• The flour substrate of the seed would serve as a basis for generating special foods for diabetic and celiac people

The Chilean food industry is constantly searching for the incorporation of new seeds, used for food production. The current market offers a variety of composite products based on quinoa, flaxseed and other seeds.

In this search for assessing the potential food in other seeds, Patricio Rojas, Forest Engineer and Master in Technology Management, with specialization in Biotechnology, of the Universidad de Santiago, investigated the food potential of Acacia Saligna seeds, as part of a thesis research project, in order to evaluate the possibility of using them in the elaboration of  food products.

Acacia saligna is a species from Western Australia and corresponds to an exotic legume very drought tolerant. In Chile, you can find over 16 thousand hectares in the rural communities of the Coquimbo region (El Tangue, Cuz Cuz, Higuertitas) and used as a complementary food (forage) for goats.

This productive use is "marginal as a source of income for farmers and for the region. The species has a high tolerance to drought and is adapted to the area conditions, so its cultivation is sustainable,” Patricio Rojas points out in his research.

Benefits

In Chile, the Instituto Forestal (INFOR) and other agriculture institutions such as CONAF and INDAP which  have fostered this type of farming among farmers, have added further that afforestation with Acacia Saligna has been an important factor to curb desertification and recover degraded soils of the Fourth Region.

Therefore, Patricio Rojas,  motivated by the agro-food situation in other regions where this seed is grown, refers to Australia where "there are ten species of the genus, whose seeds are eaten since ancient times by indigenous communities and are currently processed as functional food in the form of flour and others (cakes, flavors, pasta, etc.) for a market niche called 'bush food' , he explains.

Ricardo Munoz, guiding teacher of the thesis, notes that the benefits of the seeds are visible. "Seeds are low glycemic and gluten-free, so they could be an important part of a mix basis for preparing products for diabetic and celiac people. This result is an innovation in the agro-food development," this specialist says.
 

Acacia Saligna in the Chilean industry

Despite the progress in development and innovation, the Chilean industry in this area "is not ready to process the seeds of Acacia Saligna as a feedstock. Considering that there is an estimated resource of 16 000 hectares with limited commercial use, tons of flour could be generated", Patricio Rojas says.

Besides, Rojas notes that "by incorporating seed production as an input to the processing industry of flour with beneficial properties for health, the current profitability of Acacia Saligna plantations in the Coquimbo region could be improved. 

"You have to do research and product development to be validated on a pilot scale in order to make technological adjustments and test the consuming propensity that the market could have. The bakery industry which has the skills and the concern on the issue must invest and develop in order to validate what we're envisioning right now," Professor Ricardo Muñoz says.

 

• By means of a Regular Fondecyt Project, a research team at the Faculty of Chemistry and Biology led by Dr. Manuel Azócar is currently working on the optimization of compounds derived from silver, by adding them anti-inflammatory properties and higher thermal stability and durability for their future use as antibacterial agents.

Besides being a metal used in jewelry, silver has varied applications and properties. One of them is its high electrical conductivity. Another distinctive feature of this element is that its particles are used in creams to treat burns and warts; water purification systems; anti-microbial paints and anti-bacterial compounds.

Regarding this last application, Dr. Manuel Azócar, researcher at the Faculty of Chemistry and Biology of Universidad de Santiago de Chile, is developing new silver-based anti-bacterial agents with anti-inflammatory properties, by means of a Regular Fondecyt Project.

The main objective of this research is to understand and enhance the essential features of these compounds for their future use as broad-spectrum bactericidal agents, with more air and light stability.

“We are interested in optimizing these metallo pharmaceutical agents by adding them higher anti-inflammatory properties, higher thermal stability under light conditions and also in identifying the elements that may have toxic effects on cells,” the researcher said.

Besides, one of the most novel aspects of this study is that it seeks to optimize these compounds to use them in lower doses and give them more air and light stability, because silver is a sensitive metal and gets oxidized easily, getting darker in a short period of time.

