• The project led by the academic of Universidad de Santiago de Chile, Dr. José Zagal, intends to improve the efficiency of air batteries and fuel cells in order to increase their range and reduce the clean-energy costs.

More efficiency and range at a lower cost. These are the objectives of the innovative technology developed by the academic of Universidad de Santiago, Dr. José Zagal, to manufacture fuel cells and batteries that would allow saving up to four times more energy compared to current internal combustion engines.

This technology was presented at a conference organized by Fundación Imagen de Chile and it seeks to replace the catalysts used in these processes- mostly platinum- with cheaper materials. “We propose to replace them with iron elements, which essentially have a structure similar to the one of hemoglobin that transports oxygen in our body,” the electrochemist of Universidad de Santiago said.

The importance of this technology lies in the use of these materials in electric cars, as it is more beneficial and efficient in comparison to the technology of current internal combustion engines. “In one fuel cell, the efficiency in power conversion could reach 85% versus 20% or 25% in a traditional internal combustion engine (like the one in cars, trucks, etc.)”, Dr. Zagal said.

Therefore, according to Dr. Zagal, an electric car could travel almost four times the distance- with the same amount of fuel- in comparison with a conventional car. “Now, if we use hydrogen as fuel, it would be more expensive, but its combustion does not pollute the environment at all, as it produces water vapor and does not deliver carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide, if compared to gas or diesel,” he added.

This technology is also useful in other areas. For example, it can be used by the military, by ships, and also to give energy support to homes. Besides, it allows supplying electric power to distant places, where electricity can be generated by solar-cell panels or wind turbines.

“This issue is very much alive in the world today. It is considered very important, very urgent and, as research work in Chile is seen as a model, it can lead us to more ambitious projects in the future,” Dr. Zagal said.

Myriam Gómez, Director of Fundación Imagen de Chile, agrees with him by saying that “conducting research and developing technologies at this level, with a high impact and public interest, certainly make us a model and position Chile at the forefront of world science, giving prestige to the country and its researchers.”

About Dr. Zagal

Dr. Zagal is an academic at the Faculty of Chemistry and Biology of Universidad de Santiago. He has worked for more than 40 years in the field of electrochemistry and he has been honored by major international societies, like the International Society of Electrochemistry (ISE), and the Electrochemical Society (ECS) of the United States, that appointed him “Fellow”, for the number of his publications and their impact, the number of citations of his work, and his contribution to the education of many undergraduate and graduate students, among others.

One of Dr. Zagal’s research lines is the study of catalysts to optimize the energy efficiency of storage devices like fuel cells. In this context, Dr. Zagal has a wide knowledge of materials like hydrogen and fuels like oxygen, which are essential for the commercialization of electric cars and fuel cells and batteries that they require.

About Fundación Imagen de Chile

Fundación Imagen de Chile has the primary mission of setting the strategic guidelines to show Chile and its most outstanding attributes to the world by appealing to world public opinion and having an impact on the way the country is perceived abroad. To optimize Chile’s positioning abroad, it coordinates the work of different government agencies in charge of international promotion with the work of the private sector.

Translated by Marcela Contreras

• The candidacy of the renowned electrochemist for the highest scientific award of the country is supported by our University and different associations and representatives of the national and international scientific world.

With the support of Universidad de Santiago de Chile, through its highest authority, President Juan Manuel Zolezzi, the candidacy application of the University’s renowned researcher was submitted last week. He has been recognized by his peers and has been honored by international scientific societies that validate the experience and contributions made by this researcher of the Faculty of Chemistry and Biology.

The National Award is the maximum prize given by the State to acknowledge the work made by Chileans who stand out by their excellence, creativity and significant contribution to culture and the development of different areas of knowledge and the arts.

In the University’s scientific community nobody has been awarded this prize yet; for this reason, Maritza Páez and Jorge Pavez, both academics at the Faculty of Chemistry and Biology, did not hesitate to promote Doctor José Zagal’s nomination to the National Award of Natural Sciences 2014, who has been honored both in Chile and abroad.

