Departments and research centres: scientific production and funded projects
Departments
The research focus of the Dipartimento di Biotecnologia e scienze della vita – DBSV concerns the well-being of humans, animals and the environment. In particular, the Biological Sciences and Technologies Section promotes innovative strategies in the most advanced sectors of industrial, biomedical, diagnostic, animal, plant, microbial, cellular and molecular biology and biotechnology also aimed at the production of goods and services, while the Medical and Surgical Sciences Section carries out clinical and research activities with the aim of improving the patient’s well-being.
Animal Biotechnology and Aquaculture
Genciana Terova
Chiara Ceccotti
Federica Iannini
Federico Moroni
Antineoplastic Pharmacology and Nutraceutics
The main research interests of Marzia and Emanuela focus on the study of the antiproliferative effect of new drugs and compounds of natural origin on tumor cell lines, with particular attention to the mechanisms of action of these compounds. Furthermore, they are also interested in the role of hypoxia and the tumoral microenvironment in the response of cancer cells to drug treatment.
In collaboration with the Chemistry and Photobiology group (prof. Stefano Banfi e dott Enrico Caruso), they study the photodynamic effects of newly synthesized photosensitizing agents and, in collaboration with the Institute for the Organic Synthesis and Photoreactivity (CNR – Bologna, dott. Greta Varchi e dott. Claudia Ferroni), they also study the anticancer effects of nanoparticles functionalized with different drugs. Furthermore, for several years they have been collaborating with the Università del Piemonte Orientale (prof. Mauro Ravera e dott. Elisabetta Gabano) in the field of the synthesis and characterization of new Pt(IV) derivatives. They also collaborate with prof. Francesco Caruso at the Vassar College, USA, studying the antineoplastic effects of curcumin derivatives and other natural-origined compounds.
Marzia Bruna Gariboldi
Emanuela Marras
Â
Applied and Environmental Botany
Donato Chiatante
Antonino Di Iorio
Antonio Montagnoli
Peter Beatrice
Â
Â
Applied Microbiology
Main research is focused on the use of visible light, alone or combined with dyes, to control the growth of microbial pathogens. This approach offers potential applications in clinical, environmental and industrial fields. One focus is the evaluation of the activity of photosensitizers belonging to different family compounds on microbial biofilms. A second focus is the bacterial response to photo-oxidative stress induced by light.
Cancer Epigenetics
Ian Marc Bonapace
Maria Giovanna de Marino
Michele Zocchi
Ramesh Gandusekar
Monica ManciniÂ
Cell Biology
Giovanni BernardiniÂ
Rosalba Gornati
Roberto Papait
Marina Borgese
Elettra Musolino
Federica Gamberoni
Cellular and Molecular Physiology
Elena Bossi
Cristina Roseti
Bhatt Manan Juggbu
Angela di Iacovo
Tiziana Romanazzi
Cellular Neurophysiology
Clinical Ethics
Through the Research Center in Clinical Ethics, it carries out research, collaborates with Italian and international institutions, and offers training activities at a local, national and international level in the field of clinical ethics. It promotes the clinical ethics service in hospitals and in the local area.
Mario Picozzi
Elvira Passaro
Emma Capulli
Silvia Ceruti
Chiara Rossetti
Davide Battisti
Elena Ferioli
Comparative Physiology
Forensic Psychopathology
Human genetics
 The Human Genetics Unit has long been involved in the functional and structural characterization of the human RNASET2 tumor suppressor gene, encoding the only human member of the highly conserved family of T2 extracellular RNases. The protein encoded by this gene has been consistently reported to be endowed with a marked oncosuppressive activity in several experimental models both in vitro and in vivo, whose mode of action is carried out with both cell-autonomous and non-cell autonomous mechanisms. As for the latter, it has further been shown to involve a functional cross-talk between cancer cell-derived RNASET2 and several component of the tumor microenvironment.
Roberto Taramelli
Francesco Acquati
Annarosaria de Vito
Immunology and General Pathology
Douglas Noonan
Lorenzo Mortara
Matteo Gallazzi
Invertebrate Biology
The research activity is focused on different aspects of insect development and physiology for the development of biotechnological applications. The main topics addressed are: 1) the study of cell death processes during metamorphosis in holometabolous insects; 2) the use of dipteran larvae for the bioconversion of organic waste and protein production for feedstuff and the production of biomaterials; and 3) the identification of molecules for the development of bio-inspired strategies for the control of pest insects.
