UniStem Day event was first held in 2009 to connect high school students with researchers and his popularity has grown year after year.

This year this exciting educational scientific event, has been dedicated to the “scientific passion of Rita Levi-Montalcini”, who sadly passed away last December. This year, at his fifth edition, UniStem Day 2013 was for the first time international with 34 Universities involved in Italy and 8 European Universities from Spain to Scotland, including: Universitat de Barcelona, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Universidad de Murcia, Universidad de Valladolid and finally The University of Edinburgh.

About 15,000 students from more than 250 schools, more than 200 people among researchers, clinics, bioethicists, philosophers, sociologists, technicians, science communicators and administrators, together to realize the biggest popular event about stem cells in Europe.

In Ferrara the meeting was held on “Polo Chimico e Biomedico” and many qualified scientists talked about stem cells.

After a welcome introduction of Prof. Francesco Di Virgilio, research delegate by Rector, a brief live session with other Italian Universities to link students all together took place. Next, a series of presentations, started:

• Mauro Tognon, Professor of Applied Biology (University of Ferrara) talking about stem cells as replacement pieces of the human machinery;
• Barbara Zavan, Professor of Biomedical Sciences (University of Ferrara) talked about biological and clinical applications of dental stem cells;
• Roberto Gambari, Professor of Biochemistry (University of Ferrara) focused on the beta-thalassemia disease;
• Roberta Piva, Professor of Biology (University of Ferrara) talked about how stem cells can help skeleton;
• Michele Simonato, Professor of Pharmacology and Tossicology (University of Ferrara) discussed of neuronal cells;
• Amedeo Carraro, surgeon and liver transplant expert, talked about tissue engineering of liver.

Moreover, a live streaming from the stage of University of Milan, shown Marco Paolini, actor, director and author known for his narrations of strong social impact.

In the afternoon has been possible, for interested students, a visit to biomedical research laboratories at LTTA “Laboratorio per le Tecnologie delle Terapie Avanzate” of the Ferrara University.