Contribution to education

Jorge Pavez, a researcher, and Maritza Páez, the Director of the Department of Chemistry of Materials of Universidad de Santiago, were both among Dr. Zagal’s students and they highlight his enormous contribution to teaching, as well as his scientific career. At an academic level, they stress the work he has done directing Master’s degree and doctoral dissertations.

“Dr. Zagal’s contribution is notable, because it has positioned Universidad de Santiago and the country in the electrochemistry research world scene,” Dr. Pavez said. He added that Dr. Zagal’s nomination is based on his career throughout these years contributing to this field, both at a scientific and at an educational level, at training new generations.”

Also, professor Pavez said: “His contribution to electrochemistry has gone beyond the country’s borders and the region. Proofs of this are the two international prizes that were awarded to him this year by the world most renowned scientific societies in this field: the Electrochemical Society (ECS), in the United States, and the International Society of Electrochemistry (ISE), in Europe, that record the highest-impact publications on electrochemistry.”

In April and June, both societies, ECS and ISE, sent Dr. Zagal letters of recognition appointing him “Fellow”, “for his exceptional contribution to electrochemistry” and “scientific achievements.” The ISE has scheduled its awarding ceremony for September, during its annual meeting in Switzerland, while the ECS has scheduled its ceremony for October, during its bi-annual meeting that will be held in Mexico.

Valuable work

According to the candidate for the National Award of Natural Sciences, this year 2014 has been especially meaningful due to the recognition of his work. On the one hand, he received the recognition of the societies mentioned above, and on the other, he received the support from the University and his peers.

“Curiously, this year I have been honored by two international associations and I think this is important, because they are external organizations that recognize that, at Universidad de Santiago, our work is valuable,” Dr. Zagal said.

In addition, renowned scientists of other universities support him too and so do the editors of noted international publications in which he is part of the editorial board, like the Journal of Solid State Electrochemistry, Electrochemistry Communications, International Journal of Electrochemistry, Electrocatalysis, International Journal of Biotechnology & Biochemistry, ISRN Electrochemistry, Electrochemistry Communications, Journal of the Serbian Chemical Society and Electrochemical Energy Technology.

At present, Dr. Zagal is working in two lines of research at Universidad de Santiago: The development of electrodes for energy conversion systems and the development of sensors for detecting substances in fluids.

“There are prominent scientists at our University, but none of them has been honored with a National Award and I believe that sometime one of them should be awarded a prize like this; this would be very important for the prestige of our University, because it is one of the universities that conducts more research in Chile,” Dr. Zagal said.

The jury that will decide on the National Award 2014 (according to Law 19.169) is made up by the Minister of Education, Nicolás Eyzaguirre; the President of Universidad de Chile, Ennio Vivaldi; the President of the Chilean Academy of Science of Instituto Chile, Juan Alfonso Asenjo; the President of Universidad de Antofagasta (on behalf of the CRUCH), Alberto Loyola Morales; and the previous award winner (2012), Bernabé Santelices González

Translated by Marcela Contreras

• Dr. Sergio Velastín, professor at the Department of Informatics Engineering of Universidad de Santiago de Chile, gave a talk on the use of data fusion in computer vision at the 17th Conference of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), held at Salamanca, Spain. Around 400 officials from the Ministries of Defense of different countries and members of the NATO attended the conference.

International experts on data management gathered last week in Salamanca, Spain, at the 17th version of the International Conference on Information Fusion (Fusion 2014) supported by the IEEE. Universidad the Santiago de Chile was represented by Dr. Sergio Velastín, full professor at the Department of Informatics Engineering, who gave a presentation during the activity.

He gave his presentation “The potential of fusion in computer vision application” to more than 400 people, many of them members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and representatives of Ministries of Defense of different countries, who attended the conference to learn about the progress in this field.

Dr. Velastín talked about computer vision, the branch of artificial intelligence that is concerned with finding artificial means to interpret the visual information of the surrounding world. Human beings have specialized in this interpretation and use a significant part of their brains to do it. “Most of what we do every day (getting around, driving, interacting with others, enjoying sports, teaching our children, learning, reading information, among others) requires interpreting what we see. If machines were able to emulate these abilities, we could potentially enrich our lives and empower mentally or motor- handicapped people. We could also make our public spaces safer,” the academic said.

