From 8 to 12 June 2026, the first TETRIS Young Researchers Week (YRW) took place in Milan, hosted by Politecnico di Milano.
The initiative brought together early-career and senior researchers from across the TETRIS consortium for a week dedicated to scientific exchange, interdisciplinary collaboration, training, and networking.
The event was organised and hosted by the team of Paolo Zunino at Politecnico di Milano and support from Tiziana Rancati from Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori di Milano and the CMON Lab team for their guidance, support, and commitment throughout these enriching days of discussion, learning, and collaboration.
Participants included Antón Vega Méndez, Sara Gutiérrez-Enríquez, Miguel Elías Aguado-Barrera, Maria Giulia Ubeira Gabellini, Tiziana Rancati, Marco Fois, Francesca Arceci, Piermario Vitullo, Benedetta Dionisi Ferrera, Filippo Schiavo, and Paolo Zunino, representing Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology (VHIO), Fundación Pública Galega de Medicina Xenómica, Karolinska University Hospital, Libera Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele.
Opening the Week
The programme officially started on 8 June with a welcome session led by Tiziana Rancati, who introduced the objectives of the week and outlined the role of the Young Researchers Week in strenghtening collaboration across the consortium. The opening session was followed by an informal social gathering, providing participants with an opportunity to get to know each other and build connections from the very beginning.
Presentations, Collaboration and Knowledge Exchange
The second day featured a series of presentations from both young and senior researchers.
Participants shared their ongoing work, methodologies, and perspectives related to the different TETRIS work packages, fostering discussion and interdisciplinary exchange. Presentations were delivered by Francesca Arceci, Piermario Vitullo, Benedetta Dionisi Ferrera, Filippo Schiavo, Marco Fois, Antón Vega, Alfonso Berardo, and Miguel Aguado Barrera. The day concluded with collaborative group activities and a social dinner.
Educational Webinars
A key component of the Young Researchers Week was the Educational programme, which included dedicated webinars delivered by TETRIS researchers.
The first webinar was presented by Sara Gutiérrez Enriquez, from VHIO, who delivered a lecture on “Introduction to Genomic Biomarkers in Radiation Oncology” on the 3rd day. The session introduced participants to the role of genomic biomarker in understanding individual responsed to radiotherapy, covering topics such as genetic susceptibility to side effects, genomic variants, genome-wide association studies (GWAS), polygenic risk scores, and the objectives of TETRIS WP4.
The same day, Alessandro Cicchetti and Alessandra Catalano from the CMON Lab – Data Science Unit, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori delivered two webinars:
- Beyond the Heart: Multi-Organ Quantitative CT Biomarkers for Cardiovascular Risk Prediction in Oncology Patients
- Predict, Plan, Optimise: A Real-Time Decision Support Tool for Personalised Radiotherapy
These sessions highlighted how advanced imaging, quantitative biomarkers, and decision-support tools can contribute to personalised risk prediction and treatment optimisation in oncology.
Please find Sara’s webinar here.
Working Together Across Disciplines
The remainder of the week was dedicated to collaborative group activities, allowing participants to work together on research challenges, exchange expertise, and discuss future developments within the TETRIS project. These sessions encouraged interaction between researchers with different backgrounds, including radiotherapy, medical physics, genomics, imaging, data science, and mathematical modelling.
The event concluded on 12 June with final presentations summarising the progress achieved during the week, followed by a social lunch at Cascina Rosa, a unique centre in Milan dedicated to promoting healthy lifestyles, nutrition education, and wellbeing for cancer patients and the wider community.
Find out more here.
Image from Cascina Rosa Activities
Strengthening the TETRIS Community
Beyond the scientific programme, the first TETRIS Young Researchers Week represented an important opportunity to strengthen the sense of community within the consortium. By bringing together young and senior researchers in an informal and collaborative environment, the event fostered new connections, encouraged knowledge sharing, and reinforced the project’s common goal of advancing safer and more personalised radiotherapy.
The TETRIS consortium would like to thank all participants, speakers, and organisers for contributing to the success of this first edition and looks forward to future opportunities for collaboration and training.
