publications (155 on international reviews; he is the first author in 220 works) and 510 abstracts in acts of national and international conventions; he is co-editor of 4 books.

Dario Di Vico

Dario Di Vico is a journalist; he graduated in Sociology in Rome, and he works for the newspaper Corriere della Sera (where he was vice-director for five years) since 1989. His last book is Cacciavite, robot e tablet, concerning industrial politics.

Sergio Dompé

Sergio Dompé is President of the Pharmaceutic group Dompé. Since 2007 he is a member of the Council of the Fondazione IIT (Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia). Since 2014, he is a member of the Consiglio di Reggenza of the Banca d’Italia (Sede di Milano) and member of the Commissione Esperti Brevetti of CNR.

Pino Donghi

Pino Donghi is a Semiologist, and he deals with science communication and cultural organization. He was General Secretary at the Sigma Tau Foundation from 1994 to 2001, he curated 23 editions of Spoleto Scienza and he collaborated with Luca Ronconi for the set up of “Infinities” (Piccolo Teatro 2002-2003), and, as an author – with Gilberto Corbellini and Armando Massarenti – of “Bi(blio)etica” (Teatro Stabile di Torino 2006). He was the Editor of the Festival dell’Economia di Trento from 2010 to 2014, he collaborated with Laterza-Agorà. He is Professor on contract at the University of Bergamo, LUISS, SapienzaUniversità (Rome), and he is author of several essays (the last one entitled Di cosa parliamo quando parliamo di cancro (Raffaello Cortina Editore, with Gianfranco Peluso). He is part of the Advisory Board of Bologna Medicina – Festival della Scienza Medica, where he is Editor too.

Gianluca Farinelli

Gianluca Farinelli is the President of the Cineteca of Bologna.

Andrew Fire

Andrew Fire won the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 2006, for the discovery of the RAN interference. Since 2003, he teaches at the Departments of Pathology and Genetics of the Stanford University School of Medicine.

Claudio Franceschi

Claudio Franceschi was Professor of Immunology at the Universities of Padua, Modena and Bologna (1998-2003), and now he is Professore Alma Mater at the University of Bologna. He discovered the main characteristics of the immunosenescence and he studies the molecular and cellular bases of ageing and human longevity with researches on centenarians.

Flavia Franconi

Flavia Franconi is Professor of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology at the University of Pharmacy of the University of Sassari. Since 2014 she is Health Councillor and vice-President of Basilicata.

Antonio Gasbarrini

Antonio Gasbarrini is Professor if Gastroenterology at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Policlinico A.Gemelli (Rome) and Director of the Operative Unit of Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology at the Policlinico Gemelli of Rome. He has written over 1652 publications.

Sandro Giannini

Sandro Giannini is Professor of Human musculoskeletal system diseases at the University of Bologna, and he is the Director of the Specialisation Schools of Orthopaedics, Traumatology, Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine in the same Institute. He wrote over 450 publications, 20 monographs, 115 international essays and he owns four patents.

Rita Golfieri

Rita Golfieri is Director of the Operative Unit of Radiology at the Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria of Bologna, and Vice-Director of the Department of Diagnostics Medicine and Prevention of Bologna. She is Professor on contract since 1984 at many specialisation schools and she collaborates with many research projects in the field of interventionist radiology and advanced diagnostics in radiology. She is author and co-author of over 500 publications (14 monographs, 67 book chapters, 147 articles on international reviews).

Stefano Golinelli

Stefano Golinelli graduated with honour in 1970 in Electronic Engineering at the University of Bologna. He started to work for Alfa Wassermann (founded by his father in 1948) in 1975, where he had different, growing tasks. Since the beginning of the ’90s, he is a member of the Administrative Committee and CEO of this society. He is also a member of the Farmindustria Junta – pharmaceutical society’s group.

Andrea Grignolio

Andrea Grignolio deals with History of Medicine at the University of Bologna and at the University La Sapienza of Rome. He was guest of the Centre Cavaillès dell’Ecole Normale Supérieure (Paris), Postdoctoral Fellow at the Centre for History and Philosophy of Science (Boston University) and Visiting Scholar at the Office for History of Science and Technology (University of California, Berkeley). He is author of articles appeared on national and international reviews and he is the editor (with F. De Sio) of the book Giuseppe Levi: scienza, vita e impegno civile (Medicina nei Secoli, 2012, Vol. 24, n. 2, 2013). He deals with scientific divulgation, collaborating with Radio3 and writing texts for the theatre (Marx a Roma; Il desiderio di conoscere. La storia di Barbara McClintock).

Antonio Guerci

Antonio Guerci graduated in Biological Sciences; he is Professor of Anthropology, Director of the Museo di Etnomedicina A. Scarpa and holder of the chair UNESCO UniTwin Antropologia della salute – Biosfera e sistemi di cura at the University of Genoa.

Mario Guidi

Mario Guidi is an agrarian manager; he is married and has a daughter. In 2007 he became a member of the National Executive Joint. On March 31, 2011 he was elected National President of Confagricoltura. Since March 1, 2014 he is the Coordinator of Agrinsieme (which joins Confagricoltura,Cia and Alleanza delle Cooperative agroalimentari).

Mark Hanson

Mark Hanson is Professor of Cardiovascular Science at the British Heart Foundation and Director of the Institute of Developmental Sciences (University of Southampton). His most recent publications include Mismatch – the lifestyle diseases timebomb (2006), Principles of Evolutionary Medicine (2009), Fat, Fate and Disease (2012) and Nutrition and Lifestyle for Pregnancy and Breastfeeding (2015).

John Harris

John Harris is the Director of the Institute for Science, Ethics and Innovation and of the Wellcome Strategic Programme in The Human Body, its Scope Limits and Future at Manchester University, where he is also Lord Alliance Professor of Bioethics. His new book, How to be Good, is set to be released in 2016.

Patrizia Hrelia

Patrizia Hrelia is Professor of Toxicology at the School of Pharmacy, Biotechnology and Sport Science of the University of Bologna. She has published over150 works in extenso on international magazines and book chapters, and she attended many national and international Conventions. She is an active member of many scientific societies. She is registered in the European (ERT) and Italian (RENTIC) register of Certified Toxicologists.

Silvana Hrelia

Silvana Hrelia teaches Biochemistry at the School of Pharmacy, Biotechnology and Sport Science of the University of Bologna. She wrote over 140 articles on international reviews concerning cellular biochemistry and nutrition. She is a member of the Key Thrust 1: “Improving health, well being and longevity” (European platform “Food for Life”).

Graziano Leuzzi

Graziano Leuzzi works for CISCO since 2000, where he deals with Healthcare market – in collaboration with the European team – and with the development of initiatives concerning Smart & Connected Communities. He attended as a speaker to many national Conventions. Walter Locatelli is General Director of the Local Health Unit of Milan.

Carlo Lucarelli

Carlo Lucarelli is one of the most famous writers of crime and noir novels. He worked on television for years and he anchored a program about the mysteries of the Italian History, Blu notte Misteri Italiani (Premio Flaiano, 2006). His latest works include Almost blue (1997), Un giorno dopo l’altro (2000), Storie di bande criminali, di mafie e di persone oneste (2008), Giudici (con Camilleri e De Cataldo, 2011), Il sogno divolare (2013), Albergo Italia (2014).

Donald MacGlashan Jr.

Donald MacGlashan Jr. is Professor of Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland. In 1993, he entered in the Division of Allergy and Clinical Immunology of the Department of Medicine. He is a member of the American Association of Immunologists and he was a member of the NIH Study Sections for Immunology, Cancer, Virology, Allergy and Immunology. He was a consultant for several Pharmaceutical and Biomedical factories and he is the author of over 170 publications, reviews and book chapters. He is the inventor of the Method and Kit for the Detection of Autoimmune Chronic Urticaria.

Lamberto Maffei

Lamberto Maffei is the President of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Professor at the Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa and member of the following Academies: Accademia Europea di Scienze; American Academy of Arts and Sciences; Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei. Among his latest publications, can be quoted La libertà di essere diversi (Bologna, Il Mulino, 2011) and Elogio della lentezza (Bologna, Il Mulino, 2014).

Peter Malfertheiner

Peter Malfertheiner is Professor of Medicine and Director of the Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Infectious Diseases, Otto-v.-Guericke-University of the University of Magdeburg.

Alberto Mantovani

Alberto Mantovani graduated in Medicine and Surgery and specialized in Oncology; he is the Scientific Director of the IRCCS Istituto Clinico Humanitas and teaches at the Humanitas University. He received several national and international prices for his research activity. Since many years he is pointed out as one of the most quoted authors of the international scientific literature.

Valentina Mantua

Valentina Mantua (Rome, 1975) is a Psychiatrist and Ph.D. in Neurobiology. She follows the clinical development of drugs for the central nervous system at the Agenzia Italiana del Farmaco (AIFA) and she is a member of the Scientific Advice Working Party (SAWP) and Central Nervous System Working Party (CNS-WP) of the Agenzia Europea per i Medicinali (EMA) in London.

Maurilio Marcacci

Maurilio Marcacci is Professor of Musculoskeletal system diseases at the University of Bologna and Director of the Scuola di Specializzazione in Ortopedia e Traumatologia of the same Institute. He is author of over 315 national and international works.

Gianvito Martino

Gianvito Martino is Honorary Professor at the School of Medicine and Dentistry of the Queen Mary University of London and since 2008 he follows the Divisione di Neuroscienze of the Istituto Scientifico San Raffaele in Milan. He was President of the Associazione per la Cultura SINAPSI and he was one of the founders of BergamoScienza. He wrote over 200 scientific publications on international reviews (including original articles, books and book chapters).