Data processing in the digital era

According to the researcher, more than 40 years ago, a revolution started in human development that would potentially transform what up to then were physical quantities (images, printed letters, vital signs like blood pressure, sounds, among others) into digital data (numbers) that could be processed by a computer. “This digital era in which we live has surrounded us to such a degree that we almost do not realize how extended the generation, transmission and processing of data are. A routine telephone call occurs thanks to the processing of these numbers. Everything can be more easily filed and humankind is generating more data than ever in its existence,” professor Velastín said.

The academic explained that although many technologies- like data fusion- initially arose due to military needs, especially during the Cold War, “the use of this data involves large potential benefits, but they undoubtedly depend on how societies and governments use it. Europe, with a more egalitarian and socially inclusive model, is achieving great progress benefiting people, for example, through the so-called intelligent cities and environmentally assisted life.”

Professor Velastín thinks that in societies with more individualistic models, like Chile or even the United States, benefits could turn into danger, mainly because these contributions are not well distributed and are not used for social inclusion. “How many municipal schools do usually use tablets or smart boards?” The risk posed by disparity in the access to technology increases inequality, particularly, in future generations,” he said.

Security cameras

At present, Dr. Velastín is conducting a study in London on people’s behavior on public transportation, by recording and interpreting digital images captured by security cameras. In his opinion, the use of cameras in public spaces is a complex issue that depends on the balance between the right to security and the right to privacy. “In an ideal society, nobody is arrested at random unless he/she is a suspect or has put other people’s security at risk. What is important is to have clear regulations that are transparently respected by everyone who is responsible for a security camera, both in the government and in the private sector.

Professor Velastín has worked for several years in the United Kingdom, the country with more cameras per capita in the world, but also with very strong regulations for protecting data. He went to Spain in the context of a visiting professorship at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, through its Chairs of Excellence program, funded by Banco Santander.

Translated by Marcela Contreras

• Dr. María José Galotto, director of Universidad de Santiago’s Packaging Laboratory, was appointed as the National Contact Point for Horizon 2020 Framework Program in the area of nanotechnology. Horizon 2020 is a European program that provides funding for research and innovation in different fields. “This is in recognition of the University’s positioning in the area of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, reached through CEDENNA,” the researcher said.

The National Commission for Scientific and Technological Research (Conicyt, in Spanish) informed that Dr. María José Galotto, director of Universidad de Santiago’s Packaging Laboratory (Laben, in Spanish) was appointed National Contact Point for the Horizon 2020 Framework Program in the area of “Nanotechnologies, Advanced Materials and Advanced Manufacturing and Processing.”

Dr. Galotto said that her appointment “is in recognition of the University’s positioning in the area of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, reached through the Center for the Development of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (CEDENNA, in Spanish), where nanotechnology is being applied to different areas of knowledge. This appointment will consolidate this new line of research and this positioning.”

According to Dr. Galotto, it is also in recognition of the constant work that Laben has developed over time, which results have been reflected in several research projects, publications in ISI journals and patents. This, in turn, results in a very close relation with the food and agricultural industry and food packaging industry at a national and international level.

The Laben was invited to be part of the International Association of Packaging Research Institutes (IAPRI). This membership, awarded by invitation only, is proof of the international recognition that our University has received.

Dr. Galotto’s appointment is also important because this area has a great future in the Food Science and Technology field; therefore, being able to get in contact with other research groups in Chile and abroad, will strengthen the links between the University’s academics and other researchers.

Among her new responsibilities, she will have to promote and foster the participation of nanotechnology research groups in the Horizon 2020 Framework Program, in which Chile will be entitled the same benefits that the European Union member states enjoy.

Regarding this, Dr. Galotto said that “up to date, we have had the first work meeting at Conicyt and we have scheduled others for the second semester, both here in Chile and in Europe.”

