The University of Pisa is a public institution boasting twenty departments, with high level research centres in the sectors of agriculture, astrophysics, computer science, engineering, medicine and veterinary medicine. Furthermore the University has close relations with the Pisan Institutes of the National Board of Research, with many cultural institutions of national and international importance, and with industry. The Department of Biology of the University of Pisa brings together a range of disciplines to understand life at all levels of biological organization in a wide variety of organisms, including viruses, bacteria, animals, plants and humans. Issues addressed in the research by the members of the Unit are very varied.