Armando Massarenti

Armando Massarenti is an Italian Philosopher and Epistemologist. Since 2011, he is the responsible of the page “Scienza e filosofia” of the cultural Sunday supplement of the newspaper IlSole24Ore, where he holds the section “Filosofia minima” and where he deals, since 1986, with History, Science Philosophy, Moral Philosophy, Politics and Applied Ethics. He is the Director, for the publishing house Mondadori, of the series “Scienza e filosofia”. He is author of several educational books, like the manual Penso dunque sono (with Emiliano Di Marco, D’Anna, 2014), Il filosofo tascabile (2009), Staminalia (2008), Perché pagare le tangenti è razionale ma non vi conviene (2012), Istruzioni per rendersi felici (2014).

Anna Meldolesi

Anna Meldolesi is a professional journalist, and she writes for the newspaper Corriere della Sera. She graduated in Biology at the University of Bologna, and she obtained the Master in Communication studies at the Sissa (Trieste). Her most important books include Ogm (Einaudi) e Mai nate (Mondadori Università).

Alberto Melloni

Alberto Melloni is Professor of History of Christianity at the University of Modena-Reggio Emilia. He is holder of the Unesco chair about peace and religious pluralism at the University of Bologna since 2003 and he is the Director of the Bolognese Foundation for religious sciences John XXIII since 2007. He wrote about the medieval canon law, about Church and Politics in the 21^th century and about ecclesiastical institutions.

Claudio Mencacci

Claudio Mencacci is Professor on contract at the University of Milan and at the University Milano Bicocca, and he is the Honorary President of the Coordinamento Nazionale dei Servizi Psichiatrici di Diagnosi e Cura. He is author of over 260 scientific publications and he is editor of more than 22 published volumes.

Gaetano Miccichè

Gaetano Miccichè is the General Director of the Advisory Board of Intesa Sanpaolo and the Responsible for the Corporate Division and Investment Banking. He is the vicar Vice-President of Banca Imi. Among his various tasks in the company (since 2002), can be remembered: Financial General Manager at Rodriquez S.p.A., General Manager at Gerolimich-Unione Manifatture; General Manager at Santa Valeria S.p.A., CEO and e General Manager at Olcese S.p.A. Now he is also Advisor at Prada S.p.A., Pirelli & C. SpA and ABi and he is a member of the Scientific Committee of the Politecnico di Milano. He was elected Cavaliere del Lavoro by President Giorgio Napolitano on May 31, 2013.

Piero Mioli

Piero Mioli teaches at the Conservatory of Bologna, and he is member of Academies and editorial committees; he wrote several books, like Dizionario di musica classicaand he was the editor of others, like Sonata a tre. Verdi, Wagner e Bologna.

Sandro Modeo

Sandro Modeo is an Italian essays; he deals above all with science and football. He writes on the newspaper Corriere della Sera. He collaborated with the magazines La Rivista dei Libri, Le Scienze and Darwin.

Juri Monducci

Juri Monducci is a lawyer in Bologna and Milan, and Temporary Research Associate at the University of Bologna, in the field of health care, privacy issues and bioethics. He worked as Visiting Researcher at the Fordham Law School of New York, he has taught post-graduate courses; he wrote several articles and has participated as speaker at several national and international Conventions.

Luc Montagnier

Luc Montagnier was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 2008, for the discovery of the HIV virus. He is Professor at the Institute Pasteur of Paris and President of the World Foundation for AIDS Research and Prevention.

Michele Morgante

Michele Morgante is Professor of Genetics at the University of Udine. He was Editor in chief of Theoretical and Applied Genetics and of Tree Genetics and Genomes; he is Editor in chief of BMC Plant Biology and section editor of BMC Genetics. In 2007 he became a member of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Classe di Scienze Fisiche, Matematiche e Naturali.

Franco Moscetti

Franco Moscetti started his career in the Group Air Liquide in 1973. In 1989, after various experiences, he was appointed General Director of Vitalaire Italia (specialized in home assistance). In 1995 he was elected General Director and CEO of Air Liquide Sanité, a sub-holding which is in charge of all the activities in the field of healthcare of said group in Italy. In 1999 he also became CEO of Air Liquide Italia. In 2001 he moved to Paris, where he became Director of the Divisione Ospedaliera and Président-Directeur Général of Air Liquide Santé France. As of December 2004 he became General Director and CEO of Amplifon Group. He also so a member of the Advisory Board of the “Comitato Leonardo” and of the American Chamber of Commerce in Italy and “Amministratore indipendente” of S.p.A. and of Fideuram Investimenti SGR S.p.A. (Gruppo IntesaSanpaolo). In 2012 he was elected Cavaliere dell’Ordine “Al Merito del Lavoro” by President Giorgio Napolitano.

Kary Mullis

Kary Mullis was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1993, with Michael Smith, for the development of the Polymerase Chain Reaction. He is Distinguished Researcher at the Children’s Hospital and Research Institute of Oakland (California).

Erwin Neher

Erwin Neher was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1991, with Bert Sakmann, for the invention of the patch clamp technique for the discoveries concerning the function of single ion channels in cells. He is the Director of the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry of Göttingen and Professor at the same Institute.

Maurice Ohayon

Maurice Ohayon is Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Stanford School of Medicine, and Director of the Stanford Sleep Epidemiology Research Center (SSERC).

Antonio Panaino

Antonio Panaino is Professor of Iranian Studies at the University of Bologna. His research focuses on Linguistics and Iranian Philology, with a particular interest in the Avestan, Old-Persian and in the different Middle-Iranian languages. He also deals with the religious History of pre-Islamic Iran, with intercultural relationships between Byzantium and Iran, with the ancient and Oriental History and with pseudoscience. He wrote many monographs and over 200 academic articles.

Luca Pani

Luca Pani is General Director of the Agenzia Italiana del Farmaco (AIFA). Since 2010, he is the Italian Permanent Delegate (Alternate) of the Comitato per i Medicinali ad Uso Umano (CHMP) and Elected Member of the Gruppo di Lavoro sul Sistema Nervoso Centrale and of the Gruppo di Lavoro per la Consulenza Scientifica (SAWP) for the Agenzia Europea dei Medicinali (EMA). He is author of over a thousand scientific publications, editor and author of several volumes. Since 1994, he attended as a speaker to over 800 national and international conventions, seminaries and workshops.

Maria Grazia Pascucci

Maria Grazia Pascucci is a member of the Società Italiana di Igiene.

Carlo Patrono

Carlo Patrono is Professor of Pharmacology at the University of Pennsylvania and at the Università Cattolica del S. Cuore, and Vice-President of the Ethics Committee of the Hospital “A. Gemelli” (Milan). In 2013 he received the Grand Prix Scientifique 2013 of the Institut de France. He is a member of the Accademia dei Lincei.

Susi Pelotti

Susi Pelotti teaches Forensic Medicine at the School of Medicine and Surgery of the University of Bologna (Faculty of Law). She is a Technical Consultant and an expert of the Judiciary Authority, and since January 2015 she is the President of the Genetisti Forensi Italiani (Ge.F.I).

Stefano Aldo Pileri

Stefano Aldo Pileri is Professore Alma Mater (PAM) of Pathological Anatomy at the University of Bologna and Director of the Unità di Diagnosi Emolinfopatologica at the Istituto Europeo di Oncologia (Milan). He wrote over 1063 publications. He dedicates his own research activity to the translational issues (from the laboratory to the patient’s bed) and to the personalized therapy in the field of lymphoma and leukemia.

Giancarlo Pizza

Giancarlo Pizza is the President of the Ordine dei Medici Chirurghi e Odontoiatri of Bologna since 2006. From 1974, he acted full time in hospitals of the city of Bologna, at the general hospital S. Orsola-Malpighi, where he directed the Modulo di Immunoterapia dei tumori urologici; here, since August 2013, he works as a freelance professional for the direction of an experimental project concerning metastatic kidneys tumors.

Giuseppe Plazzi

Giuseppe Plazzi is Professor of Neurology at the University of Bologna, and he is the Director of a center for the research and the therapies of the sleep diseases at the same Institute. He is author and co-author of over 250 scientific works on international reviews, of several book chapters and of the first book published by an international publishing house about parasomnia.

Michael G. Plummer

Michael G. Plummer is Director Sais Europe, Eni Professor of International Economics. He is the President of the American Committee on Asian Economic Studies (ACAES), Editor of the Journal of Asian Economics; he is non resident senior fellow at the East-West Center, and he was team leader at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. He studied the economic community ASEAN and the development of the ASEAN regional bond market.

Massimo Popolizio

Massimo Popolizio collaborated for twenty years with Luca Ronconi, with whom he acted in about thirty shows (like Gli ultimi giorni dell’umanitàof Kraus (1990), Ibsen’s Peer Gynt (1995), Quer pasticciaccio brutto de via Merulana of Gadda (1996), until Leheman, still staged at the Piccolo Teatro). He also worked with many other Italian Directors, like Cesare Lievi, Massimo Castri, Walter Pagliaro, Mauro Avogadro, Gianfranco de Bosio, Antonio Calenda, Marco Sciaccaluga and Elio De Capitani, Jean Pierre Vincent. He won the Premio Olimpico with Ritter Dene Voss of Thomas Bernhard (Director: Piero Maccarinelli, 2007). The latest productions he appeared in include Blackbirdby David Harrower (Director Lluis Pasqual) and John Gabriel Borkman (directed by Piero Maccarinelli).

