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Very good Matteo, congratulations.
Shall we talk in Italian?
I wanted to ask a question.
In your speech, you talked about the new opportunities this discovery may open.
Could you anticipate us something about it?
Synaptic plasticity was one of the things we expected but the same area involved
in suspended animation actually controls other organs, like bones for example.
You know, if a human gets stuck for too long time, problems of rehabilitation arise,
because muscles atrophy and bones demineralize.
This is not the case of hibernating animals.
Think about the polar bear. It usually stays around 6 months in hibernation,
then it's ready to hunt back again, a feature that lead us
to suspect an involvement of this kind of central control.
There are also other aspects, for example it doesn't urinate during those 6 months,
so even the kidneys must undergo an interesting modification.
The study of this model, we believe, can bring about robust developments.
Go forward and cross new frontiers.
It's been a pleasure.
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