Nanotechnology

According to the researcher, “nanotechnology will integrate with food and agricultural industry as an option for developing food with better sensory and nutritional properties, better quality, and useful life, and greater safety.”

Dr. Galotto specified that our University is well ahead in this area, since the Laben has been working several years in applying nanotechnology to food packaging.

She added that researchers at Laben have led studies, in which nanotechnology has been applied, for example, to the development of packaging with anti-microbial activity to extend the life of food like salmon, or to reducing the level of compounds that accelerate the ripening of climacteric fruits like kiwi or avocado, among others.

Translated by Marcela Contreras

• By means of a Regular Fondecyt Project, researchers at the Faculty of Chemistry and Biology, led by Dr. Brenda Modak, are studying a treatment to protect the national salmon farming industry from the dangerous bacterium Piscirickettsia Salmonis, by using wild plants from the Atacama Desert.
• “Synthetic products have proved to be a problem where they have been used as they accumulate at the bottom of the sea. This is the reason why we refer to this as a sanitary challenge that national aquaculture has to face. Working with a natural compound will not only lead to a less invasive cure: there will also be less pollution in waters where it is used,” Dr. Modak stressed.

In the last decades, aquaculture in Chile has been constantly growing, placing Chile in the first place of producers in America, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Also, salmon production accounts for 76% of the national fish farming industry, according to the National Service of Fishing. For these reasons, infections affecting salmon farming at a national level can become a serious problem for the country.

“We are the world’s second leading country in salmon farming, after Norway. So, everything related to infectious diseases becomes important, even more, when it comes to Piscirickettsia salmonis, a bacterium that has killed about 50% of the salmon population in the country,” affecting an industry that generates more than 60 thousand jobs in the south of the country,” Dr. Brenda Modak stressed.

In order to find effective solutions to this problem, Dr. Modak, together with a multidisciplinary research team from Universidad de Santiago’s Faculty of Chemistry and Biology, are working on the Regular Fondecyt Project “Evaluation of natural products with potential antibacterial activity against P. Salmonis.”

“We are trying to test the activity of natural products isolated from plants against this bacterium (P. Salmonis), which has been difficult to combat with common synthetic antibiotics. However, our compounds have proved to be effective as antiviral drugs and immunostimulants for salmons, so this is where the idea of testing them in salmons already infected came from,” she said.

To develop the treatment, researchers will work with plants that grow wildly in the Atacama Desert, which produce a resin that covers the plants to protect themselves against the unfavorable environment in which they grow.

“We will extract the resin from the plant and then we will separate its different components. We have seen that the resin is made of two groups of compounds, from which we will take some samples and test them against the bacterium,” she said.

Three Universidad de Santiago’s laboratories are taking part in this study: the Laboratory of Chemistry of Natural Products, the Laboratory of Immunology and the Laboratory of Virology. First, the study of the extracted resin will be started until the pure compounds are obtained. This will be followed by the bacterial cell growth. Then, the in vitro work will be done, observing how the bacterium is affected by the compounds. Finally, in the in vivo work, salmons will be infected and then they will be given an injection with the elaborated product.

“Synthetic products have proved to be a problem where they have been used as they accumulate at the bottom of the sea. This is the reason why we refer to this as a sanitary challenge that national aquaculture has to face. Working with a natural compound will not only lead to a less invasive cure: there will also be less pollution in waters where it is used,” Dr. Modak stressed.
 

Translated by Marcela Contreras

• Universidad de Santiago’s Innovo Center was awarded these funds to run the Flexible Allocation Seed Grant Fund for four years in order to accelerate the development of innovative scientific and technological business ventures of international impact.
• “This grant is in recognition for the work done by the Center’s Business Incubator, which has dedicated itself to promote the innovation and entrepreneurship culture and has helped to create new technology-based companies,” Innovo’s Director said.

In order to strengthen scientific and technological business ventures, the Chilean Economic Development Agency (CORFO, in Spanish) awarded Universidad de Santiago’s Innovo Center 2,600 million pesos to run the Flexible Allocation Seed Grant Fund (SSAF, in Spanish) for four years. These funds will be earmarked for supporting innovative, high-impact start-up companies.