At a first stage, the work team has been able to prepare several compounds that have made possible to understand the conditions that allow obtaining more stable and durable products. They have also been able to evaluate these compounds as anti-bacterial agents.

“As of 2015, we have planned to assess the cytotoxicity of these compounds, verify our hypotheses regarding the reduction of toxic effects and make a more detailed analysis of their structural features,” the researcher finally said.

Translated by Marcela Contreras

·         The drugs we use are delivered into our bodies in a short time because they are designed to be adsorbed at the intake and to lose effect some time later. In this field, the first results of a study at Universidad de Santiago are very valuable. The research team looked for an “intelligent” drug-delivery system; i.e. a system for a sustained release of the required dose to increase the drug efficacy. 

To understand the mechanisms that would allow in the future releasing drugs in the best place and at the best time, was one of the goals of the study led by Dr Eduardo Lissi, professor at the Faculty of Chemistry and Biology.

Nowadays, the drugs we use are delivered into our bodies in a short time; i.e., they are designed to be adsorbed at the intake and to lose effect some time later.

The purpose of the study was to understand the factors and cellular processes involved in this type of mechanism and Dr Eduardo Lissi, researcher at Universidad de Santiago, together with the Protein Research Group of the Faculty of Biology of Universidad de la Habana (Cuba) and researchers Alexis Aspee (Universidad de Santiago) and Marco Antonio Soto (Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile), undertook the project.

“I think this is very interesting: designing “intelligent” systems for a particular effect, placing the carrier in the right place to control there the delivery of the bio-active species,” he says.

He adds that he is very “impressed for the magnitude of the problem and for having the possibility of connecting basic biophysics with its applications, particularly with those related to the potential for elaborating specific drugs especially for a given system.”

According to Dr Lissi, these “intelligent” systems would offer advantages in their application, like designing drugs that are released, “for example, when the host reaches a given temperature and/or a given osmotic gradient.” This would assure a sustained delivery of the dose of the required drug and increase its efficacy.

Another aspect of the study, which is still being worked on, is related to the ability of haemolytic toxins to generate channels that contribute to control cell damage. “This involves and interesting potential to selectively kill cell groups that you want to eradicate,” Dr Lissi says. The name of the project was Fondecyt 1130867, “Studies on the diffusion of small solutes through lipids bilayers in unilamellar liposomes."

Translated by Marcela Contreras

• Researchers at CECTA and DECYTAL at Universidad de Santiago successfully participated in two important scientific gatherings. They were the only Chileans participating in the 27^th International Conference on Yeast Genetics and Molecular Biology and the 02^nd International Specialized Symposium of Yeasts, held in the Italian cities of Levico and Perugia, respectively. Dr Verónica García Mena, Dr Claire Brice, Dr Claudio Martínez Fernández and Dr Francisco Cubillos Riffo presented their works at these conferences.

   

  Researchers at the Food Science and Technology Research Center (CECTA, in Spanish) and the Department of Food Science and Technology (DECYTAL, in Spanish) of Universidad de Santiago were the only Chilean representatives in two important scientific activities held in September, in Italy.

  The team led by Dr Claudio Martínez Fernández and made up of Dr Francisco Cubillos Riffo, Dr Verónica García Mena, and Dr Claire Brice presented the results of different studies conducted at the Applied Biotechnology and Microbiology Laboratory.

  The researchers participated in the 27^th International Conference on Yeast Genetics and Molecular Biology, held between September 06^th and 12^th, in Levico, and the 02^nd International Specialized Symposium of Yeasts, held between September 13^th and 17^th in Perugia, Italy.

  Strengthening links

  The director of CECTA, Dr Claudio Martínez, who is currently on a scientific-cultural exchange at the Instituto de Agroquímica y Tecnología de Alimentos (IATA, in Spanish) in Valencia, Spain, explained that the importance of these conferences lies on the possibility of “Strengthening links with the best researchers in this field worldwide, strengthening joint projects and opening opportunities to new collaborations and projects, as well as evaluating the level and the significance of what we are doing in Chile, that it is certainly very good at an international level.”

