Wistar Expands International Training of the Next Generation of Scientists With the University of Bologna

PHILADELPHIA — (April 27, 2021) — The Wistar Institute and the University of Bologna (Unibo) in Italy have established the Wistar-Unibo Ph.D. Exchange Program in Cell and Molecular Biology to bring Unibo graduate students to Wistar for their three-year Ph.D. training.

The program fosters scientific and intellectual exchange in research and education between Italy and the United States, and is aligned with Wistar’s commitment to expand and strengthen its network of collaborations for the research and training of junior scientists in the U.S. and beyond.

“Science is a global endeavor, so it is critical to join forces and exchange ideas and perspectives across international borders to create impactful research opportunities, and develop these top students into science trailblazers,” said Dario C. Altieri, M.D., Wistar president and CEO, director of the Institute’s Cancer Center and the Robert & Penny Fox Distinguished Professor. “We believe in the importance of training future scientific leaders, and we are excited to partner with Unibo, a dynamic institution with a long and storied history of international exchanges.”

The Wistar Institute is an international leader in fundamental biomedical research and technological innovation with special expertise in cancer and immunology research and vaccine development.

Unibo, the oldest university in the western world, is one of the largest institutions of undergraduate and graduate education in Italy and ranks within the world’s top 100 institutions for life sciences and medicine. With more than 87,000 students, Unibo encompasses five campuses, five schools and 10 research and training centers.

Students enrolled in the Wistar-Unibo Ph.D. Exchange Program are matched with a Wistar laboratory based on their research interests and present their progress every year at a workshop with fellow Ph.D. students in Italy.

The first three students in the Program have recently started their training in the Cancer Center laboratories of Alessandro Gardini, Ph.D., Italo Tempera, Ph.D., and Rugang Zhang, Ph.D.

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The Wistar Institute is an international leader in biomedical research with special expertise in cancer, infectious disease research, and vaccine development. Founded in 1892 as the first independent nonprofit biomedical research institute in the United States, Wistar has held the prestigious Cancer Center designation from the National Cancer Institute since 1972. The Institute works actively to ensure that research advances move from the laboratory to the clinic as quickly as possible. wistar.org.