“The objective is to accelerate the development of local scientific and technological business ventures at an early commercial stage which are based on technologies in their last mile of development and have a potential international impact. We have 500 million pesos available for the first year and then, 700 million pesos every year,” Luis Lino, Innovo’s Director, explained.

These resources will be given to scientific and technological entrepreneurs through contestable funding. Those who are interested and meet the requirements will have to apply for it. For the business ventures that are granted SSAF funds, Innovo Center considers a first stage of international commercial validation. For this purpose, Innovo has 10 million pesos available, and for the second stage of commercialization support, it has 50 million pesos. Both stages require co-funding, as entrepreneurs will have to provide 25% of the total cost of the project.

“The contestable funding call will include entrepreneurs with technological projects, as well as other Chilean academic or research centers. The first call is scheduled between August and October this year and the projects will be evaluated according to their innovation degree, teamwork, technology development and their impact on the country,” Lino explained.

In Director Lino’s opinion, this grant is in recognition for the work done by the Center’s Business Incubator, which has dedicated itself to promote the innovation and entrepreneurship culture and has helped to create new technology-based companies.

Today, 33 companies are being incubated in fields like engineering, life science, biomedicine, and information technology with impact on industry. Some business ventures that are worth to mention are the development of a tidal power harvesting equipment, a biotechnological treatment for mining industry liquid wastes, the first electric car developed in Chile and a new energy dissipation system for buildings, among others.


Translated by Marcela Contreras

• The Optics and Photonics Group of Universidad de Santiago, led by graduate student Pablo Fredes, organized an educational astrophotography camp aiming to promote knowledge on how to handle different state-of-the-art technologies to observe the stellar panorama, capturing unprecedented photographs.

About 15 students of the Engineering Physics program participated at the First Southern Night Skies Astrophotography Camp organized by the Optics and Photonics Group of our University, which is one of the Student Chapters of the Optical Society of America (OSA).

During two nights, the young group made up of undergraduate and graduate students of the Engineering Physics program participated in the activity that was sponsored by Centro Cultural de Astronomía La Cisterna. They were taken to Observatorio Turístico y Educativo Roan Jasé, at Cajón del Maipo to become familiar with observational field work using different telescopes and high-resolution CCD cameras that operate together with a computer to capture images of the night sky.

About 15 students, together with five members of Centro Cultural de Astronomía La Cisterna, had the possibility of observing the surface of the sun and its spots during the day and enjoyed interesting talks about the life cycle of stars, constellations, exoplanets, the Mapuche world view and astrobiology, among others.

“We learned so much: setting the telescopes in ‘station’, understanding the use of mirrors and lenses, distinguishing different types of telescopes and finding celestial bodies in the sky. Watching planets directly is amazing,” the student Daniel Barrientos said. He considered the experience to be rewarding, even from a spiritual point of view.

For these young students, this approach to astronomy also represents a view to the wide variety of employment opportunities related to their program and it allows them to start exploring the possibility of working in any of the important astronomical observatories in our country.

Astronomy at Universidad de Santiago

Pablo Fredes, president of the Optics and Photonics Group of our University, one of the OSA’s Student Chapters, is also a professor at the Department of Physics and is writing his dissertation to complete his Philosophy of Science graduate program. From his experience as a teacher, he thinks that astronomy is a field that could be strengthened by our University, especially because of the relations fostered by the Planetarium and the enthusiasm shown by the students of his Department.

“All physics students are interested in astronomy,” he said, considering the advantages offered by the skies of our country for this activity and for research. “Maybe this camp can contribute to develop this field at the University,” Fredes added.

He explained that the camp idea was born last year, when the members of the group were thinking thought about the activity that they wanted hold in 2014 with funds provided by the OSA.

The OSA, through its student chapters, funds activities aiming to spread, promote and encourage studying some physics branches, like optics and photonics (the study of photons’ properties and flux).

