• 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

• The Food Science and Technology Research Center of Universidad de Santiago was accredited as a laboratory for 4 years by the National Institute for Standardization, an agency that is in charge of certifying infrastructure, equipment and qualified staff, in this case, to perform scientific tests in the areas of chemistry and microbiology. President Juan Manuel Zolezzi congratulated the Center’s managers, academics and students for this achievement, stressing that “the commitment of our University to science, technology and innovation is faithfully reflected in this laboratory, so we will continue making it stronger.”

On Wednesday 8th, the President of Universidad de Santiago, Juan Manuel Zolezzi arrived in the facilities of the Food Science and Technology Research Center (CECTA, its acronym in Spanish) to congratulate its managing team, academics and students for the accreditation of CECTA by the National Institute for Standardization (INN, its acronym in Spanish).

The INN is an autonomous foundation created by the Chilean Economic Development Agency (Corfo) that is in charge of promoting the creation and use of Chilean standards and accrediting conformity assessment institutions like CECTA of Universidad de Santiago, which was certified for the maximum period of 4 years.

After a process started in 2009, with more emphasis as of 2011, the INN finally informed in December, 2013, that the CECTA has the infrastructure, equipment and qualified staff to run scientific tests as a test laboratory in the areas of chemistry and microbiology.

During his visit, President Zolezzi said that he was aware of “the great job done by everyone who is part of CECTA in an accreditation process that is not easy.”

“I know the efforts that CECTA has made to get accredited. These are not simple processes, but the excellent results obtained are worthy. Also, this certification significantly backs not only the Center but the University, that has contributed to this achievement with funds and will continue doing it,” President Zolezzi said.

“The commitment of our University to science, technology and innovation is faithfully reflected in this laboratory; this is why we are interested in continuing to make this type of organization stronger and we expect this to attract researchers from the University and other institutions,” he said.

For his part, Claudio Martínez, director of CECTA, described CECTA’s accreditation by the INN as “a milestone in the history of our Center.”

“This decision recognizes our very professional way of working and it open doors for us to undertake more complex projects, together with companies, exporting ones mainly, which we were not able to access before. It is a great opportunity and it is our challenge to make the most of it,” Martínez said.

“For example now, we can have access to other types of certification, through SAG (Agricultural and Livestock Service) or Sernapesca (Fishing National Service), which are agencies that require previous accreditations,” he added.

“This means that the accreditation was the first big step; now, our mission is to keep CECTA moving forward in the same way it has advanced up to now: meeting standards and regulations to the greatest possible degree,” concluded Claudio Martínez, director of this accredited Center.

Translated by Marcela Contreras

• According to Scopus database, the most cited article of Universidad de Santiago during 2012 belongs to Mario Inostroza, of the Department of Informatics Engineering, who is part of an interdisciplinary team of Australia that has provided findings related to different organisms’ genomes and has developed computational biology studies.

In 2012, Universidad de Santiago de Chile published 421 scientific articles, according to Scopus database. Out of these articles, the most cited one was the article written by Mario Inostroza, PhD, a researcher at the Department of Informatics Engineering, of the Faculty of Engineering. This result included 2012 and the record was closed on November 28th, 2013.

The work called “Genome-wide analysis of long noncoding RNA stability”, was published on the American journal Genome Research (Q1), and gives information about new findings regarding different organisms’ genomes and about computational biology studies, among others.

For the author, an expert in Computer Science, “being cited by the scientific community is recognition of the research work that I am doing. My goals are to continue working on this research line and to contribute, from Computer Science, to new areas of development.”

This work is the result of an interdisciplinary collaboration work with research groups of Australia, where professor Inostroza contributed from his discipline. “My particular contribution has been from the world of Computer Science and the development of data analysis advanced tools,” Inostroza said.

The results show new evidence of how some DNA sequences work, that before were considered only as noncoding DNA. “Particularly, we found a stable behavior in a large group of these sequences, that shows that they may have an important role in complex metabolisms and different functions,” he explained.

For the academic, besides being a purely scientific contribution, this work is also important because it reflects the spirit of the Department of Informatics Engineering, where the knowledge of Computer Science is applied to different areas, collaborating with top-quality research groups.