  For example, the team of CECTA is working on an international collaboration project with researchers at the IATA that also involves Argentinean researchers. And there is another international project with a French team that also participated in these conferences. This team is collaborating with a Fondecyt postdoctoral project and Dr Claire Brice is in charge of the last phase of this study.

  It is worth to mention that CECTA researchers were the only Chilean representatives in both conferences. According to professor Martínez, this was a surprise. And they were more surprised when they realized that, at a Latin American level, there were a few researchers from Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay. “This places us in a leading position at a national level and allows us to strengthen links with Latin American experts in this field to promote local and regional development,” he said.

  Leaders in yeast studies

  Yeasts were the common denominator in the conferences in which Universidad de Santiago researchers participated. Our university is leader in the area of yeast biotechnology in the country. “In this regard, the contributions made by our institution have turned into products (some of them have already been transferred to the productive sector in Chile and abroad) and specialized human resource training and have generated a worldwide renowned group of experts,” he concluded.

   

  Translated by Marcela Contreras

• With the funding of a Fondecyt Postdoctoral Project 2016, Dr Baptiste Darbois, professor at the Faculty of Science of Universidad de Santiago, will be able to accurately determine how lizards move in granular soils in order to produce results that allow to create a robot able to move easily in different types of soil.

With the funding of a Fondecyt Postdoctoral Project 2016, Dr Baptiste Darbois, professor at the Faculty of Science of Universidad de Santiago, will be able to accurately determine how lizards move in granular soils in order to produce results that allow to create a robot able to move easily in different types of soil. This would mean a significant contribution to robotics.

Based on previous research that found that once lizards dive in the sand, they move by wriggling their bodies and not by using their legs, Dr Darbois will study the interaction between a vibrating elastic structure and the granular environment.

The Fondecyt Postdoctoral project (3160167) is called “Locomoción ondulatoria de nadadores suaves dentro de los medios granulares.”

Experimental challenge

The experimental challenge of the study is to control the movement of grains and the forces they undergo when lizards move. This would help to establish guidelines for developing robots able to adapt themselves to different environments. The way of moving of different animals has inspired engineers in this field.

“We expect the compression produced by lizards’ undulating movements in the desert’s sub-surface to help us to develop efficient robots by incorporating this mechanism,” Dr Darbois explained.

Likewise, professor Darbois intends to develop, in the long term, a robot based on the best features lizards show when moving in a granular environment.

“Through this project, we expect to define the optimal conditions: the dimensions, elasticity, frequency and amplitude of vibrations to move forward in waves through a granular environment,” the researcher said.

The relationship between lizards and the development of robots is not odd; on the contrary, it can benefit technological development and improve people´s quality of life. For example, it can be used in critical situations.

“With regard to its applications, developing robots able to efficiently move in granular environments could help to detect anti-personnel mines in the deserts and find people trapped under avalanches,” Dr Darbois concluded.

Translated by Marcela Contreras

• A research team at the Faculty of Chemistry and Biology led by Dr Claudia Ortiz Calderón developed a device based on Chilean brown algae and pumice stone, which is able to adsorb copper from copper-bearing solutions produced by mining industry.

A research team at the Faculty of Chemistry and Biology led by Dr Claudia Ortiz Calderón developed a device based on Chilean brown algae and pumice stone, which is able to adsorb copper from copper-bearing solutions produced by mining industry.

Dr Ortiz, who is in charge of the Laboratory of Vegetable Biochemistry and Phytoremediation of the university, says that this study is part of the research that they usually conduct on the use of plants for environmental remediation.

Using this new device, it is possible to adsorb copper from copper-bearing streams to recover ions and send them back to the mining process, and clean the waters to use them again. Dr Ortiz says that they are already studying the effectiveness of the bio-filter with other metals, what could attract the interest of different companies.