Another line of research is conducted on in vivo and in vitro models of Metazoans in the following areas: 1) study and characterization of cells and molecules involved in innate immune response in annelids; 2) study of the basic mechanisms of cell differentiation and molecular regulation of tissue regeneration in annelids and cnidarian; 3) amyloidogenesis and innate immune response in annelids.
Gianluca Tettamanti
Annalisa Grimaldi
Daniele Bruno
Aurora Montali
Nicolò Baranzini
Laura Pulze
Â
Microbial Biotechnology
The focus of the group is on genetic engineering approaches applied to fermentation processes of microorganisms of industrial relevance, aimed at producing secondary metabolites (antibiotics), bioactive peptides and proteins.
Flavia Marinelli
Francesca Berini
Elisa Binda
Oleksandr Yushchuk
Melissa Bisaccia
Andres Andreo Vidal
Luciano Gastaldo
Molecular Genetics
Paola Campomenosi
Sarah Grossi
Priscilla Chiofalo
Molecular Neurobiology
Charlotte Kilstrup Nielsen
Isabella Barbiero
Roberta de Rosa
Neuropsycopharmacology
Tiziana Rubino
Erica Zamberletti
Marina Gabaglio
Cristina Manenti
Neuroscience
Orthopedics and Traumatology
Fabio D’Angelo
Giorgio Pilato
Michele Francesco Surace
Osteoarchaeology and Paleopathology
Otolaryngology
Paolo Castelnuovo
Maurizio Bignami
Paolo Battaglia
Davide Locatelli
Plant Physiology
Marcella Bracale
Candida Vannini
Ilaria Mancini
Elena Costantini
Guido Domingo
Plastic Surgery
Luigi Valdatta
Mario Cherubino
Davide Sallam
Martina Corno
Tommaso Baroni
Leonardo Garutti
Polymer Chemistry and Nanotechnologies
The research group is interested in the synthesis and characterization of nanostructured polymeric materials.
Scientific activity is mainly focused on the following research lines:
- Mechanistic study of polymerization reactions for obtaining multifunctional polymers with controlled microstructure and study of the property-structure relationship.
- Modeling and simulation techniques of polymer chains for the quantitative study of the polymers’ microstructure.
- Synthesis of supramolecular polymeric systems for precise and controlled drug delivery.
- Synthesis and development of biocompatible materials with intrinsic antimicrobial activity.
Lorella IzzoÂ
Luca Scapinello
Chiara Scanferla
Population Genetics
The Protein Factory 2.0
The main focal points of the research activity of the Protein Factory 2.0 are:
- the investigation of proteins (in particular enzymes and whole metabolic pathways) involved in relevant human diseases, in particular the ones involved into the metabolism of D-amino acids;
- the production of improved variants (generated by protein engineering) of recombinant enzymes useful in several areas of biotechnology: human health (therapeutic proteins), bio-based industry (biocatalysis), biorefineries (lignin valorization), environment (bioremediation of pesticides, plastics and toxins).
Loredano PollegioniÂ
Luciano PiubelliÂ
Gianluca MollaÂ
Silvia SacchiÂ
Elena Rosini
Toxicology and Pharmacology
The Dipartimento di Diritto, economia e culture – DiDEC pursues scientific purposes of a multi and inter-disciplinary nature thanks to the particularity of its training offer which, unique in Italy, allows to combine the studies in law with those of economic problems and those of interlinguistic and intercultural mediation, favoring mutual integration.
In particular, the Department aims to ensure, both in terms of research and in terms of training, the comparative and integrated study of social phenomena, analyzed in their normative, cultural and socio-economic meaning, as well as in the linguistic expression in which they manifest themselves, with specific attention to historical evolution and to the social contexts in which they are inserted.
The cooperation between different sectors has already produced appreciable positive results in the short life of this Department. In particular, it was possible to connect the study of multilingualism to the needs of economics and business and the study of coexistence and integration between different legal systems, cultures, languages ​​and religions to that of the mechanisms for resolving conflicts and disputes, with attention to procedural, mediation-conciliation and reparative mechanisms.