Quality versus quantity

An issue that is constantly debated among the scientific community is that, when it comes to publishing articles, a researcher should favor quantity or quality. Regarding this, Dr. Inostroza said that an article goes under several proof procedures, what in turn results in a good-quality and good-level article.

First the researcher’s work is studied. He has to comply with all the steps demanded by scientific rigor. Then, the article undergoes a revision process by the corresponding journal or conference committee. In the end, the scientific community is the one that judges the article’s quality by citing it or using its results.

“During the last years, what has been mainly judged is the number of publications that a researcher has, acknowledging and considering the ones with a larger number of publications. The nature of the different research areas has long been discussed and the number of publications in each considerably varies. I believe that a differentiated acknowledgement policy according to the research area would positively contribute to improve the quality and the impact of the works presented,” Inostroza said.

Regarding to what the University should promote in this area, professor Inostroza has a clear opinion: “Together with encouraging teachers to do research and publish articles in high-impact journals, the University should strengthen collaborative work and the generation of networks with high-level international institutions and research groups. This will benefit not only the researcher. It will make possible the visit of renowned researchers and the exchange of undergraduate and graduate students.”

Finally, the academic suggested the need of protecting quality over quantity regarding the scientific production of the institution. “Nowadays, most of the University’s incentives are short-term (for example, number of publications in a year) and I don’t have information about long-term approaches. One example of this is the process called Evaluación de Antecedentes de Investigación (Research Background Evaluation) and the Asignación de Estímulo a la Excelencia en Investigación (Incentives for Excellence at Research), which consider the number of publications and not the impact that they have had.”

Translated by Marcela Contreras

• The implementation of this new research instance was announced by the University’s President, Juan Manuel Zolezzi, on December 3rd, during the launching of a Program for Institutional Improvement (PMI, in Spanish), funded by the Ministry of Education. The purpose of this new Information Technology Innovation Center for Social Applications (Citiaps, in Spanish) is to be an intermediary between research and its viability as software products that could be commercially developed, based on the premise of integrating innovation and science.

The PMI was created by this Corporation as a strategy to achieve world-class excellence in an innovative way, integrating three research areas to develop science- based innovation: Information technology, psychology and neuroscience. The University was awarded a grant from the Ministry of Education’s contestable fund to finance the program through a performance agreement.

“With this project we intend to improve our international competitiveness, increase the University’s scientific productivity in a significant way, and reach higher levels of teaching and scientific discoveries. All this will be done through the highly specialized and interdisciplinary research centers that we already have and through others that we are committed to create,” said President Zolezzi.

In the program’s launching ceremony, held on December 3rd in the University’s Salón de Honor, the University’s President said that the PMI will outline the future of applied research and that a significant share of this goal will lie on this new Information Technology Innovation Center for Social Applications.

Applied innovation for society

“The Citiaps will integrate the work done until now and it also considers the technological origins of this University and the great development of social sciences during the last years,” President Zolezzi said, emphasizing at the same time the center’s efforts to develop strategic partnerships among researchers, entrepreneurs and companies, doing a state-of-the-art interdisciplinary work.

“The PMI will strengthen the Vice Presidency of Investigation, Development and Innovation (Vridei, in Spanish) and to consolidate a technology transfer platform to do research in association with companies and to transfer and commercialize the R+D results,” the President added.

Oscar Bustos, Vice President of Investigation, Development and Innovation said that, although the Citiaps will be focused on three main areas (Information technology, psychology and neuroscience), its goal will be to cover all disciplines. “We want our students- who are very creative- to channel their ideas through the center, so that researchers develop these ideas and create products which are useful to society.”

“The idea is to generate innovation based on high-impact science. We have set ambitious but real goals,” the Vice President said.

Contributing to the country

Alberto Vásquez, Head of the Ministry of Education’s Higher Education Division, referred to the excellent assessment that the PMI had during the contest, which meant being granted the funds, and to the significance of contributing with new knowledge for Chile. “We would like to congratulate and support this initiative and say that for our country is good, important and relevant to award this performance agreement to Universidad de Santiago.”

