At the Border between Skin and Heart: a play by scientists for schools and universities performed for GO! 2025, Gorizia and Nova Gorica European Capital of Culture
At the Border between Skin and Heart: a play by scientists for schools and universities performed for GO! 2025, Gorizia and Nova Gorica European Capital of Culture
Cancer Awareness Month: October 2025, saw collaborators from the ICGEB, the Universities of Trieste and Siena, and the Italian Institute of Technology in Genoa perform in Gorizia and Nova Gorica to present the story of their ambitious research project to find an innovative cure for cancer.
The team – working across separate institutes – have brought their project to proof of concept, combining expertise in cardiovascular biology and human machine interaction. Central to the story, adapted for the stage by writers Alessandra Cotoloni and Sarita Massai, were the concepts that “Physical distances don’t exist when it comes to science.” Serena Zacchinga (ICGEB and University of Trieste) and Domenico Prattichizzo (University of Siena and IIT, Genoa), emphasise their shared passion to “extend research to frontier areas that integrate robotics, biology and medicine.”
“Have you ever wondered why tumours almost never grow in the heart? Almost all organs are affected by tumours and metastases… but not the heart,” explains Zacchigna when the two scientists first meet in 2021. “If you cut your skin, it regrows, exactly as it was before, but if the heart is damaged, no new heart tissue forms, only a scar does, because the tissue does not regenerate. And we asked ourselves Why? Why do all cells regenerate except those of the heart? Could this lack of regeneration, growth and proliferation of heart cells be linked to the fact that even cancer cells are unable to proliferate and grow inside the heart?”
Four years hence, the collaborators have devised wearable technologies designed for mechanotherapy to stimulate skin affected by melanoma, replicating the heartbeat with a wearable artificial robot.
Through hard work, failure, and first steps towards success, young researchers from the laboratories outline the project upon which they have embarked to explore a new path in bioengineering. The project, named “CANCEL” has been designed to inhibit CANCER, remarking: “A single consonant can change the world.”
The play, entitled “At the Border between Skin and Heart”, was performed five times across the Region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, in Trieste, Udine and Gorizia, Italy, and across the border in Vipava, Slovenia. The performances included four languages: Italian, Slovenian, English and sign language. The project partners (University of Trieste, University of Siena, Vicino/Lontano and the “Max Fabiani” Artistic Secondary School in Gorizia), brought together numerous schools and universities at events held at national Science Festivals and culminating in two performances, crossing borders on the same day, one at the University of Trieste, Gorizia campus and the second at the Univerity of Nova Gorica, Villa Lanthieri.
This production was supported by the Autonomous Region of Friuli-Venezia Giulio per GO! 2025 Nova Gorica Gorizia European Capital of Culture.