“The OSA’s grant allowed us to buy a CCD camera- that we attached to a telescope- and to cover transportation, food and entry-fee expenses,” Fredes said.

The activity was organized together with Centro Cultural de Astronomía La Cisterna, which members are astronomy amateurs willing to share their knowledge and equipment.

“We are very happy with the results, because the activity included young people who knew much about optics but who had not had the chance of watching through a telescope or taking photographs with this type of instruments. Besides, the images we were able to capture are a valuable material, so we are doubly satisfied,” Manuel Tobar, a member of Centro Cultural de Astronomía La Cisterna, said.

In October, the members of the group are planning to hold the Second National Congress of Optics and Photonics, where they expect to exhibit the photographs taken during the camp that took place on April 4-6.

“We would like to have more activities, establish more links and have the possibility of applying for other grants, maybe at a university or at a national level,” Fredes concluded.

Translated by Marcela Contreras

• Universidad de Santiago’s interdisciplinary research team, led by Dr. Silvia Matiacevich from the Technological Faculty, is focused on developing an edible film that could increase the shelf life of fresh foods by 30%.

Improving the way of preserving foods has been a permanent concern in food industry. This is the reason why packaging is essential for the quality and shelf life of the product. But this packaging should be in harmony with the environment.

In light of this situation, a sustainable alternative for food packaging has been developed: food covering edible films, which are being widely used and have become a world trend nowadays. At Universidad de Santiago, an interdisciplinary research team is trying to replicate this development, giving value added to different national byproducts.

This initiative will be viable thanks to the Associative Dicyt Project called “Bioactive Coatings for Foods”, which gathers together experts from different faculties of the University.

“We will use food industry byproducts which are considered as dispensable or waste material. We are going to give them a value added by adding antioxidant and antimicrobial components to them in order to increase the shelf life of fresh food products,” Dr. Daniel López says.

Academics from three different faculties gathered for this purpose: Dr. Rubén Bustos, from the Faculty of Engineering (Department of Chemical Engineering); Dr. Diego Venegas and Dr. Marlén Gutiérrez, from the Faculty of Chemistry and Biology (Department of Materials Chemistry); and Dr. Daniel López and Dr. Silvia Matiacevich, from the Technological Faculty (Department of Food Science and Technology), being Dr. Matiacevich the leader of the project.

During the two years scheduled for the project, the researchers plan to study the synergistic effect of this combination of products and they expect to increase food shelf life by over 30%.

Interdisciplinarity

Most of the academics related to this project are part of a larger group created by the end of 2013 called Indi, Asociación de Investigadores por el Desarrollo e Interdisciplinariedad of Universidad de Santiago de Chile, a group of researchers that promotes development and interdisciplinarity at the university.

“All of us have participated in some of these initiatives at some point, seeking for this interdisciplinarity. This is how we have met other people and created contacts. What is good is that more than just admiring the work of others, we have the real possibility of conducting studies together. For this reason, we value this type of projects, as they promote the integration and interdisciplinarity that define a university,” Dr. Matiacevich says.

Translated by Marcela Contreras
 

• Patricio Flores, PhD in Biotechnology, and Yu-Wen Tang, student at the Master´s program in Technology Management- Major in Biotechnology, both from the Faculty of Chemistry and Biology, were awarded a grant to develop a strategy for marketing an enzyme that has multiple benefits for diagnosing diseases.

As a result of the work they did for a doctoral dissertation and after being granted funds through the “Go To Market, de la Idea al Mercado” Contest organized by Corfo (the Chilean Economic Development Agency), the researchers will get trained in Silicon Valley, in the context of the third stage of the project “Developing a strategy for marketing a highly stable glutamate dehydrogenase (GLDH) enzyme.”

