Italy: ‘Il Bel Paese’ with many faces
by Carmine Gentile, Ph.D. student
Regenerative Medicine and Cell Biology
Geographically located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, Italy
(Il Bel Paese—which means beautiful country) is the bridge between a
variety of cultures within the pillars of Hercules. Thanks to its
characteristic shape of a boot, Italy stretches from North to South and
includes Sicily and Sardinia. For this reason, Italy was an easy
landing place for several populations that were completely different.
Digging history from the Italian soil means discovering the cultures
that influenced Italy during the centuries. For instance, Greeks landed
to the South of Italy in the region called “Magna Græcia,” which is
Latin meaning “Greater Greece,” where the famous mathematician
Pythagoras lived. Later on, the Romans took over, leading one of the
largest empires in the ancient world until the barbarians arrived from
Eastern Europe and the Middle Ages began.
It is finally during the Italian Renaissance that the culture
flourished again and gave birth to many artistic masterpieces, such as
Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel. Arabic, Norman, Portuguese and Spanish
cultures also influenced Italy. As a consequence of previous
dominations, Italy is characterized by the official “Italian” language
as well as many different dialects with their peculiar linguistic
structures. That is why in Venice the word “street” is the Spanish word
“calle” instead of the Italian word “strada.” The official Italian
derived from Tuscan, Dante’s language, was chosen only after the
reunification of Italy in 1861.
Today Italy is known abroad for its food, fashion and cars to name a
few areas. In the scientific field, Italy maintains a remarkable place
thanks to many past and present contributors. However, other scientific
heroes present in the Italian society have had to struggle daily with
an academic situation that is leading to more scientists leaving Italy.
Rita Clementi, a 47-year-old researcher, moved to the Massachusetts
General Hospital Cancer Center in Boston to pursue her studies in
lymphoma in 2009. Her open letter to the president of the Italian
Republic, written before leaving Italy, underlies the problems present
in the Italian scientific world. Her stance becomes the voice for many
Italy keeps offering its image of “Bel Paese” to the rest of the world
every day. However, several scientists have to face the sad reality
that to achieve their scientific goals, they have to leave Italy.
- Lazzaro Spallanzani, biologist and physiologist
who focused his studies on animal reproduction and destroyed the idea
of spontaneous generation.
- Marcello Malpighi greatly extended the science of embryology by using the microscope.
- Camillo Golgi, physician, pathologist,
scientist, Nobel Prize in medicine in 1906 for his studies of the
structure of the nervous system.
- Rita Levi Montalcini, neuroscientist, Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1986 for her studies of neuronal apoptosis
- Renato Dulbecco, Nobel Prize in medicine in 1975, who discovered the Poliomyelitis virus
- Elisabetta Dejana, identified an important endothelial cell junction molecule, VE-Cadherin.
A 20-year-old athletic American man presents with mild fatigue,
malaise, myalgia, sore throat and mild headache. His posterior cervical
lymph nodes are slightly enlarged, but tender and movable. Fever is
low-grade and intermittent. Patient appears slightly anemic. He came
back one week ago from a trip to Italy where he stayed in Florence for
the summer studies. You suspect an infectious mononucleosis (IM) and
the laboratory tests confirm the diagnosis.
The patient is a runner and planning to competitively run at the Cooper
River Bridge event in Charleston and he is asking you if he can run at
A) Yes, you can run the competition but only if you take acyclovir for one week
B) Yes, you can run the competition but only if you take prednisone during the next two weeks
C) No, you cannot run the competition but you can walk
D) No, you cannot run or walk because you are highly contagious and need to be in isolation
E) You may be able to run but I have to do more tests to determine if you are imunocompromised
The correct answer is C. Excessive physical activity during the first
month should be avoided to reduce the possibility of splenic rupture.
Glucocorticoid therapy is not indicated for uncomplicated IM and, in
fact, prednisone may actually predispose to bacterial superinfection.
Corticosteroids should only be used for severe and complicated forms of
IM. Acyclovir has had no significant clinical impact on IM, and the
isolation of patients with IM is unnecessary.
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Friday, April 2, 2010