Theater as a means of communicating research on climate change: The case of "Cambiare il clima".

Between 2018 and 2023, the Department of Environmental, Land and Infrastructure Engineering (DIATI) at the Polytechnic University of Turin (PoliTo) implemented a project to advance research and education on climate change monitoring, adaptation and mitigation solutions. As part of their communication efforts, DIATI partnered with Faber Teater to create the play "Cambiare il clima" (in Italian, this means "Change the Climate"). This involved a collaboration between DIATI researchers, communication officers, and Faber Teater.

Two phylogenetically divergent isocitrate dehydrogenases are encoded in Leishmania parasites. Molecular and functional characterization of Leishmania mexicana isoenzymes with specificity towards NAD and NADP.

Leishmania parasites are of great relevance to public health because they are the causative agents of various long-term and health-threatening diseases in humans. Dependent on the manifestation, drugs either require difficult and lengthy administration, are toxic, expensive, not very effective or have lost efficacy due to the resistance developed by these pathogens against clinical treatments. The intermediary metabolism of Leishmania parasites is characterized by several unusual features, among which whether the Krebs cycle operates in a cyclic and/or in a non-cyclic mode is included.

Molecular and functional characterization of two malic enzymes from Leishmania parasites.

Leishmania parasites cause a broad spectrum of clinical manifestations in humans and the available clinical treatments are far from satisfactory. Since these pathogens require large amounts of NADPH to maintain intracellular redox homeostasis, oxidoreductases that catalyze the production of NADPH are considered as potential drug targets against these diseases. In the sequenced genomes of most Leishmania spp.

Exploring biochemical and functional features of Leishmania major phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase.

This work reports the first functional characterization of leishmanial PEPCK. The recombinant Leishmania major enzyme (Lmj_PEPCK) exhibits equivalent kcat values for the phosphoenolpyruvate (PEP) and oxaloacetate (OAA) forming reactions. The apparent Km towards OAA is 10-fold lower than that for PEP, while the Km values for ADP and ATP are equivalent.

The effect of chronic stress on prenatal development of the central nervous system.

The survival of developing embryos depends on the control and maintenance of homeostasis. Stress caused by chronic immobilization during pregnancy in rats may alter the normal development of the nervous system and increase susceptibility to psychiatric disorders. We investigated the effects of chronic stress on cell proliferation in the forebrains of embryos at 12 days of gestation, and in the hippocampus, dentate gyrus and cortex in embryos at 17 and 21 days of gestation.