Eleonora Porcu

Eleonora Porcu is Associate Professor of Gynaecology and Obstetrics at the University of Bologna, and Responsible of the StrutturaSemplice di Infertilità e Procreazione Medicalmente Assistita at the general hospital S. Orsola-Malpighi of Bologna. She is author of 215 international publications and 179 national publications.

Ivo Quaranta

Ivo Quaranta is Associate Professor of Population Studies, Ethnography and Anthropology at the University of Bologna. His latest publications include Malati fuori luogo. Medicina interculturale (with Mario Ricca, Milano 2012); Antropologia Medica. I testi fondamentali (Milano 2006).

Claudio Rapezzi

Claudio Rapezzi is Professor of Cardiology at the University of Bologna. His main research concerns: clinic cardiology, cardiovascular physiopathology, diagnostics, electrocardiography, cardiac insufficiency and myocardium diseases. He is author of over 500 publications on national and international reviews, books and conventions acts.

Rino Rappuoli

Rino Rappuoli is Chief Scientist at GSK Vaccines. He wrote over 400 scientific original publications, and he was author of many books; he is also part of the Scientific Committee of important reviews and he is a member of several international Committees and Organizations, like the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO).

Walter Ricciardi

Walter Ricciardi is Professor of Hygiene and Director of the School of Specialization of Hygiene and Preventive Medicine at the School of Medicine and Surgery “A. Gemelli” (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Rome), and Director of the Department of Public Health of the University General Hospital “A. Gemelli” (quadriennium 2011/12 – 2014/15). Since May 2013, he is Member of the European Panel for the efficacy of the Health investments of the European Commission – DG Sanco and since July 2014 he is Extraordinary Commissioner of the Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS).

Francesco Ripa di Meana

Francesco Ripa di Meana is President FIASO (Federazione Italiana Aziende Sanitarie e Ospedaliere) and General Director of the Orthopaedics Institute Rizzoli (Bologna).

Nicola Rizzo

Nicola Rizzo is Professor of Gynecology and Obstetrics, and Director of the Obstetrics Clinic and Prenatal Medicine at the general hospital S. Orsola (Bologna), and he is Director of the Specialization School in Gynecology and Obstetrics and coordinator of the Ph.D. in Medical Science Research and of the Services Alma Mater Studiorum-University of Bologna.

Francesca Romana Romani

Francesca Romana Romani is an Islamist and Medicine Historian, and she teaches at the University Roma Tre. She has a Ph.D. in Human Pathology, with a thesis about Islamic bioethics. She is author of scientific works about the History of hospitals in the Islamic Middle age, and about issues of multicultural bioethics, above all concerning the relationships between body sacredness and transplant surgery.

Carlo Rosa

Carlo Rosa graduated in 1990 in Chemistry summa cum laude at the University of Turin. In 1990, he worked in the USA (Health Research Institute) in a project for the development of an innovative product for the diagnosis of Hepatitis CV. In 1992, he became a member of the Incstar Corporation, an American Society where he had different tasks in the field of Research and Development, Strategic Marketing and where he became Director of the Business Unit on infectious diseases. He came back in Italy in 1998, where he became Director of European Strategy and Marketing at DiaSorin Spa. In 2001, he ruled a management buy-out with other four managers and a group of financial resources investors for the purchase of DiaSorin from a previous owner. American Standard Inc. Later he became COO until 2006, when he became CEO. In 2014, he was elected Vice President of Alisei, a Group of Italian public and private institutions with the task of promoting biological sciences development in Italy.

Amedeo Santosuosso

Amedeo Santosuosso is a Magistrate at the courthouse of Milan, and President of the Centro di Ricerca Interdipartimentale European Centre for Law, Science and New Technologies (ECLT) of the University of Pavia; he teaches Law, Science and New Technologies at the same Institute. He attended as a speaker to several national and international Conventions.

Massimo Scaccabarozzi

Massimo Scaccabarozzi is President of Farmindustria since June 2011 (position confirmed in 2013); since 2011 he is a member of the Joint and permanent guest of the Advisory Board of Confindustria, and since 2001 he works in Janssen Italia, where he was General Director and then CEO.

Giovanni Scapagnini

Giovanni Scapagnini is Professor at the Istituto di Scienze Neurologiche (CNR Catania) and at the University of Molise, and Professor at the Blanchette Rockefeller Neurosciences Institute, West Virginia University, Rockville (MD), USA; he is Professor on contract at the Institute of Human Virology, University of Maryland, Baltimore (MD), USA. He is a neuroscientist doctor, expert in the biological mechanisms of ageing (above all the brain ones).

Mario Sensini

Mario Sensini (51 years old) is a professional journalist. Reporter, correspondent from Brussels for six years, he worked at the Group 24Ore, La Stampa and since 2003 he works at the Corriere della Sera, where he deals with Economy and Public Finance. He wrote the book L’Abc dell’Europaper (Nuova Eri).

Renato Seracchioli

Renato Seracchioli is Professor of Gynecology and Obstetrics at the University of Bologna, and since November 1, 2014 he is the Director of the Operative Unit of Gynecology and Reproduction Physiopathology at the general hospital S. Orsola-Malpighi of Bologna. He wrote over 160 publications, including 94 original scientific articles published on peer-reviewed magazines reviewed by MEDLINE (overall IF higher than 250).

Filippo Sgubbi

Filippo Sgubbi is Professor of Criminal Law and holder of the chair of Public Law at the Law Faculty of the University of Bologna. He is also a criminal defense lawyer since 1978.

Raffaele Stefanelli

Raffaele Stefanelli is the CEO of the Boston Scientific Italia since July 2013. He has been in Boston Scientific since 1999, where he was Finance & Administration Manager, Finance Director and President of the Board of Directors. Since 1993, he is Finance & Administration Manager at World Minerals.

Sergio Stefoni

Sergio Stefoni is Professor of Nephrology at the University of Bologna; he was the Director of the Servizio di Nefrologia, Dialisi e Trapianto of the S. Orsola general hospital (Bologna), Department Head of the Medicine Faculty and President of the Società Internazionale degli Organi Artificiali. He is author of over 500 publications.

Luigi Stortoni

Luigi Stortoni is Full Professor of criminal law at the School of Law of the University of Bologna; he was the Director of the Scuola Superiore di Studi Giuridici at the same University and Department Head of the Associazione dei penalisti “F. Bricola”. He was a member of the governmental commissions for the reform penal code Nordio and Pisapia. He is author of several criminal law studies, like the monograph about “abuso di potere” and “concorso di persone nel reato”. He is a criminal defense lawyer.

Piergiorgio Strata

Piergiorgio Strata is Professor at the University of Turin. He is a member of the Academia Europaea, and he won the Premio Feltrinelli at the Accademia dei Lincei. He was a researcher at Canberra and Chicago with the Nobel Prize winner John Eccles.

Marco Trabucchi

Marco Trabucchi is Professor of Neuropsychopharmacology at the University of Rome Tor Vergata. He is the Scientific Director of the Gruppo di Ricerca Geriatrica (GRG) of Brescia, responsible of the Sezione Politiche Sociali e Sanitarie at the Fondazione Smith Kline. He founded the IRCCS S. Giovanni di Dio of Brescia for the research on dementia. He is President of the Associazione Italiana di Psicogeriatria and used to be President of the Società Italiana di Gerontologia e Geriatria. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the L’Arco di Giano for Neurosciences.

Roberto Tuberosa

Roberto Tuberosa teaches Vegetal Biotechnologies at the University of Bologna, where he adopts genomic methods to increase the resistance of wheat and corn to drought and fungal diseases.

Stanley Ulijaszek

Stanley Ulijaszek is Director of the Biocultural Variation and Obesity, and Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Oxford. His research focuses on nutrition and ageing from an evolutionist, biocultural and anthropological point of view.

Emanuele Vendramini

Emanuele Vendramini is Associate Professor of Business Economics at the University Sacro Cuore of Milan (branch of Piacenza); since November 2007 he is Adjunct Professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (USA) and since 2004 he is Faculty Harvard Business School Institute of Strategy and Competitiveness affiliate. Since 2004, he teaches at the Luigi Bocconi University (Milan).

Sergio Venturi

Sergio Venturi is Health Councillor of Regione Emilia Romagna.

Periluigi Viale

Periluigi Viale is Full Professor of Infective Diseases at the University of Bologna, and Director of the Operative Unit of Infective Diseases at the general hospital S. Orsola. He is an expert in the field of anti-microbial therapy, with reference to the hospital-acquired infections risk and to the immune-reactive patient.

Andrea Vitali

Andrea Vitali was born in 1956 in Bellano (Como), where he lives and works as a doctor. His publications include: La mamma del sole (2010), Il meccanico Landru (2010), La leggendadel morto contento (2011), Zia Antonia sapeva dimenta (2011), Galeotto fu il collier (2012), Regalodi nozze (2012). In 2008, he won the literary price Boccaccio for his opera omnia. In 2014, he published Premiata ditta sorelle Ficcadenti(Rizzoli), Quattro sberle benedette (Garzanti)Biglietto signorina(Garzanti). In 2015, he published La ruga del cretinoin collaboration with Massimo Picozzi Garzanti.

Francesco Zavattaro

Francesco Zavattaro is General Director of the Local Health Center of Lanciano Vasto Chieti.