Constitutionalism in Illiberal Democracies
The area addresses, from an interdisciplinary perspective, the issue of fundamental rights, in relation both to the debate about their foundation and protection in the frame of present globalized societies.
This area also focuses on the question of legal pluralism, characterized by the coexistence and competition among different (state and non-state) normative systems whose accommodation requires the experience of conciliatory and transformative methods. At this regard, the work of REDESM, CeSGReM and FEDAL research centres is particularly relevant.
It is in this context that the activity of the UNESCO Chair (www.uninsubria.it/cattedra-unesco) on the "Gender Equality and Women's rights in the multicultural society" takes place. The Chair aims to underline the paradigmatic role of women rights, at the centre of the debate on legal pluralism and the clash between different legal traditions.
Alessandro Ferrari
Elena Catalano
Stella Coglievina
Elisabetta D’Amico
Cristina Danusso
Giorgio Grasso
Valentina Jacometti
Sergio Lazzarini
Paolo Lepore
Gabriella Mangione
Grazia Mannozzi
Stefano Marcolini
Marco Migliorini
Chiara Perini
Cristina Reale
Adrian Renteria Diaz
Gilda Ripamonti
Environment, Tourism and Territory
In the economic-legal area, particular importance is given to issues concerning the legal protection of environment, the enhancement of the territory and the implementation of qualitative and quantitative tools for the evaluation of current economic policies, particularly in times of crisis.
In this scenario, the departmental research in this area focuses on the close relationship between sustainability and environment understood both from naturalistic, cultural, economic and legal points of view.
Finally, particular attention is increasingly paid to the study of climate change and the development of appropriate legal instruments (at international, European and national levels) to develop suitable policies for mitigating the phenomenon, as well as for adapting the concerned territories. Particularly relevant, in this regard, the work of the POLAMB Research Center.
Barbara Pozzo
Maurizio Cafagno
Giorgio Grasso
Valentina Jacometti
Carmela Leone
Paolo Lepore
Chiara Perini
Multilingualism, Cultural Heritage, Institutions
DiDEC is renowed for a tradition of studies on legal multilingualism, both from the point of view of legal translation within the European Union, and from the point of view of the interrelations and clash between different legal cultures. The activity of the Interuniversity Centre for Research in Comparative Law is carried out within this context.
Particular attention is also dedicated, in connection with the research on "Fundamental Rights", to the study of multiculturalism of religious matrix and of the relationships between state and confessional systems in the perspective of an increasingly pluralistic Mediterranean space. The contribution of the Research Centers, which are part of DiDEC (in particular REDESM), and the initiatives developed within the Course on Development Education (sponsored by UNICEF and the University) are also relevant in this area.
Francesca Ruggieri
Elena Catalano
Marta Cenini
Sebastiano Citroni
Valentina Jacometti
Geo Magri
Grazia Mannozzi
Stefano Marcolini
Marco Migliorini
Gilda Ripamonti
People, Business and Markets
The Area brings together different lines of research, all however focused on the person, in both its natural and, above all, legal configuration. Particular attention is given to economics and rights in the Mediterranean area, public and private governance, public contracts and the fashion and textile sector, in a comparative perspecive, too. In this regard, the work of the Research Center for Customs Law and International Trade is particularly relevant.
Silvia Marino
Paolo Bertoli
Maurizio Cafagno
Sebastiano Citroni
Elisabetta Codazzi
Stella Coglievina
Giuseppe Colangelo
Flavia Cortelezzi
Paolo Duvia
Maria Dominique Feola
Francesca Ferrari
Umberto Galmarini
Francesca Ghirga
Valentina Jacometti
Carmela Leone
Lucia Lopez
Gabriella Mangione
Marco Migliorini
Roberta Minazzi
Alessandro Motto
Andrea Morone
Alessandro Panno
Chiara Perini
Giuseppe Porro
Fabrizio Vismara
The research activity of the Dipartimento di Economia – DiECO revolves around the economic, business, legal and mathematical-statistical disciplines that characterize the educational offer of the Department itself.
In the autonomy of the individual scientific areas, the possibility of interdisciplinary comparisons in various research areas represents an important resource whose validity has been tested in the didactic field and which is progressively enhanced also in the research field.