Basically, the bio-filter is a vertical-flow column that contains three types of brown algae – which are very common in the Chilean coast- and pumice stone arranged in a way that is able to capture copper.

“First, we collect the algae and then, after washing, drying, chopping and screening them to a specific size, we package them together with pumicite or pumice stone that prevents the algae from getting compressed,” Dr Ortiz says.

She emphasizes that, in order no produce the bio-filter, they do not require to collect living biomass or to harvest algae. As they use waste algae and do not pre-treat the biomass, the bio-filter has a low cost of production. 

Patent request

The project started in 2012 and was funded by Corfo (the Chilean Economic Development Agent). It is currently at a protection stage after filing a patent request for the packaging system.

The next step is to continue with the analyses to determine the effectiveness of the bio-filter with other metals.

“We know that the bio-filter works very well for copper and we have also tested other equivalent cations, like zinc, cobalt and cadmium, and they have usually worked quite well too,” Dr Ortiz says.

“Thus, companies or industrial processes generating these elements which are interested in removing or recycling them could also be interested in the filter.”

In this context, the Canadian company Good Harbor that supported the project by conducting the hydraulic study of the columns has already expressed its interest in acquiring the rights of this new product.

Translated by Marcela Contreras

• The National Institute of Industrial Property recognized Universidad de Santiago as the third Chilean university with the highest number of invention patent requests that seek to contribute to the country development in fields like chemistry and biology, engineering and technology. Maximiliano Santa Cruz, Inapi’s National Director and Óscar Bustos, Vice President of Research, Development and Innovation of Universidad de Santiago,   encouraged the University community to continue constantly producing industrial innovations to contribute to society.

On April 25th, in the context of the World Intellectual Property Day, our University was recognized as the third best national institution in requesting invention patents during 2013.

The National Institute of Industrial Property (Inapi, in Spanish)- an agency responsible to the Ministry of Economy in charge of registering, managing and promoting industrial property rights in Chile- granted our University an award in a ceremony led by Maximiliano Santa Cruz, Inapi´s National Director.

During the activity that took place at Inapi’s building, Santa Cruz highlighted the important role played by our University in producing creative innovations that contribute to our country’s development.

“Universidad de Santiago de Chile is absolutely essential to our patenting system. It has always been in the highest positions at the patent request ranking and this is not a coincidence: it is the result of serious intellectual property policies,” Inapi’s director said.

For Maximiliano Santa Cruz, our University’s interest in industrial property “is a powerful signal to its researchers, professors and innovators, in general.”

“I ask Universidad de Santiago’s innovators to continue creating new things and using the patenting system for it is a powerful tool to protect intellectual property,” he added.

Dr. Óscar Bustos, Vice President of Research, Development and Innovation (Vridei, in Spanish) of our University, who received Inapi´s award, showed himself very pleased with the position in the ranking at a national level.

“We are very satisfied with our exceptional position among the institutions that request for invention patents (…) We would have been happy to keep the second place like we did last year, but being among the main institutions that file patents requests in Chile is excellent news indeed,” Dr. Bustos said.

Pontifica Universidad Católica was at the first place in the patent request ranking while Universidad de Concepción was at the second place.

Finally, Vice President Bustos said that the high position of our University in the ranking reflects that “our researchers have become aware that not only scientific publications are important for our country: developing specific technological projects in key areas for Chile is important too.”

According to data provided by the Department of Technology Transfer of our University, during 2013, this state and public institution filed 11 invention patent requests in Chile, and at the same time, it filed other 42 requests with foreign agencies in charge of registering industrial inventions.

Translated by Marcela Contreras
 

• For the second consecutive year, our  University was positioned in the third place of the largest national patent requests prepared by the National Industrial Property Institute (INAPI,  in Spanish). Dr. Louis Magne,  director of the Department of Technology Management, attended the awards ceremony  and he highlighted the efforts of the University to generate technological innovations.