Maurizio Zompatori

Maurizio Zompatori is Professor of Radiology at the University of Bologna, and Director of the Operative Unit of Radiology at the general hospital S. Orsola-Malpighi of Bologna. He is author and co-author of over 400 publications (281 with IF) – above all on pulmonary issues -, of various monographs and of several book chapters.

Alfredo Zuppiroli

Alfredo Zuppiroli was born in Florence in 1951. He has been a hospital cardiologist since 1979, head physician from 2000 to 2012 (when he retired). He is author of several scientific publications. He was President of the Commissione di Bioetica of Tuscany from 2008 to 2011. Since 2013, he collaborates with the Tuscany Agenzia di Sanità.

FESTIVAL DELLA SCIENZA MEDICA 2015

Download the English version of the Program 2015

May 7th

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9.30 – ANATOMICAL THEATRE (ARCHIGINNASIO)

Visit with animation at the anatomical Theatre for primary schools
A morning dedicated to the small ones. The young students of the primary schools are invited to a guided and exclusive visit to the Teatro Anatomico, where professional entertainers, with the help of real doctors, will narrate them the splendours of the human body, entering in an anatomical mannequin. An unmissable appointment with a life-sized “Surgery”.

9.30 – RE ENZO HALL

A.D. 1300: Boccaccio’s Plague
Gilberto Corbellini Between 1348 and 1400 the European population lost 100 million people to the Bubonic Plague (or Black Death). Giovanni Boccaccio brightly described the tragic situation that developed in Florence and that led the protagonists of his literary masterpiece to escape the city. But what was the plague? How did it spread? Which was its origin? Why was it so lethal? How did it impact the social and economic development in Europe?

Following we will play PANDEMIC, with Christian Zoli – QUADRANTE HALL

Pandemic is a cooperative board game invented in 2008 by Matt Leacock. Pandemic is based on the premise that four diseases have broken out in the world, each threatening to wipe out a region. The game accommodates 2 to 4 players, each playing one of five possible specialists: dispatcher, medic, scientist, researcher or operations expert, and through the collaboration of their abilities they will try to stop the four epidemics. The game is unlike most board games as the gameplay is cooperative, rather than competitive. Through the combined effort of all the players, the goal is to discover all four cures before any of several game-losing conditions are reached. The group’s victory implicates the victory in the game.

11.30 – SAN GIORGIO IN POGGIALE. ART AND HISTORY LIBRARY

The spells of medicine: From Harry Potter’s bezoar to homeopathy’s preparations

Marco Ciardi What is real in Harry Potter’s Medicine? And how much magic is present in our so called “alternative medicines”? Professor Ciardi will try to show that the differences between magical thought and scientific thought do not concern the studied issues and arguments, but the methods and values that distinguish them.

12.00 – SALA DELLA CULTURA

The Messiah’s diet: Judaism and medicine
Saverio Campanini Introduced by: Antonio Guerci One of the most popular cabalistic treatises of the 13^th century, the Letter on Sanctity (Iggeret ha-qodesh), wants to teach couples the old religious, ethic, dietetic and health practices to give life to male children, saint if possible, and, why not, suitable to become the Messiah. Under the appearance of a simple practical manual, the Letter shows us a Jewish way to see the affinity between saint and sane, pleasure and pity.

16.00 – PODESTÀ HALL Inauguration with the authorities

17.00 – PODESTÀ HALL

Luigi Galvani Lecture: Living a long life. The traveller with two baggages
Luc Montagnier Each human being is a traveller with two baggages: the first one is the biologic equipment that we receive from our parents and that we pass on to our children. But there is a second baggage, much more recent in the History of evolution, that is the one used to shape the environment where we evolve and in which we can also find medical knowledge. Lifespan depends on our genetic makeup, but in order to live a long life it is necessary to access and contribute to the development of knowledge, in order to try to live healthy as long as possible.

18.30 – RE ENZO HALL

Nutraceutical: the colorful path to health
Giorgio Cantelli Forti Silvana Hrelia Nutraceuticals are food elements (red oranges, broccoli, apples, etc.) which give important benefits to our health in terms of prevention of chronic-degenerative diseases. The OMS encourages the consumption of at least 400 grams of fruit and vegetables a day, possibly in five different moments of the day and choosing among 5 different colours, to guarantee the assumption of nutraceuticals elements. Colour is indeed an empirical index of the contained nutraceutical types and of their consequent protective effect.

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May 8th

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9.30 – ANATOMICAL THEATRE (ARCHIGINNASIO) Visit with animation at the anatomical Theatre for primary schools (see above)

9.30 – RE ENZO HALL

A.D. 1500: Syphilis or of the French Flu
Maria Conforti Syphilis spread out in Europe at the end of 1500, and led to intense and innovative debates on its transmission and causes. People inquired if and why this disease was unknown to the ancients; and, in case it was a new disease, if it had been imported due to the exploration of new territories. It was associated to feelings of fault and shame, attributed to the enemy or to “stranger” – it was called “Neapolitan disease” by the Frenchs and “French Disease” by the Neapolitans – and it was not curable before the 20th century.

After the lecture we will play PANDEMIC, with Christian Zoli – SALA DEL QUADRANTE (see above)

10.30 – STABAT MATER LECTURE HALL

Defensive Medicine: wards and courts
Susi Pelotti Amedeo Santosuosso Filippo Sgubbi Luigi Stortoni It has been reported that defensive medicine (which is the prescription of drugs and specialized visits in excess for the patients’ dissatisfaction and charges) in Italy costs over 10 billion euros – more than the 10% of the healthcare expense. This is an evolution partly predictable due to the changes that took place in the relationship between doctors and patients, since it had been taken for granted that with the informed consent it was no longer necessary to invest in the good quality of communication between these two figures.

10.30 – SALA DELLA CULTURA

Innovation in teleassistance and for the efficiency of pharmaceutical companies
Luciana Bevilacqua Graziano Leuzzi Juri Monducci sponsored by CISCO Telecare and distance collaboration tools increase the quality and the number of services offered to patients, but also the organization efficiency of Local Health Authorities. The purpose of this round table is to examine in depth the advantages coming from technology, process and normative innovation in those fields and, more in general, from the evolution of medical knowledge.

11.00 – ATTI HALL

Gynaecological and obstetrician Clinic. Uterine Haemorrhages in women during pregnancy and fertile period
Simulated hospital rounds with:Nicola Rizzo, Renato Seracchioli Staged by: Giulia Frezza An original format: real hospital beds, with young students playing the part of the patients who act their own medical records. The audience follows the doctor during his visits, illustrating similar medical cases in different historical periods. A voyage to understand the History and evolution of diagnosis and medical therapies.

11.30 – AULA ABSIDALE OF SANTA LUCIA

Before CSI. Birth and development of Forensic MedicineCarlo Lucarelli Susi Pelotti This event will be dedicated to plagarum doctors, according to Bolognese Statutes of 1250 with the first documents of expert activity, astonishing beliefs, real facts and reports of crime which contributed to compose the plots of Forensic Medicine in the centuries. There will be the starting point taken by the literary forensic medicine page, there will be commented the new laboratory techniques in the field of personal identification, which gave a more modern look to the Italian Forensic Medicine: the road towards CSI was traced.

11.30 – RE ENZO HALL

The size of the public health services and the patient’s needs: which means for which situations?
Simona Dei Walter Locatelli Emanuele Vendramini Francesco Zavattaro Coordinated by: Francesco Ripa di Meana The regional healthcare systems are facing two different powers: from one side, the growing pressure regarding costs containment, often defined “spending review”; on the other side, a growing demand for healthcare services from a growing number of chronic, post-acute and sub-acute patients. The regional healthcare systems are answering to these pressures with a centralization of the government system of the Local Health authorities. The managers’ considerations and the answers on the system overall governance, with particular attention to the districts’ role, will be discussed.

11.30 – SOCIETA MEDICA CHIRURGICA OF BOLOGNA LECTURE HALL 

Biotechnological innovations for a better and longer life
Diego Ardigó Eugenio Aringhieri Coordinated by: Andrea Grignolio Sponsored by: Farmindustria Pharmaceutical innovation has radically changed people’s life expectancy, ensuring a more dynamic and better existence. Pharmaceutical biotechnologies are a growing opportunity for the country and the main source of possible answers to the still unsatisfied health needs.

12.00 – STABAT MATER HALL

From mantra to the knife. Ancient medicine and oriental religions
Antonio Panaino Introduction by: Antonio Guerci While Europe was coming out from one of the bloodiest wars, Émile Benveniste, great French linguist, was writing one of his most acute articles: La doctrine médicale des Indo-Européens, RHR 130, 1945, pp. 5-12. Some of his research focused on how the Roman world and the Iranian one shared an ancient Indo-European tradition which considered three main shapes of Medicine: the one of mantra, the one of drug (and plants) and the one of knife.

12.30 – SALA DELLA CULTURA

Clinical experimentations
Achille Patrizio Caputi Every new compound is subject to wide pre-clinical analyses: studies on animals and in vitro. It follows the pre-marketing trial, which has a series of intrinsic limits: short term, selected population, test environment and a limited number of patients.

15.00 – GIORGIO PRODI HALL

Gender Medicine Flavia Franconi “Gender Medicine” studies and points out the impact of sex and gender on normal and pathologic physiology and on the characteristics of disease, in other words on how sex and gender – in the sense of the expected social roles linked to sex – influence the risk of falling ill and the clinical history of diseases. Women are more exposed to the risk of suffering from Alzheimer’s and depression, but also other diseases due to the complex physiology of their reproductive apparatus. Women’s diseases are usually diagnosed and cured according to clinical models based on men. But women react to drugs in a different way because of the complex hormonal system that interacts with the active substances. To what extent and how did these facts enter the doctors’ way of thinking?