Applied and Empirical Economics
Elena Maggi
Daniele Crotti
Business Economics and Management
Alberto Onetti
Enrica Pavione
Roberta Pezzetti
Alessia PisoniÂ
Commercial Law
Sergio Patriarca
Ilaria CapelliÂ
Econometrics
Macroeconomics
Eugenio Caverzasi
Marcello SpanòÂ
Management, Accounting, Planning and Control
Anna Maria Arcari
Daniela Montemerlo
Patrizia Gazzola
Giovanna Gavana
Anna Iside Pistoni
Francesco Sacco
Mathematics and Statistics for Economics and Finance
Matteo Rocca
Chiara Gigliarano
Elisa Mastrogiacomo
Asmerilda Hitaj
Microeconomics
Ivan Moscati
Astrid Gamba
Organization Studies
Alfredo Biffi
Caterina Farao
Private Law
Alba Fondrieschi
Camilla Ferrari
Public Economics
Public Law
The research activity of the Dipartimento di Medicina e chirurgia – DMC is mainly focused on the study of oncological diseases, cardiovascular diseases, neuro- and immunopharmacology; the activity is divided into research centers and focused research groups that carry out their research on specific topics in which professors and researchers from other departments and other universities participate, ensuring the integration and construction of common projects. In all these areas a strong interaction emerges between basic sciences and clinical sciences, an interaction that represents an important strength for the development of innovative research programs of national and international relevance.
Applied biology
Biochemistry of the extracellular matrix
Alberto Passi
Davide Vigetti
Francesco Pallotti
Manuela Viola
Evgenia Karousou
Paola Moretto
Cardiosurgery
Cesare Beghi
Sandro Ferrarese
Vittorio Mantovani
General pathology and immunology
Roberto Accolla
Greta Forlani
Alessandra Tedeschi
Glicobiology
Morbid anatomy, chromosomic and molecular pathology
Ophthalmology
Pathologies of the cardiovascular apparatus
Roberto De Ponti
Fabio Angeli
Pharmacology
Pediatrics
Massimo Agosti
Silvia Salvatore
Luana Nosetti
Senology
Structure of the extracellular matrix
Surgical radiology
Thrombosis and haemostasis
Walter Ageno
Marco DonadiniÂ
The Dipartimento di Scienza e alta tecnologia - DiSAT pursues the goal of harmonizing basic research with applied research, basing its raison d'être on a unified vision of scientific and technological research. The Department was created around the idea of combining hard sciences, or STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) in a single research environment, without neglecting contributions from other disciplines, with the idea of promoting interdisciplinary research and to train students with a global scientific vision. Furthermore, this choice allowed us to be able to count on the advantages of scale usually possible only in large universities, without losing the agility of a small structure.
The research areas are represented by four Sections: Environment-Health-Safety-Territory, Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics.
The research activities of the Dipartimento di Scienze teoriche e applicate - DiSTA are developed around three Sections: Environment, Computer Science and Humanities.
In the current context of globalization and internationalization, among the most innovative and peculiar aspects of the research activity of the Department - in parallel with the advancement of each single subject area - there are consequently the richness of the research topics of the teachers and the tendency to create virtuous multidisciplinary paths also open to numerous and fruitful national and international collaborations, often integrated with teaching activities.
The primary vocation of the Dipartimento di Scienze umane e dell'innovazione per il Territorio – DiSUIT is to integrate scientific research and the needs of the Como and Varese territories. Through an interdisciplinary approach which constitutes its essential feature, DiSUIT favors the ability to determine positive effects on society, also thanks to the funding it has been able to attract from various entities such as MIUR (the italian Ministry for Education, University and Research), the Volta Foundation and the CARIPLO Foundation.
Art History
The research in the field of Art History includes the period from the Middle Ages to the contemporary age, privileging the study of the Artists of the Lombard-Swiss Lakes, who were active not only locally, but also nationally, in Europe and overseas.
Andrea Spiriti
Laura Facchin
Geological and Biological sciences
The lines of research in this area aim to investigate the relationships between tectonics, magmatism and volcanism and deal with the study of the developmental habitat of animal and plant organisms and their relationships in natural situations.