Our University has managed to gradually increase the protection of intellectual property of the technologies  generated through its research and development. In 2011 it presented a total of 28 requests  at national and  international levels and through the Cooperation Treaty about Patenting Matters (PCT, in Spanish).

The number of nine national patent records required in 2011, helped to put the University in third place, according to the "INAPI Report 2012". The leader of this ranking was Universidad de  Concepción and P. Pontificia Universidad Católica, with a total number of thirteen requests for inventions each.

The award ceremony for this important achievement was held last Thursday in the new premises of INAPI and was chaired by Tomás Flores the Vice Secretary of Economics, and Maximiliano Santa Cruz, INAPI director.  Dr. Louis Magne, director of the Department of Technology Management from the office of Research and Development attended the ceremony and  represented our University. He  noted that patenting is a priority for the institution.

"The University has an important increase of the research that has  potential for new businesses, and this has allowed  the  identification of the results that might get a patent and which are the basis of innovative technologies that could be transferred to the productive sector," he said.

Throughout its history, the  Universidad de Santiago de Chile has presented 63 requests  for national patents. At the international level, it has presented 50 requests  in various countries, mostly in the United States. Of the total applications, 28 patents have been given, eleven  in Chilean territory, three in the U.S. and the rest in other countries.

"We are currently working to achieve that these patents generate licenses and then royalties, meeting  the challenge that Chile has about becoming a generator of technology," Magne explained.

What is the meaning of patenting?

A patent is an exclusive right granted by the State for the protection of an invention, so it recognizes and guarantees the exclusive commercial exploitation for the holder of the invention, thus preventing others from appropriating the benefits involved in its exploitation.

Obtaining these patents in the University is paramount as it demonstrates the ability to generate appropriable knowledge, and states the basis of technological products that have a future to contribute to the country and become  part of  the national and international markets.

To achieve this, the Technology Management Department is responsible for encouraging researchers to conduct applied research projects whose results are evaluated in its appropriability and evaluated for their further development, until the patent is generated.

The patents that are requested belong to the University, with the recognition of the authorship  for the inventors. If the invention is commercialized, 50 percent is for the group of researchers that  generates the patent and the remaining 50 percent for the University.

• The motion patterns typical of volcanoes can be predicted with a high rate of effectiveness as of data sent from the slopes of the Llaima Volcano in La Araucanía Region. This has been possible thanks to the work by Dr. Max Chacón, professor at the Department of Informatics Engineering of Universidad de Santiago, who developed a software program for this purpose. “In Chile, it is essential to increase the knowledge on volcanoes. In this way, we will be able to face emergency situations like eruptions, and even predict them and make timely decisions,” Dr. Chacón said.

Due to its location on the Pacific Ring of Fire, the Chilean territory has the second largest volcanic chain in the world, with more than 2,000 volcanoes, many of them located in the southern part of the country. Although they are considered among the most active volcanoes in Latin America, only 43 of them are being monitored. The main concern about these geological structures is their potential for eruptions and their seismic activity is a key factor in prevention. 

Researchers of Universidad de Santiago, Universidad de La Frontera, and the Southern Andean Volcano Observatory, Ovdas by its acronym in Spanish, conducted the study “Pattern recognition applied to seismic signals from the Llaima Volcano: an analysis of the events’ features”, which is available in the Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research.

According to Dr. Max Chacón, professor at the Department of Informatics Engineering of Universidad de Santiago and one of the developers of the program, “Based on the machine learning approach, we developed a piece of software that identifies the type of the seismic signal as of data sent by sensors located on the slopes of the volcano,” with an 80% accuracy in the Llaima Volcano.

“Volcano seismic signals are not related to the earthquakes typical of tectonic plate collisions, as one could deduce from a first interpretation of these phenomena. These movements are specific to volcanoes and they are caused by their distinctive features, like their activity, magma movement, gas movement, stiffness of components, etc.