The project, which was developed under the guidance of Dr. Jenny Blamey, associate professor at Universidad de Santiago, proposes replacing the bovine GLDH enzyme with one from an Antarctic extremophilic microorganism (capable of resisting extreme conditions of temperature, pH, pressure, salinity, among others), which does not have the deficiencies of its predecessor. Its most common application is in the area of clinical laboratories where it is used for diagnosing hepatic and renal diseases

According to researcher Patricio Flores, “having discovered this new enzyme, glutamate dehydrogenase (GLDH), improves the half-life of five different types of diagnostic kits, as its thermal stability is higher than the one of the enzyme used today.” The academic stresses that “what is most important is that it also solves the problem of low half-life of the “old” diagnostic kits, preventing from discarding expired kits that have not been used, improving result reliability, lowering costs, reducing losses for companies and enabling a stock available to give a quick answer to market requirements.”

“The new enzyme is much more stable. It can be stored at room temperature, keeping more than 85% of its activity for 50 days. On the other hand, the bovine enzyme completely loses its activity under the same conditions,” Dr. Flores explains, regarding the results of this project that involves Universidad de Santiago and Fundación Científica y Cultural Biocencia.

Go To Market

“Go To Market, de la Idea al Mercado” is an initiative that seeks to identify research studies conducted at universities, technological centers and Chilean companies that have generated technologies that could potentially benefit the global market.

“The application process for the Corfo’s Go to Market Contest coincided with the last steps to finish my doctoral dissertation in which I developed the product prototype, that is to say, the GLDH enzyme from an Antarctic thermophilic microorganism,” Dr, Flores says.

At present, the project is at its third stage, which involves getting training at the Standford Research Institute (SRI), scheduling meetings with investors and interested clients and developing a marketing strategy to position the product in the market. These will be the activities that the two researchers will have while they stay in USA.

Translated by Marcela Contreras

• On April 04th, quantitative genetics researchers from all over the country will meet at Universidad the Santiago. This scientific discipline could be a significant contribution towards improving species and generating new products.

Transgenic products are a controversial issue; however, little is said about techniques that would help to avoid their use, which results may have a positive impact on the different productive sectors of the country. This help is quantitative genetics, a field that gave rise to the “1st Population Genetics Conference: bridging the genotype-phenotype gap.”

This activity will be held on April 04th, when experts coming from all over the country will meet to discuss about this matter, its significance, implications and progress.

The conference was organized by Dr. Francisco Cubillos, researcher at the Applied Biotechnology and Microbiology Laboratory (Lamap, its acronym in Spanish) of the Food Science and Technology Research Center (CECTA, its acronym in Spanish) of Universidad de Santiago. According to the academic, this opportunity arises from the lack of similar activities in Chile. “Through this conference- he says- we seek to create a community that contributes to optimize the work that we are doing.”

Regarding the participants, Dr. Cubillos says “they are scientists working at the quantitative genetics field, particularly, in narrowing the gap between genotype, our differences at a genetic level, and phenotype, the traits observed in a particular population.”

With respect to the status of this line of work in the country, Dr. Cubillos thinks that it is highly developed, since studies are carried out in different areas: plants, fish, algae and yeasts.

Dr. Cubillos explains that the former is possible as quantitative genetics “is a very friendly technique to improve a species or to enhance the generation of a new product.” “What we do is to try to understand the existing genetic variation and incorporate it so as to create, for example, individuals able to resist a disease or some environmental stress factors, using only what already exists in nature,” he adds.

Regarding the expectations for the conference, the researcher says that he expects “to have debates on the issues, to foster the creation of collaboration networks and partnerships, to give support to students and to continue with this activity in the future.”

Some of the renowned researchers that will take part in the conference are Patricio Hinrichsen, from Grupo Vides Inia La Platina, Levi Mansur, from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Roberto Nespolo, from Universidad Austral, among others. Universidad de Santiago’s representatives will be Dr. Rodrigo Vidal and Dr. Renato Chávez, from the Faculty of Chemistry and Biology, in addition to the researchers of the yeast-research area of the University.

The conference will be held on Friday, April 04th, between 09:00 and 18:00 hr., at Sala de Conferencias A, (Conference Room A) in the Centro de Eventos Nacionales e Internacionales of the Vice presidency of Outreach and Engagement, located at Las Sophoras #175.

Registration contact e-mail: francisco.cubillos.r@usach.cl
 
Translated by Marcela Contreras