15.00 – STABAT MATER HALL

Unite to grow. Health in the global world
Stefano Golinelli Gaetano Miccichè Franco Moscetti Carlo Rosa Raffaele Stefanelli Coordinated by: Dario Di Vico Sponsored by: Intesa Sanpaolo Research and scientific studies from a bio-medical and pharmacological point of view require the kind of investments typical of the so called “big-science”, which requires a political design of subsequent industrial aggregations. Health in the globalized world is one of the greatest challenges for the future: for Society, Politics, Business and Finance. Protagonists discuss this theme.

15.30 – AULA ABSIDALE OF SANTA LUCIA

Finis vitaeand living will
Lorenzo d’Avack John Harris The so called “end of life choices” lack specific regulation in our legal system. For this reason, although there were several legal cases, it is not possible to obtain, with certainty from our legal system, the legitimateness of taking all the possible meanings of the patient’s right to refuse consciously an intervention that can anticipate the coming of death and that requires the doctor’s attendance, even if it is instrumental to the patient’s will. It would be best to have not only a law to allow for the possibility to make safe choices for both for patients and doctors, but also the forecasting of a living will (Advance healthcare directive) through which a person with full faculties could express his own will about the treatments that he desires to receive or to avoid – in case that, during the development of a disease or because of sudden trauma, he could not express his own informed consent or dissent anymore.

16.00 – SALA DELLA CULTURA

Surgery in the 21^st century between demolition and reconstruction
Sandro Giannini All the fields of Orthopedic surgery – from the treatment of congenital or acquired deformities – have witnessed a remarkable development during the years. The research to reactivate the use of joints destroyed by traumas, infections or degenerative diseases was particularly attractive. Until the half of the last century, a serious articular damage was followed by amputation or, in the most favourable cases, by the fusion of the joint (arthrodesis), with a consequent limitation of its use. With the 21th century, it has been possible to create a program of biological reconstruction developed thanks to the evolution of tissue engineering. It still is an evolving research field, but it will surely represent the future of joint orthopedical surgery.

16.30 – GIORGIO PRODI HALL

Who is old today? The new geroscience and the prospect of slowing down ageing
Claudio Franceschi With the demographic revolution of the last 150 years, that is the doubling of life expectancy (from 40 to more than 80 years) corresponds a likewise amazing advancement of the knowledge regarding biological bases of ageing. The new Gerontology can slow down the ageing process and, for the major chronic diseases, it suggests that they share – among themselves and with ageing – the main molecular and cellular mechanisms: it means that they can all be fought together and not one at a time. It is extremely relevant for Medicine and society.

17.00 – STABAT MATER HALL

From the Plague to Ebola. Epidemics: history, faith and culture
Giuseppe Battelli Pierluigi Viale Plague! A word that has always raised, in the popular imaginary and in the literary metaphor, the terror of the humiliating loneliness that accompanies the contagious sick people. The Plague is a well known microbial disease, but the word “plague” exceeded in the times its scientific meaning, identifying a potentially uncontrollable disease. It happened from the plague described by Thucydides until the HIV infection, defined “the plague of 2000”. Nevertheless, the great epidemic of plague that hit Europe in the 14th century – although it was a tragedy of epochal dimensions – led to social and cultural changes that took Europe towards the blooming Renaissance age.

17.30 – SOCIETA MEDICA CHIRURGICA OF BOLOGNA LECTURE HALL

The story about enterprise and research
Antonio Gasbarrini Coordinated: Marco Sensini Sponsored by: Alfa Wassermann In 1948, a meaningful year for the History of our country, in Bologna emerged a company that is a real “enterprise”. It is not easy to imagine, from the beginning, actors of research, technology and industrialization in a country still full of the war’s ruins. But in the Italy of the economic boom period, which was at the forefront also in the chemistry and pharmaceutic field, the Bolognese company became first Italian, later European and now international. It is the History of Alfa Wassermann.

18.00 – SAN GIORGIO IN POGGIALE ART AND HISTORY LIBRARY

Treating complexity
Presentation of the book “La fine dell’Onniscenza” (The end of omniscience), by Mauro Ceruti, with an intervention by Marco Trabucchi

18.00 – AULA ABSIDALE OF SANTA LUCIA

The Making of “The Knick”. Meet the Burns Archive
Elizabeth Burns Stanley Burns One of the great successes of the tv-series season: “The Knick”, directed by Steven Soderbergh, with Clive Owen in the shoes of a brilliant and slobby surgeon of the 20th century New York. Protagonists, in Bologna, the “consultant” who rebuilt the set, the surgery instruments, the costumes, the diagnostic and therapeutic practices with a precious philological work based on a repertorie of pictures of “The Burns Archive”. A meeting behind the scenes between a Hollywood production and the medical practice at the beginning of the 20th century.

18.00 – GIORGIO PRODI HALL

Culture and the body. Medicine and interculture: the challenge is achievable
Ivo Quaranta In the past, anthropologists described and explained the life styles of remote corners of the worlds, highlighting the social processes that gave sense to apparently bizarre and irrational behaviours. Today the healthcare professionals and our health and social services face this cultural polyphony on a daily basis so that we can learn not only about the “sense of the others”, but also about ourselves.

18.30 – RE ENZO HALL

The Brain, The Heart and Cancer: using nutrition as cure
Claudio Borghi Patrizia Hrelia Giovanni Scapagnini Eating healthy does not mean only eating non polluted or adulterated food, or avoiding foods that in the long run can damage tissues and organs, with the following loss of functionality and generalized damages. It also means eating with an awareness that starts from biochemical knowledge of food composition and of the metabolism, to prevent diseases or to reduce the use of drugs. In the future, it will be possible to use also information about individual genetic predispositions to decide to feed in a healthier and less damaging way.

19.00 – SAN GIORGIO IN POGGIALE ART AND HISTORY LIBRARY

The truth of medical sciencePresentation of the book “Medicina e rivoluzione. La rivoluzione francese della medicina e il nostro tempo”. (Medicine and revolution. The French revolution of medicine and modern times), by Giorgio Cosmacini

19.00 – AULA MAGNA OF SANTA LUCIA

Francesco Rizzoli Lecture: Today we are able to control genes. Which are the opportunities, the new challenges, and the ethical point of view Andrew Z. Fire Introduction by: Lucio Ildebrando Maria Cocco The possibility of controlling genes, which means that small double helix RNA are able to regulate the RNA that codify for proteins, is a consequence of the discovery by Andrew Fire and Craig Mello. Those small RNA, called interference, are those that regulate the development, are active against microbial infections, keep under control genes that move in a strange and uncontrolled way in the genome. Which is the future of the treatment, of the microbial infections, of cardiovascular diseases, of metabolic and neoplastic diseases? The new challenges of the frontier research, without forgetting the researcher’s ethical responsibilities.

19.30 – RE ENZO HALL

Doctor and patient: the fundamental relationship
Gilberto Corbellini Giancarlo Pizza Sociological studies state that the doctor is still the professional figure that people tend to trust the most. Other studies show that a listening attitude towards the patient increases the satisfaction of the latter. Are doctors aware of this fact? How much does the just renewed professional ethic code takes into account the social requests that are changing the relationship between doctor and patient? A meeting on the ethic and social aspects that qualify in a special way the patient-doctor relationship.

21.00 – SANTA CRISTINA CHURCH

The wife and the mistress: science and humanism of the doctor-writer
by Sandro Modeo Reading recited by: Massimo Popolizio A selection of texts for Bologna Medicina, concentrating on a group of writers who were previously doctors. The intersections and the dilemmas appear- directly or in backlight – with a fundamental allusion: the “other face of the mirror”, that is the point of view and the direct experienced of a doctor. In this way, it will be possible to see confirmed or denied (or at least smoothed) many perceptions of the patient, for example about the “weaknesses” of the doctor and his deficit in listening and compassion. But, above all, it will be possible – on the other side – to understand his deep loneliness, with the relative doubts, uncertainties, fears. Nobody can “humanize” the doctor more than the doctor himself: and maybe no one can dissolve the diaphragm between science and humanism better than the doctor-writer. The five doctor-writers: Čechov, Cronin, Bulgakov, Céline, Sacks.

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May 9th

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9.30 – RE ENZO HALL

A.D. 1900: Greater than the Great War… the Spanish flu
Mauro Capocci Worse than the black plague and the First World War. The famous Spanish flue of 1918-19 was probably the most devastating epidemic in the history of humanity. Where did it come from? Why was it so violent? Answers can be found in history and biomedical research, which analysed in depth this nightmare of the recent past to prepare for a possible future pandemic scenery. After the lecture we will play PANDEMIC, with Christian Zoli – SALA DEL QUADRANTE (see above)

10.30 – STABAT MATER HALL

Demons and Genes: the evolution of how we perceive illness
Gilberto Corbellini Why do we get ill? Rather than asking “what” is illness – as usually Philosophers and Pathologists do – we ask what we did or what happened that led to this illness; above all, when our condition does not leave any hope for a positive solution, and it prefigures an existence of sorrow and disability, or the end of our life. The question “why do we get ill?” has a long history, deeply rooted in the human psychology, and today it finds an answer in the evolutionist study about the imperfections of biology and human psychology.

