Book presentation "The Woman of Iron"

I am considered one of the rare women who made a career in medicine in the late 1990s

So begins Clara Camaschella‘s story. From Valsesia in the 1960s to the Faculty of Medicine in Turin in the 1970s and, after an overseas fellowship, a long, prestigious, but very strenuous and complex scientific career discovering the mysteries of blood and … iron.

Clara Camaschella’s autobiography is a tale of life and work where, with irony and lightness and blunt but rigorous language, complex issues (overcoming a disability, illness) are also addressed, particularly the difficulties of women in asserting themselves in university circles due to machismo.

Clara Camaschella grew up in a provincial world of religion, nuns, summer camps and Catholic Action.

In high school, she confides in her journal about her fears and desire to take charge of her future

Her choice of medicine, at the University of Turin, introduced her to a new world whose horizons would be further broadened during an internship in the United States shared with the man who would become her husband.

In 1991 at theSan Luigi Hospital in Orbassano, the second teaching hospital of the University of Turin, he began working on the molecular genetics of hemochromatosis

It was the beginning of a very nice adventure to understand the physiology of iron metabolism and its dysregulation in diseases

His career, first in Turin then in Milan, will be an obstacle course

When the Faculty Council narrowed down to just full professors we women always represented a scanty handful, at Saint Raphael we could be counted on the fingers of one hand

A full professor of Internal Medicine at the University of Turin, she has held the same position at the Vita Salute San Raffaele University of Milan since 2004 , moving from mainly clinical work to scientific research.

“The important thing is to ask a lot of ourselves regardless of the results”: the mantra she has been told over and over again has become a rule of life, enabling her to become a prestigious figure in international medical science for her research on metabolism and iron pathologies .

He successfully coordinated two research groups, first in Turin, then in Milan. Through achievements and collaborations, she has won prestigious awards, served as president of the International Society for the Study of Iron in Biology and Medicine (BioIron), board member of international journals andscientific societies in both Europe and the United States.

In the case of elected office, I have beaten men I considered far more capable than myself, unfortunately always under the suspicion that I won only because I was a woman

Preface by Silvia De Francia.

Biographical notes

Royalties will be donated to the AIRC Foundation for Cancer Research.

Clara Camaschella, born in Varallo in 1948, after graduating from high school in classical studies, graduated in Medicine in Turin and then specialized in Internal Medicine and Hematology.

A career linked to Turin where he did clinical work at Molinette and San Luigi di Orbassano.

A full professor of Internal Medicine since 2000, she has held the same position at theVita Salute San Raffaele University of Milan since 2004.

Head of an Iron Metabolism Research Unit, she was deputy director of the Genetics and Cell Biology Division at IRCCS San Raffaele Hospital.

Author of two hundred and eighty scientific publications and collaborations on international texts, she has served on the Board of the American Society of Hematology ASH and the European EHA and President of the International Society for the Study of Iron BioIron.

She has received scientific awards such as the Ham Wasserman lecture and the Jean Bernard life time achievement award Married to Federico Caligaris Cappio, after many years in Turin, she now lives in San Felice di Segrate (Milan).