Season 15 Episode 4 PhD Seminar

Wednesday 15 Apr 2026, 18:00 → 19:15 Europe/Rome

Aula Conversi (VEF) and Zoom

63th meeting of physics PhD seminar series

https://uniroma1.zoom.us/

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https://forms.gle/FAKjaQMUoy3ZwHEY9

18:00 → 18:20 Searching for light dark-matter with BULLKID-DM

Despite decades of astrophysical and cosmological evidence, dark matter remains one of the most profound mysteries in modern particle physics. We know it has influenced the evolution of the cosmos, it shapes galaxies and constitutes roughly 85% of the total matter in the universe. Nevertheless, its elusive nature has so far escaped direct observation, leaving us with more questions than answers.
In this talk, we will introduce the fundamental challenges of direct dark matter searches and review the experimental techniques currently employed to look for WIMP-like particles. Furthermore, we will present BULLKID, a novel particle detector concept designed to tackle dark matter searches in the low-mass regime. It consists of an array of silicon absorbers sensed by Kinetic Inductance Detectors (KIDs), superconducting resonators capable of sensing extremely small energy depositions within the target.

Speaker: Leonardo Pesce

Pesce_PhD_Seminar.pdf

18:20 → 18:30 Dicussion

18:30 → 18:45 Coffee break

18:45 → 19:05 From Single Cells to Complex Colonies: Understanding Growth and Cellular Memory

How do groups of cells grow and make decisions over time? Even when starting from a single cell, populations of human bone marrow stromal cells can develop in very different ways, posing challenges for regenerative medicine.
In this talk, I will present recent work that combines live-cell imaging with quantitative analysis to track how individual cells divide and form entire “family trees” of cell colonies. This approach reveals that cell behavior is not purely random: cells tend to inherit internal states that influence whether they keep dividing or stop.
We introduce a simple measure to quantify this inherited behavior and show that cell populations exhibit a form of hidden memory, likely driven by epigenetic mechanisms. Overall, these findings suggest that cell colonies behave as coordinated systems with memory, rather than as independent cells.

Speaker: Francesco Saverio Rotondi

Topology, Kinetics and Inheritance in human BMSCs.pdf

19:05 → 19:15 Discussion