11.00 – ATTI HALL

The Clinic. Jaundice
Simulated hospital rounds with: Luigi Bolondi Staged by: Giulia Frezza Jaundice, which has always marked physiologically the first days of every human being, has always represented a diagnostic problem of difficult solution in the adult life. Until the 80s, doctors did not have any tools to understand its several, multiple causes – benign or malignant – and were unarmed, waiting for a spontaneous solution; a failure which left the patients in the hands of surgeons for an abdominal “exploration”. Today, with the new imaging and laboratory techniques (is it the liver that does not work? are the excretory ducts obstructed?) the diagnosis is immediate and the therapy can be carried out without the need of a surgeon.

11.00 – SALA DELLA CULTURA

Serious organ deficiencies and transplants
Franco Citterio Sergio Stefoni When serious diseases damage living organs, they can gradually lose their functions, with a serious risk for the patient’s life. Those functions can be substituted with artificial organs and, above all, with transplants. Bologna is one of the cities that, on an international level, stands out, from the ‘60s, for its excellent results in transplant activities.

11.00 – ISTITUTI ANATOMICI

1315-2015 – Mondino de Luizzi’s lecture: the conflict between body and book, tradition and experience (strolling through the museum and the Sala Settoria di Anatomia) With Bologna’s Anatomists In 1315, in Bologna, the anatomist Mondino de’ Liuzzi restarted the practice of dissection on human bodies, after over 16 years of suspension. In this way, the Bolognese medical school affirmed its own primate, and inaugurated Anatomy properly called, marking a crucial passage for the whole Western culture. Coming back on the corpse analysis, Mondino puts in conflict book and body: the classical textual authority vs the empirical examination, tradition vs. experience. Celebrating the seven hundred years of the first didactic public dissection by Mondino de’ Liuzzi, the Anatomic School of Alma Mater Studiorum gives to the city the up-to-date dissection room, newly opened less than a year ago and entitled to Professor Giovanni Mazzotti.

11.30 – SAN GIORGIO IN POGGIALE ART AND HISTORY LIBRARY

Appearances that don’t deceive: ageing and new imaging technologies
Rita Golfieri Maurizio Zompatori At the beginning of last century, three out of five children could not reach 20 years of age, because of infective diseases that reappeared when their guard was lowered. The use of innovative technologies applied to the vaccine research allowed to create efficient and safe prevention tools. Nevertheless, vaccines are victims of their own success: modern parents, thanks to vaccination, did not know of those infective diseases until some years before they spread out, and chose not to vaccine their children thinking that the risk would have not been worth the benefit. Why is it not like this? What happens if we stop vaccinating?

11.30 – PODESTÀ HALL

Vaccinations today, from individual to collective health needs
Rino Rappuoli Maria Grazia Pascucci Coordinated by: Anna Meldolesi A look at the pulmonary ageing in the light of the information that we can obtain with the modern methods of radiological imaging (especially TC, PET and echography). The lung is an organ that ages relatively well, but cigarette smoke and environmental pollution can accelerate its ageing. Furthermore, smoke and ageing work in a synergic and complex ways. Signs of ageing can be revealed by modern imaging depending on the urinary and reproductive apparatus (kidneys, bladder and pelvic floor): the normal ageing of these organs lacks of clinical relevance or appears with minimal symptoms.

12.00 – STABAT MATER HALL

Balm of the prophet. Medicine and Islam
Francesca Romana Romani Introduction by: Antonio Guerci This presentation investigates the Arab-Islamic medical tradition in its elements of common Hippocratic-Galenic source and in the specificities due to the influence of Islamic law and its all-embracing conception of law, which influence the contemporary bioethical debate, in a critical rereading of the themes of western reflection. We shall examine the doctor’s role and the debate about the body’s holiness, end of life and transplant surgery.

12.30 – GIORGIO PRODI HALL

The Placebo
Fabrizio Benedetti The placebo effect is a clinic improvement coming from the belief of having received a therapy, even if it is false. Recent studies have identified its biological mechanisms, underlining that a placebo activates the same biochemical pathways of drugs. It has important consequences on the clinical practice, the doctor-patient relationship and clinical trials.

15.30 – AULA ABSIDALE OF SANTA LUCIA

Homo senex: ageing anthropology
Marco Trabucchi Stanley Ulijaszek Evolutionist Anthropology shows how longevity contributes to the success of our species. The possible advantages deals with the reproductive success, the children’s surviving, the grandparents’ support and the role of wisdom and of knowledge-society. Some evidence of the anthropological research demonstrates that there are different ways to age and how the changing of social structures is accompanied by different ways of comprehension of this phenomenon.

16.00 – GIORGIO PRODI HALL

Depression
Claudio Mencacci Depression represents one of the most diffused causes of disability in women. Epidemiological studies substantially documented that the “lifetime” prevalence of depression is double in women rather than in men. This proportion is the same in also different countries and ethnic groups. This difference shows around the age of 10 and persists until the middle age, when it tends to disappear. Connections, diagnosis and future therapeutic perspectives.

16.00 – PODESTÀ HALL

Government spending
Emilia Grazia De Biasi Massimo Scaccabarozzi Sergio Venturi In the western countries the healthcare expense is reducing. The efforts of the governments to reduce the deficit in the context of the economic crisis were repaid, even if Italy has still the anomaly of a public expense financing that is 5 points higher than the OCSE average. In addition, the risk factor markers improved, and it could encourage a reduction of the cost that getting older in too many, represents for society.

16.30 – STABAT MATER HALL

Elementary Watson! Methods of medical investigation
Claudio Rapezzi Analogies between clinical method and investigation science, among great clinicians and great detectives, and the crossed recalls between doctor and patient, between crime and disease, are widely present in literature, cinema and television. Both the doctor and the detective have, as their main purpose, to identify the culprit of an abnormal and dangerous situation: the diagnosis of an illness in one case, the identification of the killer in the other.

16.30 – SALA DELLA CULTURA

Medicine and reproduction
Eleonora Porcu Reproduction has peculiar characteristics that differentiate it from any other apparatus of the human body. Although it has the task of creating new individuals, it transcends the simple reproductive finality and it is at the centre of the dimension of human communication, protagonist of life planning. Unfortunately, human fertility is low and, although medically-assisted techniques saw a wonderful development, it is necessary not to forget that the economic and emotional costs are high and the effects on health are partly unknown. Knowing fertility and preventing sterility becomes the strategy that must be favoured.

17.00 – SANTA CRISTINA CHURCH

The clinic, a window of the world
Andrea Vitali The narration of the experiences of a treating doctor – work practiced for 25 years –with the patients, from which often originated occasions of meetings and novels. It is a sort of oral novel of formation, which starts from a beginning full of fears and uncertainties towards an always clearer consciousness of the meaning of approaching a person and entering its privacy. The meeting with a doctor and writer.

17.30 – AULA ABSIDALE OF SANTA LUCIA

The annoyance of allergies: why did nature do this to us? A talk on the history, biology, confusions of homeopathy, and the science behind new treatments
Donald MacGlashan Jr. Introduction by: Michael G. Plummer In collaboration with Johns Hopkins University For all those who suffer from allergies – in case these prevent them from enjoying a beautiful day or that threaten their life because of a good meal – there is a common, sorrowful question: why is nature against me? The reason can be searched in the long history of evolution, in the delicate cohabitation among the various species and in the way our body defended itself from intruders. But what are allergies really? And why are these diseases often object of attention of non-medical industries? Which objectives have been achieved in the last decades and what are the hopes for better treatments in the future?

18.00 – STABAT MATER HALL

Food of the future
Dario Bressanini Roberto Defez Roberto Tuberosa Coordinated by: Anna Meldolesi The food of the future will see an increasing intervention of man. GMOs are only one of the possible strategies that will be adopted to improve productions, reduce the parasite attacks and limit the anti-nutritional molecule and growing the health benefits and the taste of foods. International scientific research is following this direction, and those who think to cultivate nostalgia and not innovation are only deciding to put an end to agriculture and to the production of chosen foods, suitable for the local usage.

18.00 – GIORGIO PRODI HALL

Making the drug: birth (of the drug) and longevity
Maurizio Castorina Luca Pani Carlo Patrono The development of new drugs or the identification of new indications for existing active substances are affected by the reduction of the companies’ profit, to the politics of costs containment in western countries, to the law controls on clinical experimentations and to the always more strictly requisites on the regulatory field. The challenge of the pharmaceutical industry, the regulatory authorities and the researchers will have to manage and invent new strategies to increase the number and the quality of new drugs, which will have to be advantageous in terms of cost-effectiveness, avoiding that the costs become unsustainable from a research point of view.

18.30 – PODESTÀ HALL

Not just insomnia: sleep, drowsiness and lifespan
Yves Dauvilliers Maurice Ohayon Introduction by: Giuseppe Plazzi More than 20% of the European population has sleep disturbances that would require a suitable treatment. This prevalence is not reflected in an engagement from the different national healthcare systems: only a low percentage of their budget is dedicated to these pathologies. Which are the roles of the sleep disturbances, and in particular drowsiness, as predictors of important diseases and/or of an increasing risk of morbidity and mortality? Which strategies can be adopted to find and treat the sleep disturbances and their co-morbidity? What are the necessary interventions?