John Fraser, American expert and professor at the Florida State University, who was a special guest at the ceremony, valued this interdisciplinary initiative from an international point of view saying that this was the best moment to invest in knowledge and to promote creativity, considering the economic success of the country.

Finally, Luis Magne, Head of the Vridei’s Technological Management Department awarded the winners of the First Patent Contest for Students: Roberto Santiago, from the Department of Chemical Engineering; Jaime Lagos and Álvaro Espejo, from the Department of Physics; Camila Manfredi, from the School of Architecture, and Loreto Acevedo, from the Department of Food Science and Technology.

Fernando Vial, Head of the Ministry of Education’s Institutional Financing Department; Mauricio Marín, PMI and Citiaps’ Scientific Director; Pablo Vera, Citiaps’ Deputy Scientific Director; Ramón Blasco, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering; Rafael Labarca, Dean of the Faculty of Science, Augusto Samaniego, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities, and other authorities, also attended the ceremony.

Translated by Marcela Contreras

•  According to Dr Leonel Rojo, researcher at the Faculty of Chemistry and Biology, the use of Aristotelia Chilensis allows to reverse the problems caused by the use of psychotropic drugs, like obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.

Dr Leonel Rojo, researcher at the Faculty of Chemistry and Biology of Universidad de Santiago de Chile, found that people using antipsychotic drugs for 6 continuous months exponentially developed obesity, insulin resistance, dyslipidemia and cardiovascular diseases.

According to the Chilean National Institute of Public Health, clozapine and olanzapine have been the most commonly imported psychotropic drugs in Chile in the past ten years for their low cost and effectiveness for the treatment of psychosis or schizophrenia in adult patients and the treatment of attention deficit disorder, autism, Asperger syndrome and bipolar disorders in children.

However, the side effects that they produce alerted Dr Rojo, as he found that antidiabetic drugs did not help patients to overcome their problem. He started looking for solutions, and after testing a Chilean product in laboratory, in 2012 he found an answer: Maqui berry (Aristotelia Chilensis), a small tree that grows in the center and the south of Chile.

“Descubrimos en Estados Unidos, que uno de sus compuestos es fuertemente antidiabético, así que pensamos que el maqui puede prevenir la obesidad que es causada por antisicóticos y descubrimos que previene la acumulación de lípidos en las células en pacientes tratados con estos fármacos”, explica el experto en toxicología.

“In the USA, we found that one of the maqui components is a strong antidiabetic compound, so we thought that maqui could prevent the obesity caused by antipsychotic drugs. We found that it reduces lipid accumulation in the cells of patients who are treated with these drugs,” Dr Rojo explains.

Research team

Dr Rojo has an extensive scientific experience. His work has been recognized by the New York Society of Cosmetic Chemists and the American Society of Pharmacognosy, after he discovered an anti-aging technology based on Pouteria Lucuma bioactive compounds.

The project has the collaboration of Dr Ilya Raskin, of Rutgers University, New Jersey (USA); a research team of Universidad de Chile, led by Dr Pablo Gaspar; and the Hadassah Academic College of Jerusalem.

The study is called “Evaluation of Anthocyanins from Maqui Berry in the Prevention of Clozapine-Induced Hepatic Lipid Accumulation, Activation of SREBP1c Target Genes and Obesity” and it is funded by a Fondecyt Initiation Project in the field of psychotropic drugs and metabolism.

Current situation and expectations

Currently, Dr Rojo and his collaborators continue working in the laboratory at the Faculty of Chemistry and Biology of Universidad de Santiago. At this stage, they are trying to elucidate how the natural maqui components (called anthocyanins) prevent lipid accumulation and the metabolic problem associated to the use of antipsychotics.

The researcher expects to conclude his work by the end of 2017 with a continuity project that allows using the product in patients. Dr Rojo says that this project will benefit the country, because he thinks that the product would not be expensive; and it would also be good for national economy, because people who collect and sell maqui are eager to find new uses for it.

Today, the product is considered as a super fruit and it is mainly commercialized in the United States. Besides, there are already companies interested in the project and in getting involved in it.

Translated by Marcela Contreras