Previously, the research team had studied the Villarrica Volcano, detecting the existence of three characteristic seismic event patterns: the LP (Long Period) event, which is related to the pressure of gas and other fluids in the conduit; the Tremor, which is related to changes in gas and magma densities; and lastly, the VT (Volcano Tectonic) event, which is associated to the fracture of the solid parts of the volcano or the conduits.

The researchers used the program again in a study on the Llaima Volcano, but they also tried to identify the features of data sent by the sensors in the volcano. Among these data, the amplitude, frequency and phase of the signals, and the way in which they appear together in each seismic signal, were particularly considered.

“With this, we tried to give more information to volcanologists, so that they could identify the signals more easily, also analyzing the way in which these features appeared in seismic events,” Dr. Chacón, an expert in system models, said.

According to Dr. Chacón, one of the most interesting conclusions was the similarity of the results in the two volcanoes, what contradicts the current idea that each volcano has unique seismic movements. The researcher says that for now, the hypothesis is that the similarity is due to the proximity between the two volcanoes; however, this has not been proved.

For the above, there are two potential steps to follow in the context of this research. First, a comparative study on these volcanoes to measure the exact differences between them; and second, the improvement of the program with the purpose of detecting the correlations between these seismic signals at the moment of the eruption.

“In Chile, we live with many volcanoes, so it is essential to increase the knowledge about them. The more we know, the better we will be able to face emergency situations like eruptions, and even predict them and make timely decisions,” Dr. Chacón said.


Translated by Marcela Contreras

• The National Institute of Industrial Property recognized Universidad de Santiago as the second Chilean university at filing the highest number of patent applications in 2014. “Chile has a scientific tradition that places the country at the forefront of the Latin American productivity, and numbers reflect this fact, like the second place reached by Universidad de Santiago (last year).” The award ceremony was held in the context of the World Intellectual Property Day.

Once again, Universidad de Santiago was among the three most outstanding universities in the patent category- a category related to the rights given by the Chilean State to an inventor for the development of a new technology- in the annual award ceremony organized by the National Institute of Industrial Property (Inapi). 

The ceremony was held at Patio Los Naranjos of Universidad de Santiago and it was headed by Katia Trusich, Under Secretary of Economy, Development and Tourism, and Inapi’s NationalDirector, Maximiliano Santa Cruz. The Under Secretary said that last year was a consolidation period for Inapi. And she added that the challenge now is to set out a long-term strategy to allow “the development of industrial property considering the specific requirements of the country with regards to productive development, innovation and business ventures.”

For his part, Inapi’s National Director emphasized that our institution has a very important commitment with regards to patent application processing. “In Chile, universities are doing a good job at patenting and, if they are considered all together, in 2014 they almost doubled the number of patent applications filed, in comparison to the previous year.”

Besides congratulating Universidad de Santiago for its great work and interest in patent matters, she said that our University “is making big efforts to obtain patents, something that should be continued and promoted. Generating new knowledge through scientific activity at universities is an essential tool for economic, social and cultural development.”

“Chile has a scientific tradition that places the country at the forefront of the Latin American productivity, and numbers reflect this fact, like the second place reached by Universidad de Santiago in the national patent application ranking of 2014”, Maximiliano Santa Cruz said.

Luis Magne, Head of the Department of Technology Management of Universidad de Santiago- the unit in charge of processing patent applications of the University, among other tasks- said: “Universidad de Santiago continues to keep its spirit of technological university, so it puts an emphasis on applied research and innovation in order to contribute to the society welfare and to have an impact on Chile and the world.”

According to the information given by the Department of Technology Management, in 2014, Universidad de Santiago filed 23 new patent applications with Inapi, doubling the number of patents filed in 2013. This placed the University in the third position of the ranking that year. In addition, it filed 44 invention and protection patent applications with international agencies.

These patents are related to the fields of Sciences, Engineering, Technology, and Chemistry and Biology, and most of them belong particularly to the areas of Biotechnology, Manufacturing and Aquaculture.

Universidad de Concepción was at the first place in the patent application ranking while Pontificia Universidad Católica was at the third place.

Translated by Marcela Contreras