19.00 – SAN GIORGIOIN POGGIALE ART AND HISTORY LIBRARY

Biology and Biography
Presentation of “Le trame della cura. Le narrazioni dei pazienti e l’esperienza di un medico per ripensare salute e malattia”, by Alfredo Zuppiroli, Maria Margherita Bulgarini Editore With: Gilberto Corbellini, Giuseppe Di Pasquale, Alfredo Zuppiroli

19.00 – AULA MAGNA OF SANTA LUCIA

Augusto Murri lecture. Telling the story of a Nobel prize discovery. Ion Channels: Their Discovery, their Function, and their Role in Diseases
Erwin Neher Introduction by: Piergiorgio Strata The concept of bioelectricity was introduced at the end of the 18^th century, on the base of Galvani and Volta’s experiments. Sixty years ago, Hodgkin and Huxley demonstrated that the nerve impulse is the result of variations of permeability of the nervous membrane. In 1976, Bert Sakmann and Erwin Neher demonstrated that the so called ion channels mediate these answers. The research of the last thirty years has demonstrated how ion channels are present in every type of cell of our body, mediating different physiological functions, and that their dysfunction leads to a series of diseases.

19.30 – AULA ABSIDALE OF SANTA LUCIA

Cerebral ageing and cognitive decline
Fiorenzo Conti Lamberto Maffei How does our brain change during our liftime? What are the characteristics of an old brain? Is it possible to delay the brain’s ageing with particular lifestyles? Two famous Italian neuroscientists show the most advanced neuroscientific knowledge related to the aged functioning of the brain and discuss about the advices that are suggested to keep our psychological functions healthy during old age.

21.00 – SANTA CRISTINA CHURCH

«Io sgombero, io spazzo gli spedali!»Doctors in opera
By: Piero Mioli It is in the comic genre that the figure of the doctor populated lyrics: some plays by Mozart’s (Così fan tutte) and Donizetti (L’elisir d’amore) talk about swindler doctors, but always very funny. But there were also dramatic cases: such as the doctor who persecuted Wozzeck di Berg using him like a test animal. Among the video clips, a nice surprise by the Verdi’s Traviata.

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May 10th

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10.30 – STABAT MATER HALL

Regenerating the brain, from fantasy to reality
Elena Cattaneo Gianvito Martino Neurodegenerative diseases are triggered by a deterioration of neurons, because of genetic or environmental causes. These are illnesses like Alzheimer, Parkinson, Huntington, multiple sclerosis, etc. Hundreds of diseases can damage the nervous system, and other tens of million people in the world are affected by them: developing forms of dementia, cognitive problems, motoric coordination troubles etc. Stem cell research is starting to produce some promising results. Even if the road to developing therapies is still long.

10.30 – SOCIETA MEDICA CHIRURGICA OF BOLOGNA LECTURE HALL 

Helicobacter pylori: the great history of the small bacterium
Franco Bazzoli Peter Malfertheiner Even if the presence of spiral-shaped bacteria in the stomach had already been described in the past by many researchers – the Italian Giulio Bizzozero was one of the first in 1893 – the seed of the modern history of Helicobacter pylori was planted in 1981, when Barry Marshall met Robin Warren at Perth (Australia). Today it is clear that the two scientists made a wonderful scientific travel that revolutionised the knowledge on the different disease of the superior digestive tract. A great History for which, in 2005, Barry Marshall and Robin Warren received the Nobel Prize in Medicine.

11.00 – ATTI HALL

Orthopaedic clinic. The orthopaedic and sports, the health and fitness doctor
Simulated hospital rounds with: Maurilio Marcacci Staged by: Giulia Frezza

11.00 – GIORGIO PRODI HALL

Personalized Medicine in oncology: dream or reality?
Stefano Aldo Pileri Sponsored by: AIRC “Tailored therapy” has been a popular term in oncology in last years, meaning a series of therapies cut on the characteristics of the pathological processes related to each patient. It comes from the experimental investigations that the mechanisms that are cause the onset, the progression and the possible resistance of a tumour to treatment are different in subjects suffering of the same pathology. The dream of the personalized oncologic therapy, where the therapy for the tumour becomes similar to the one for diabetes, is becoming a reality, for the benefit of the individual and the community.

11.30 – AULA ABSIDALE OF SANTA LUCIA

Stem cells, science and pseudoscience
Michele Baccarani Michele De Luca The research on stem cells represents one of the most fascinating commitments and perspectives for the development of Medical science. In laboratories of all over the world, thousands of researchers are working to clarify the diagnostic horizons and drawing possible future therapeutic solutions. But the “hope cells”, as they are called, also provide opportunities for people who pursue personal business strategies or carry out real fraud attempt. The attention and control of experimental science must watch also for the safeguard of the reasonable hopes of those who are suffering.

11.30 – SAN GIORGIO IN POGGIALE ART AND HISTORY LIBRARY

Crazy stuff…
Giovanni De Girolamo Valentina Mantua On March 31, 2015 the last Italian institutes of cure and detention of criminal psychiatric patients, i.e. the Forensic Psychiatric Hospitals, were definitely closed. Given that the detention conditions of some structures were indecent and could not reduce the social dangerousness of the inmates, the decision of eliminating every form of reclusive control on dangerous people – because of a diagnosed psychiatric disease – seems to reflect the persistence of attitudes that are more ideological rather than medical and scientific towards mental suffering. It is necessary to discuss whether prevention politics and the care of mental disease are led with scientific rigour.

12.00 – STABAT MATER HALL

Christ the healer: his role in the history of churches
Alberto Melloni Introduction by: Antonio Guerci With the opening of the Council, Pope John XXIII uses a metaphor and points out a choice: he said that the Church does not want to use anymore the “weapons of severity”, but the “medicine of charity”. Behind it, there is an idea not of Medicine, but of the Gospel and of Jesus: a healer is not evoked by those who make miracles on television, but by a Christianity that is able to care for the wounds of sin and unhappiness.

12.30 – GIORGIO PRODI HALL

The consciousness of Physical sorrow
Arnaldo Benini Pain is an unpleasant sensorial and emotive experience that goes with wounds and tissue damage and represents one of the main healthcare problems of all over the world. Sorrow is not only a symptom, but if it is not treated, it becomes a real disease. The impact of sorrow – in particular the chronic one, which is one of the most diffused diseases of the western world – is huge on the quality of life and has economic and social consequences. A recent European study evaluated that health care systems usually spend about 300 billion euros each year, to which one must add the economic loss of patients and the problems on the field on the social and familiar perspective caused by the chronic sorrow.

15.00 – PODESTÀ HALL

Immunity and cancer: a dream that comes true
Alberto Mantovani Sponsored by: AIRC In the last years, the weapons of the immune system joined with the traditional therapies in the struggle against cancer: antibodies molecules – on their own and/or combined to the chemotherapic drugs -, that remove from our cellular defences the “molecular brakes” that are activated by the tumour. Finally, vaccines: the preventive ones are a reality yet, the therapeutic ones a hope on which all the scientific world is working.

15.00 – AULA ABSIDALE OF SANTA LUCIA

Homo senescens: evolution, development and ageing
Mark Hanson We often think that brain ageing is the unavoidable consequence of damages caused by our everyday lives – what we eat, if we smoke, how much exercise we do etc. – and collected during the years, to which is probably joined the loss of our ability of fixing damages. Another theory says that ageing is part of a strategy which has evolved in million years. It is an idea that can be revised on the light of the plasticity of development and on the effect of this plasticity on the functionalities and elasticity of the various physiological systems during the course of life.

15.30 – GIORGIO PRODI HALL

Osteoporosis
Maria Luisa Brandi In the last two decades many epidemiological studies demonstrated that osteoporosis – for the fracture that it causes – is one of the greatest health problems of industrialized countries. Osteoporosis is often recognized as a female pathology, even if a third of the fractures due to bones fragility concerns men and the mortality after a femoral fracture is superior for men than for women. Theere are several reasons that can explain those differences.

16.30 – AULA ABSIDALE OF SANTA LUCIA

The price of longevity: Medicine, research and politics
Elena Cattaneo Walter Ricciardi Longevity is a conquer, an opportunity but also a huge social responsibility: for Medicine, which is asked to answer to the needs of health also in the terms of “improvement” of the life quality; for the scientific research, which after the triumphs of the 20^th century is facing new and very difficult challenges; for Politics, which has to rule the needs of a doubled life expectancy – from 40 to 80 years in some lucky areas of the world – in the last century.

18.00 – AULA ABSIDALE OF SANTA LUCIA

Cinema sickness
Blob organized by Gian Luca Farinelli, in collaboration with Cineteca di Bologna

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May 26th

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10.30 – AULA MAGNA OF SANTA LUCIA

In conclusion…How can we multiply the life code?

Sergio Dompé Michele Morgante Kary Mullis

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SAN GIORGIO IN POGGIALE. ART AND HISTORY LIBRARY

(Via Nazario Sauro, 20/2)

The Art and History Library at San Giorgio in Poggiale, which was designed by architect Michele De Lucchi, hosts the vast collection of art and history books of the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio in Bologna, as well as an important newspaper and periodicals library and a rich photographic archive. The reading room houses works by Claudio Parmiggiani – “Campo dei Fiori” and the last monumental “Delocazione” –, as well as Piero Pizzi Cannella’s Cattedrali cycle. Conferences and cultural events are also held at San Giorgio in Poggiale.

SANTA CRISTINA CHURCH

(Piazzetta Morandi, 2)

Inaugurated and opened to the public in 2007, the Church of Santa Cristina houses a rich art collection and sets out to become a privileged centre for music, each year running a calendar of unique musical events from October to May, each one performed by outstanding musicians. The Church is also home to the Schola Gregoriana Benedetto XVI, which aims to promote the knowledge and dissemination of Gregorian chant. The school is directed by the Olivetan monk, don Nicola Bellinazzo, who also teaches liturgy to promote the understanding and interpretation of Gregorian chant.

