Chiara Giardina, a young student of the University of Catania, wins the Tobacco Harm Reduction Scholarship Programme by KAC thanks to a research project on the effects of cigarette smoke and aerosol from next-generation products coordinated by CoEHAR
The activity of CoEHAR increasingly stands for excellence and internationality, thanks to the development of research projects that enable young students and scientists to enter the international scientific scene, fortified by the skills and achievements of the research center in recent years.
An example of this success is the achievement of the young student in Medical Biotechnology at the University of Catania (UNICT), Chiara Giardina, who is among the winners of the scholarship of the Tobacco Harm Reduction Scholarship Programme promoted by Knowledge Action Change (KAC).
Launched in 2018, the program has had an unprecedented global impact with researchers from around the world completing a wide range of successful projects.
Currently engaged in her internship at the laboratory of Prof. Massimo Caruso, co-project leader of the Replica project, Chiara Giardina, thanks to the work conducted in the laboratories of CoEHAR in Catania, managed to participate in and obtain the KAC scholarship.
“It is a great honor. It is a scholarship lasting one year, aimed at training young disseminators in the field of THR to analyze the use of new products that may replace traditional cigarettes and may prove to be less harmful“.
Chiara Giardina’s project is “an in vitro research involving an analysis of the genome of lung epithelial cells following exposure to both cigarette smoke and aerosol from heated tobacco products as well as nicotine treatment. The aim is to analyze gene expression changes following these experimental conditions, to assess a possible correlation with inflammation or carcinogenesis processes“.
An interest in harm reduction, which grew during Chiara’s training at UNICT and intensified thanks to the experience gained under the direction of Prof. Massimo Caruso.
“For the future, the goals are to obtain robust results from the project and then present them at the 2025 Global Forum on Nicotine and conclude this first phase of my university career by obtaining the master’s degree“.
The KAC mission is to promote the principles of harm reduction by facilitating the sharing of ideas and results
The THRSP was launched by KAC in 2018, with five fundamental aims, which were to:
- Increase research and practice capacity in THR
- Expand the evidence-base for new technologies and products which contribute to reducing smoking and improving both individual and population health
- Introduce new thinkers, new ideas and new methods to tobacco harm reduction
- Improve risk communication using social media and new technologies to disseminate information, particularly to isolated groups and communities
- Target locations and populations where current activities and resources are limited, especially in low and middle-income countries where the need to build capacity is greatest
