Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is the most common disease of motoneurons, or motor neurons, in adults. It affects 6-7 people per 100,000 in Europe and 2-3 people per 100,000 worldwide. ALS is characterised by progressive damage to the motor neurons that are responsible for muscle function. So far, it has not been possible to develop a treatment that can significantly prolong the time and improve the quality of life of people with ALS. As a consequence, most patients die within 2-5 years of the first symptoms of the disease, and 50% survive only 30 months after the onset of clinical symptoms. In this situation, new therapeutic strategies for the treatment of ALS are being sought.This problem was tackled by Dr Sylwia Dąbrowska from the Mossakowski Medical Research Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences, carrying out the Bekker NAWA project at the University of Verona in collaboration with prof. Raffaella Mariotti's group. The researchers investigated the therapeutic effect of exosomes, structures derived from stem cells, in the treatment of ALS. In particular, the immunomodulatory and neuroprotective properties of exosomes derived from adipose tissue mesenchymal stem cells were analysed in in vitro and in vivo models of ALS. The study demonstrated that exosomes decreased inflammatory responses and increased neuronal survival in in vitro models of ALS. Furthermore, the experiments showed that exosomes improved motor performance in mice, protected motoneurons from degeneration and reduced inflammation in the mouse spinal cord in an in vivo model of ALS. The results obtained demonstrated that stem cell-derived exosomes exhibit neuroprotective and immunomodulatory effects in in vitro and in vivo models of ALS; these results may serve to develop innovative therapies for neurodegenerative diseases, such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, in the future.

The coal industry in Poland has been a pillar of the national economy for years. Being at the centre of economic as well as political relations, it has to some extent imposed the framework of the discourse on decarbonisation and responsibility for climate change. Dr Marco Grasso from the University of Milano - Bicocca, among other reasons, decided to carry out a research project at the Polish Institute of Advanced Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences, which was to contribute to answering the question on the moral responsibility of, inter alia, this sector for the climate crisis. Dr Grasso tried to understand how the Polish fossil fuel regime can be exogenously ‘destabilised’ in order to increase the chances that Polish coal companies – at least the largest – move towards the satisfaction of the duties of decarbonisation and of reparation as demanded by their moral responsibility for climate change, in spite of their enduring extensive coal mining activities and of the future planned coal-fired plants.

In a book published, among others, as a result of the project “From Big Oil to Big Green” examines the responsibility of the oil and gas industry for the climate crisis and develops a moral framework that lays out its duties of reparation and decarbonization to allay the harm it has done. By framing climate change as a moral issue and outlining the industry's obligation to tackle it, Grasso shows that Big Oil is a central, yet overlooked, agent of climate ethics and policy. After making the moral case for climate reparations and their implementation, Grasso develops Big Oil's duty of decarbonization, which entails its transformation into Big Green by phasing out carbon emissions from its processes and, especially, its products.

Food is located at the interface between nature and culture. It goes beyond biological necessity, because its realisation is entangled in the mesh of cultural, economic and political requirements. Cooking is usually the responsibility of women, hence the preparation and sharing of food is a space for the articulation of women's voices. As a mother's and wife's task, a binder of social relations and a carrier of memory; a source of creativity and pleasure, but at the same time an unavoidable part of an exhausting routine, cooking also appears as an important element in the work of contemporary female visual artists. In the research project “The Artist's Menu. Identity and narratives about food”, prof. Dorota Koczanowicz from the University of Wrocław's Institute of Cultural Studies, focuses on selected female artists in order to confront the language of their painting and performance statements with the experience of everyday life. She analyses various artistic and cultural objects, including works of art, scientific texts, biographies and objects of everyday use as interrelated, heterarchical elements that make up an identity narrative. The stay within the Bekker NAWA programme at the University of Gastronomic Sciences (UNISG) in Pollenzo is an excellent opportunity to refine the interpretative tools in collaboration with Prof. Nicola Perullo, creator of the concept of 'haptic taste as a task'. In his view, taste is not a static form of individual identity, but a processual, changeable form of education for the good life. Culinary choices are thus treated as an important element of the ethical relationship with one's own body and environment. prof. Koczanowicz and prof. Perullo are also editing a book together entitled “Food and Somaesthetics”. The book will come out in the Brill publishing house in 2023.

Another dimension of their collaboration is the invitation of prof. Koczanowicz to the PhD Faculty Committee of the PhD programme, "Ecogastronomy, Food Sciences and Food Cultures", which is being developed in cooperation between UNISG and the University of Turin.