Historical and Anthropological Studies
The research in the historical field is chiefly concerned with the study of European history from the modern to the contemporary age. In the area of modernist studies, the study of social, intellectual and religious history is privileged, the latter being investigated especially with regard to Jewish-Christian relations. The contemporary area focuses on the transformation and persistence of elements of the Old Regime in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries on the one hand, and on the history of Europe in the context of global relations in the 20th and 21st centuries on the other, with particular attention to the role played by local authorities in the process of European integration. Moreover, in the field of historical sciences, there are studies in demoethnoanthropological disciplines concerning the anthropology of art and the art of Insulindia and Oceania. In this area research revolves around also photography in exoticism and primitivism in 20th-century art.
Paolo Luca Bernardini
Elisa Bianco
Law and Economics
The lines of research of these disciplines range from the historical aspects of law, in particular Roman law, to more current issues such as human rights and business organisation.
Linguistic, Philological and Literary Studies
The research lines of this area include several disciplines, which belong to two macro-areas, the linguistic, historical and literary studies related to the Italian language, and the studies of the European and extra-European languages that are that are represented at the Department. In the linguistic area, various lines of research focus on diachronic linguistics, synchronic linguistics, applied linguistics and philology.
In the literary area, the Department's research revolves around perspectives related to textual criticism and interpretation, literary history and comparative studies. Furthermore, there are studies on the theory and practice of literary and specialised translation and on language teaching.
Andrea Sansò
Francesco Ciconte
Francesca Moro
Paola Baseotto
Alessandra Vicentini
Daniel Russo
Mathematical and Chemical Sciences
The lines of research of this field are mainly focused on the following fields:
- numerical linear algebra and its applications in the study of techniques for solving linear systems arising from various integro-differential problems;
- the development of analytical procedures for the characterization of historical and artistic artifacts, as well as the design of innovative methods for restoration.
Stefano Serra Capizzano
Mariarosa Mazza
Philosophical and Pedagogical Studies
The research in the field of philosophical studies extends in several lines of investigation. In the field of Theoretical Philosophy major topical issues cover areas such as the philosophical implications of the possible discovery of extraterrestrial life and the role of science fiction in the perception of science. In the field of Aesthetics, research is conducted on the one hand in the area of Aesthetics in Social Languages, a field in which aesthetic reflection meets with art and philosophy; on the other hand, in the area of German-language Aesthetics with particular attention to the image. The departmental research also presents a line of research related to the pedagogical field, in which the study of methods and tools aimed at the design of educational experiences is accompanied by research aimed at the field of disability and specific educational needs.
Political and Social Sciences
The field of Political and Social Sciences includes historical research lines that investigate political symbolism, with particular focus on the period of the French Revolution and the Jacobin period, in addition to research that investigates ideas and legal political institutions of the late Middle Ages.
Moreover, research in this field involves the reflection on individual rights and exercise of sovereignty in relation to the phenomenon of globalisation and the introduction of new technologies.
Scientific equipment
Please find our Departments’ scientific equipment in the attached file.
Scientific production
The University promotes the policy of open access to research results in terms of publications and doctoral theses. Establishing an institutional repository allows scientific information produced in Uninsubria to be made available to the wider academic community and offers greater visibility and greater impact to this globally accessible material on the Internet. The institutional repository of the University Research is IRInSubria: https://irinsubria.uninsubria.it/Â
University professors, researchers and PhDs are automatically enabled to log in, using the University credentials (username and password).
For more information, visit the pages dedicated to Open Access.
IRInSubria - Institutional Research Information System
IRInSubria collects, stores, documents and disseminates information on the scientific production of the University of Insubria since 2015, also for the purposes of research evaluation.
This University research product catalog is in fact the only source of data for both internal and external evaluation and also automatically populates the italian Ministry for Education, University and Research (MIUR) research catalog.
Funded research projects
The University of Insubria promotes and enhances research also in its international and interdisciplinary dimension: there are numerous research projects funded on local, national and European competitive calls that initiate or consolidate collaborations with universities, companies, institutions and associations, thus offering teachers, researchers and students the opportunity to study, specialize and do research, as well as to welcome new researchers in a stimulating environment.
Particular attention was paid to the consolidation and improvement of some tools and support services for the presentation and management of competitive projects, dissemination of information, training in the drafting of project proposals.
Quality Assurance
In every Department an internal Committee for the Quality of Research (Commissione AIQUAR) pomotes the quality assurance of research and "third mission" (Public engagement, Technology Transfer and other activities involving the society) by collecting and analysing data and conducting a self assessment concerning the outcomes of the activities.
See the composition of Departmental Committees (in Italian).