Last Sunday, 11 May, Renato Ostuni, Associated Professor in Histology at Vita-Salute San Raffaele University and Group Leader at San Raffaele-Telethon Institute for Gene Therapy (SR-Tiget), talked about the benefits that sport has on the immune system health during the Italian Outdoor Fest, a new festival dedicated to the outdoor world.  

Besides guiding a research group that studies the role of the immune system in tumors and genetic diseases, Professor Ostuni is an ultra-runner and a passionate athlete. We met with him to ask how his commitment to research combines with his passion for sport and how the two activities benefit from each other.  

Professor Ostuni, you are a researcher and an athlete: for how long have you been practicing sport? 

I’ve been doing sport my entire life. When I was younger, I used to play football as a goalkeeper, because I hated running (!), but then I developed a passion for endurance sports and ‘hard’ sports like Alpinism. Then, during a mountain hike I was intrigued by some guys who were running on the trails: I used to run in the city, and I was not aware of the possibility of doing that in the mountains. That’s how I ended up becoming passionate about trail running. I clearly remember my first running with some friends on the mountains near Milan, followed by the decision to get more structured trainings, followed by the first races on short distances… Eventually, without even realizing it, I was at the finish line of extreme races like the Eiger Ultra Trail, a 250 km race with about 15000 meters height difference! 

What do research and sport have in common? 

I think that both activities are guided by the desire of exploration: a scientist wants to investigate nature to find new therapies and improve the human quality of life, while a sportsman wants to investigate himself to know and overcome his limits. Moreover, research as well as sport are never-ending activities. There’s always something new to discover! This is why, for both activities, what counts is the journey that brings you closer to the final objective, which often is (or seems) impossible to reach. The most interesting research is the one that has ambitious objectives, which are achieved by following the unknown with confidence, passion and perseverance; without looking for shortcuts, but by exploring path changes (which often lead to outstanding discoveries) to overcome the obstacles. The same holds true for sport: the most distant and impossible objective is also the one that motivates you the most to train for the best.  

What did research and sport teach you? 

Neither research nor sport are done by yourself, as the best results are obtained with teamwork, collaboration and mutual help. Since modern biomedical research is extremely complex and interdisciplinary, a laboratory shows its maximum potential when it creates synergies between people with varied expertise and different personal viewpoints. The same way, sport achievements – even the individual ones – are always the result of teamwork: coaches, training mates, friends, family… Another big lesson is that, both in research and sport, sometimes you need to stop and rest. To train effectively, it is necessary to alternate work with rest and give your body the chance to recharge and avoid injuries (I’m talking from a personal perspective). In the same way, of course research requires data and experiments, but it is also important to save some time to read, study, and think carefully and slowly. Research for me is the best job in the world, but this passion can sometimes become overwhelming. For this reason, it is fundamental to have an escape valve and dedicate some time to activities that make us feel good. In my case, that’s running.   

What are the research and sport achievements you are the most proud of?  

For a researcher, the best achievement is always the next discovery! That’s why, even more than a specific scientific result, I’m proud to have built a laboratory that has its own structure and identity, and to have contributed to the growth of brilliant scientists who are leading projects towards directions that I’ve never imagined before. Currently, for example, some of our most promising studies are born from the ideas of talented students and young researchers. Also in this case, what’s important is the journey rather than the result. When it comes to my experience in sport, I think that the achievement that excited me the most was my first 100 km race, in Tenerife. It wasn’t the longest race that I’ve made, but it still has a strong emotional load for me, because of that iconic number and because of the very difficult moments I had to face and overcome to arrive at the finish line.  

Last Sunday you were at the Italian Outdoor Festival. What did this event mean to you? 

I have a deep passion for science communication, which represents one of the fundamental missions of our university, together with education and research. I like bringing science out of the laboratory, telling our discoveries, as well as our research promises and challenges. Having done all of this within the community of the Italian Outdoor Festival, which is very important for me, was very special, also because I shared the stage with two friends: Filippo Canetta, a pioneer of ultra-running in Italy, who ran in the best and most extreme races in the world (the last one was the Marathon Des Sables, 250 km with stops in the Sahara desert) and Dylan Liabeuf, a scientist-athlete who right on this occasion was concluding his science communication project (the Berlin-Barcelona initiative, a bike ride through Europe to interview international scientists and sportsmen). This event allowed me to investigate a topic that I have been interested in for a long time: the interaction between physical exercise and the immune system.  

Your talk was about the influence of sport on the immune system. What do we know in this regard, and what are the most recent research developments?  

There is substantial research evidence pointing at sedentary lifestyle as one of the environmental factors (like an unbalanced diet, smoking and environmental pollution) that favor a chronic inflammatory state associated with a higher probability of developing tumors or cardiovascular diseases. In this context, it has been shown that regular or moderate physical activity contributes to counteracting these pathological processes also through its beneficial action on the immune system. Research is also trying to understand if it’s possible to use physical exercise as an adjuvant to maximize the efficacy of drugs and immunotherapy employed in the treatment of cancer. We are still at the very beginning of this field of study, which I think is extremely interesting and promising. I don’t deny that I would really like to study from a scientific point of view, by applying our knowledge, expertise and technological know-how, to define the relationship between physical activity and the immune system, which we still know very little about. I think this is the most beautiful aspect of the scientist’s job: to look for those nuances of nature that are still unknown.  

What piece of advice would you like to give to a young student who wants to become a researcher, an athlete or both? 

To be very committed to studying, with passion and confidence, to aim very high (maybe even to impossible objectives), and enjoy the journey! I also think it’s crucial to cut out some time for themselves and culture their own passion and interests. When we study or work, we always want to perform at our best, but we often forget to recover. The athlete, instead, trains, rests and gets better with time, until he or she achieves the best results. Thus, I would tell young students:  be athletes in research.