PALAZZO PEPOLI. MUSEUM OF THE HISTORY OF BOLOGNA

Sala della Cultura
(via Castiglione, 8)

The Heart of Genus Bononiae. Museums in the City, Palazzo Pepoli is a museum and cultural itinerary dedicated to the history, culture and transformations of Bologna, from the Etruscan “Felsina” to our times. The various ups and downs of the local community are narrated here in an innovative fashion using striking interactive display techniques that are largely unknown in our country. The splendid backdrop of the medieval building, reinvented, restored and set up by Mario Bellini, with the graphic design of the architect Italo Lupi, make a visit to the Museum a unique experience. The twelve female protagonists of the City History are a frame of the ancient dance hall of the Palace, today Sala della Cultura.

AULA MAGNA OF SANTA LUCIA

(via Castiglione, 36)

This is the Aula Magna of the University of Bologna; the origins of the church go back to the 5th century. The Jesuits enlarged and embellished it, making it their own seat since the 16th century, with the adjacent convent, and in the 18th century the building was reconstructed on the model of the Roman church of Jesus by the architect Girolamo Rainaldi. After the Napoleonic suppression, it was deconsecrated and devoted to different uses, until the restoration of 1998, which devoted it to the actual use. In the chapel dedicated to Saint Aloysius Gonzaga, there is the altar projected by Alfonso Torreggiani, placed there in 1763. The elegant architectural structure exposes on the square (church’s parvise) and is strongly suggestive.

AULA ABSIDALE OF SANTA LUCIA

(via de’ Chiari, 25)

The Aula Absidale of the Santa Lucia complex was designed for different uses in the past, and it is part of the Bolognese University; it is the location dedicated to conventions and concerts. Its main nave has over 100 seats, while in the apsis there is a wide amphitheatre room. The Architect Roberto Scavannini oversaw the huge restoration of the complex, which was finished in 1998 and brought back the building to its ancient radiance.

MONUMENTAL COMPLEX OF SAN GIOVANNI IN MONTE

Giorgio Prodi Hall
(piazza San Giovanni in Monte, 2)

In the heart of the monumental complex of San Giovanni in Monte, there is the prestigious “Giorgio Prodi” lecture hall, a place of amazing historic and artistic value. The place can host cultural and formative activities in a unique and elegant frame, in a place that in the past was the Lateral Canons’ refectory, on the backdrop of the marvellous 16th century fresco of Bartolomeo Cesi.

ARCHIGINNASIO PALACE

Anatomical Theatre
Stabat Mater lecture hall
Società Medica Chirurgica of Bologna lecture hall
(piazza Galvani, 1)

The monumental 16th century building of Archiginnasio is one of the most meaningful palaces of Bologna. It was built in only one year and half between 1562 and 1563, and in the pope’s intentions the “new schools’ building” or Archiginnasio had to join and dignify the several University schools of the city, to give importance to the Bolognese studies in the face of the competition with the new European University centres. The palace is irregularly built on the previous structures, and moves around a central courtyard with a double loculus order and is enriched with vaults, stairways, arcades and architectural elements of a great value. The two rooms that will host the events of the Festival of Medical Science are the two original lecture halls that were attributed to the Artists and to the Jurists.

PALAZZO RE ENZO

Podestà hall
Re Enzo hall
Atti hall
Quadrante hall
(piazza Nettuno, 1)

Palazzo Re Enzo was built in the 14th century immediately after the Palazzo del Podestà, and it was called originally New Palace to distinguish it from the latter; its function was new indeed, since it had to include the widespread representatives of the people. It became later the forced house of King Enzo of Sardinia, son of the Emperor Frederick II, who, captured during a war, was imprisoned there for 23 years, until his death. The Palazzo was rebuilt and restored several times, and it is one of the most important venues of the city. The crenelated profile of the building faces Nettuno Square and bears witness to the splendour of Bologna during the Middle Ages.

ISTITUTI ANATOMICI – Wax Museum “Luigi Cattaneo”

(via Irnerio, 48)

The normal and pathological human anatomy collection of the Museum shows the path followed by 18th and 19th centuries medical sciences scholars who, after having acquired all the knowledge about the real nature of the human body, would start to study its diseases.
The wax sculptures, natural and dried bones are an important material with valuable didactic purposes that completes the 18th century normal anatomy collection of the Palazzo Poggi Museums, representing thus a continuum in the medical research stranding out in Bologna between the 18th and the 19th centuries.

The articles listed here are a selection of the ones dedicated to the first edition of the Festival della Scienza Medica. For the complete index of the Press Review 2015, click here

Click on the images to enlarge them

Il Corriere di Bologna, April 10th, 2015

La Repubblica Bologna, April 10th, 2015

Il Sole 24 Ore, April 12th, 2015

Unibo Magazine, April 16th, 2015

Il Venerdì di Repubblica, April 24th, 2015

Il Sole 24 Ore (Domenica), May 3rd, 2015

Il Corriere di Bologna, May 5th, 2015

Il Corriere della Sera Eventi, May 5th, 2015

Il Resto del Carlino Bologna, May 5th, 2015

Il Corriere di Bologna, May 6th, 2015

Tst-Tutto Scienze e Tecnologia (La Stampa), May 6th, 2015

QN_Il Resto del Carlino, La Nazione, Il Giorno, May 7th, 2015

La Repubblica Bologna, May 7th, 2015

Il Corriere di Bologna, May 8th, 2015

La Repubblica Bologna, May 8th, 2015

Il Resto del Carlino Bologna, May 8th, 2015

adnkrnos, May 8th, 2015

Focus.it, May 8th, 2015

QN_Il Resto del Carlino, La Nazione, Il Giorno, May 9th, 2015

La Repubblica Bologna, May 9th, 2015

Il Corriere di Bologna, Cultura e Società, May 10th, 2015

adnkronos, May 10th, 2015

Il Resto del Carlino.it, May 10th, 2015

Il Resto del Carlino Bologna, May 11th, 2015

La Repubblica, May 12th, 2015

Il Corriere di Bologna, May 26th, 2015

La Repubblica, May 26th, 2015

Il Resto del Carlino Bologna, May 27th, 2015

La Repubblica, June 10th, 2015

Osservatorio Sanità e Salute, June 10th, 2015

The Festival della Scienza Medica thanks the Authors, Photographers and Editors of the articles listed here, and is available to present further information about them, as well as – if formally and promptly required – to remove the article.

RADIO and TV

TG3 EMILIA ROMAGNA, April 9th, 2 p.m. and 7.30 p.m.

BUONGIORNO REGIONE
May 8th, 7 a.m.
Interviews with Luc Montagnier and Fabio Roversi Monaco

May 8th, 2 p.m., “top story”

May 8th, 7.30 p.m., “top story”

May 9th, 7.30 p.m.

May 10th, 7.30 p.m.

TG EMILIA ROMAGNA, May 26th, 7.30 p.m.

TRC – NETTUNO TV – RADIO BRUNO – April 9th, 7.30 p.m./8 p.m. newsletters

RADIO 24 MOEBIUS

1° passage at the beginning of April, “Videocondria”
2° passage at the half of April, “Visite in Corsia”
3° passage on Saturday, May 2nd (9-9.30 p.m.) with Massimo Cirri on “Videocondria”
4° passage about Gender Medicine, May 8th, in the morning
5° passage Pedrocchi at “Ambiente”, May 9th

TRIWU

Streaming of three talks of the Festival:
– “Gigantismo delle Aziende e bisogni del paziente: quali strumenti per quali scenari?”
– “Medicina di Genere”
– “1900: più grande della Grande Guerra… l’Influenza Spagnola”

7 GOLD

Interview with Pino Donghi and Luigi Bolondi
May 6th, 8 a.m. on 7 Gold (canale 13); 11.30 a.m. on Rete 8 (canale 86); 2 p.m. on Nuova Rete (canale 110) and again on Rete 8 at 1 a.m.

RADIOIN BLU

May 6th, 5.30 p.m. interview with Pino Donghi: presentation of the Festival

RADIO 3 SCIENZA

May 7th, 11.30 a.m.
Interview with Jonh Harris and Pino Donghi

RADIO 1 LIFE

May 7th, 12.30 o’clock
Interview with Pino Donghi

RADIO CITTA’ DEL CAPO

May 7th, 10.30 a.m. interview with Pino Donghi and presentation of the Festival

SAN MARINO TV

May 7th, 7 p.m.
Special “Pandemia”

RESTO DEL CARLINO canale video

May 7th

ASKANEWS

May 8th

RAI NEWS

May 8th two broadcasts about the Festival during the day
May 10th, 7 p.m.
Closing broadcast with an interview to Elena Cattaneo

TRC – RTV – NETTUNO

May 8th, 2 p.m. and 7.30 p.m.
Broadcast about the Festival

CATERPILLAR DELL’8 maggio

BIOLOGICA TV

Broadcast about the Festival on Saturday, May 9th, with video recordings of the various conferences.
Interviews with: Rino Rappuoli, Fabrizio Benedetti, Marco Trabucchi, Stanley Ulijaszek, Claudio Mencacci, Eleonora Porcu, Fiorenzo Conti, Giuseppe Piazzi, Yves Dauvilliers, Maurice Ohayon

RADIO 3 SCIENZA

May 28th, 11.30 a.m.
From 11.30 a.m. to 12 o’clock
Interview with Kary Mullis and Pino Donghi