The PhD course consists of four curricula: Infectious Diseases, Public Health Sciences and Social Medicine, Microbiology and Parasitology, Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences.. A. Infectious Diseases The aim of PhD course is to train researchers able to assess the study of a complex discipline with an updated and in-depth knowledge and technological background. It will be based on the knowledge of immunopathogenesis, diagnostics and therapy of infectious and tropical diseases and will be done into 3 years, with one year aimed at scientific training and two years at the realization of a research project. Research areas of the Infectious Diseases curriculum are: 1. Infection and Immunity The PhD student will have to acquire skills in studying the interactions between the immune system and infections. The following specific research topics will be investigated: a) immunopathogenesis of HIV infection; b) pathogenesis and innate and adaptive immune response towards viral infections, including SARS-COV2; c) evaluation of immunomodulatory therapies in the management of infections and the response to vaccines; d) study of the immune response in tuberculosis and malaria; e) study of the intestinal microbiome and development of oral bacteriotherapy. 2. Antimicrobial therapy of infectious diseases. The PhD student will have to acquire a good knowledge of the properties of antibiotics, antifungals, and antivirals, including experimental ones, and of their use in the therapy and prevention of infectious diseases. Moreover, he will have to acquire adequate biological and clinical research skills in order to develop knowledge on therapeutic management, drug resistance, pharmacokinetics and pharmacoeconomics issues and the management of clinical trials in the field of bacterial and viral infections. 3. Emerging and re-emerging infections. The PhD student will have to study the pathogenesis diagnosis, and innovative therapeutic aspects of emerging infections. He have to acquire knwledge in the development of microbiological, immunological and molecular methodologies applied to the diagnostics of emerging infections, with particular attention to infections in the immunocompromised host. B. PUBLIC HEALTH SCIENCES AND SOCIAL MEDICINE The curriculum is structured into two sub-curricula: Public Health Sciences and Social Medicine 1. Public Health Sciences The training courses proposed respond to the great need for expert researchers in evaluation and implementation of health promotion and diseases control interventions and health policies. The curriculum is structured into the following areas: epidemiology for public health, prevention of infectious and non-communicable diseases, healthcare management, hospital hygiene, environmental, food and industrial hygiene, global health, precision medicine, preventive and community nursing. Training in Public Health Sciences research is based on the acquisition of knowledge and skills that enable the future PhD to use the most appropriate and innovative methodologies to read the current health problems and to identify effective and efficient interventions. To this end, the training courses are based on learning and applying the most up-to-date quantitative statistical methodologies for the design of epidemiological studies (descriptive, analytical and experimental), systematic reviews and meta-analyses for the generation of scientific evidence. These are complemented by aspects and methodologies specific to the various areas covered: methodologies for the multidisciplinary process to evaluate the social, economic, organizational and ethical issues of a health intervention or health technology (Health Technology Assessment - HTA); the epidemiological, microbiological and biomolecular methodologies for the surveillance of healthcare associated infections (HAI) and the timely identification of alert organisms and epidemic clusters; methodologies for the assessment and control of environmental factors that may affect human health and for the assessment of workplace exposure to contaminants; the analytical approach to the distribution of the different factors influencing health status, both biological and environmental and socio-economic, with a focus on inequalities; methodologies related to public health genomics to transfer genomic knowledge into practice, in a patient-centred approach; methodologies for risk stratification and for the evaluation of chronic patients care models. The long-term aim of the PhD is to contribute to the training of researchers who can work independently and authoritatively in public and private institutions on research topics in the various fields of public health, on an equal level with colleagues in other countries. 2. Social Medicine The Social (Legal and Welfare) Medicine Curriculum has objectives and methodology mainly aimed at the protection of the individual ("living being") in the social context. The research carried out according to its methodology embraces profiles of interest ranging from assistance to welfare; from protection and defense against disease to social and health security; from health promotion to enhancement. Social Medicine Research lines include the evolution of the concepts of health and illness in comparative European law. The social value of the medical act. The protection of the inviolable rights of the person "freedom, self-determination, and dignity" of the citizen, even in the context of the globalized phenomenon of Human Enhancement. The medical and social protection of minors and incapacitated ones: legal, ethical and deontological issues. The analysis and legal protection of social diseases and rare diseases, also regarding the integration into the world of work. Bio-legal protection and evaluation of invalidity, disability and handicap through welfare and protection systems. Social and private insurances. Regulations for the protection of working women and maternity benefits. Mental disability protection rules. The applicability of the legal institutions of interdiction, incapacitation, and support administration. Civil Protection. Social-assistance hospital-territory integrations. Family medicine and non-conventional medicine in its legislative aspects. Legal value and jurisprudential feedback on protocols, guidelines, and procedures.Malpractice. Bio-legal aspects of existing and new dependencies. Social medicine in the (era of new frontiers of) artificial intelligence and robotics era with regard to social security, protection of privacy and validation of consent to the medical act: law and jurisprudence in diagnostics and remote treatment using digitalization and further modern supports. C. MICROBIOLOGY and PARASSITOLOGY The curriculum aims at giving to PhD students a deep knowledge of Microrganisms and Organisms (Bacteria, Viruses, Fungi, Parasites and Vectors) related to human diseases, with special focus on molecular mechanisms underlying their transmission, life-cycle, replication and pathogenic potential. The presence of many Researchers with a wide experience in different basic and clinical research topics, offer a great variability and versatility in the area of Microbiology and Parassitology. Through frontal lessons, seminars and journal club, together with the development of research activities in specific projects, assisted by Senior Scientists, the Curriculum aims at giving a complete formation to PhD Students that will acquire knowledge and skills in the following Research fields: • Study of Microrganism/Host interactions (Virulence Factors, Interaction with host pathways and immune responses) • Study of resistance to antimicrobial drugs and related mechanisms • Study of Microbial biofilm and their role in persistent infection and resistance to antimicrobials • Characterization of microbial role in chronic inflammatory and degenerative diseases • Identification and set up of novel antimicrobial strategies based on natural and synthetic compounds and on physical methods • Characterization of Microbiome functions and its role in health and disease • Study and Characterization of probiotics • Study of emerging and re-emerging microrganisms • One Health approach in the study of organisms and microrganisms causing human and animal diseases • Omic sciences applied to the agents of infectious diseases • Zoonotic Infections • Role of vectors in the transmissions of Infectious diseases D. LEGAL MEDICINE The research areas of the Doctorate for the part relating to the Forensic Medicine curriculum, mainly concern four macro-sectors: (1) forensic pathology, (2) management of clinical risk and healthcare liability litigation, (3) deontology and clinical bioethics and (4) forensic medicine. These research areas characterize forensic medicine by strengthening its methodological rigor and promoting dialogue with the Judicial Authority. In particular, the research topics, favoring multidisciplinarity and international openness, concern: • The management of clinical risk and medico-legal litigation in the healthcare, with particular reference to damage from health errors and the assessment and prevention of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs); • The diagnosis of death, prevention and research applied to the study of the corpse subjected to diagnostic verification and judicial autopsy, with particular reference to sudden death from cardiac causes and suicides; • The study and evaluation of the victim of sexual violence with the application of consolidated multidisciplinary protocols; • Deontology and clinical bioethics; • The histopathology laboratory; • Forensic genetics and epigenetics; • Forensic toxicology and its implications; • Clinical Forensic Medicine with particular evaluation of the incapacitated patient; • Evidence Based Medicine applied to Forensic Medicine.
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