Scientific symposium brought together researchers from five regions in Talca

Leading scientists shared their latest findings at a conference organized by the Center for Research and Advanced Studies of the Maule (CIEAM), belonging to the UCM.

Thirteen high-level scientists participated as lecturers in the first annual symposium of the Center for Research and Advanced Studies of the Catholic University of Maule (UCM).

The researchers, from five regions of Chile, presented their most recent findings on topics such as microbiology, applied biomaterials and plant biology.

“It was very relevant to bring together academics from different universities and join cutting-edge research with doctoral and master’s students, so that they can nurture each other and generate thesis ideas and why not, collaborative publications,” said CIEAM director Hugo Benítez.

“This symposium is the closing of a project by our researcher Aparna Banerjee and was supported by a Linking project. The idea was to unite different lines of research, to better understand the environment”, added the doctor in Evolutionary Biology.

The event, which lasted for two days, began with a presentation by Paris Lavín, Doctor of Biological Sciences and academic from the University of Antofagasta.

“I shared the story of my study of an Antarctic strain, on which I found a ‘trade off’ or equilibrium mechanism that, depending on environmental conditions, determines whether it invests energy in growing or producing secondary compounds,” said the scientific.

“From there -he specified- I began to study the secondary compounds, some of which have anticancer activity”.

Another speaker was the academic from the University of Los Lagos, Álex González, who addressed the pollution generated by tanneries in a canal in the south of the country, in a talk entitled “Microbial potentialities in agribusiness.”

“We started a sample in a place that was highly contaminated and isolated microorganisms, which were capable of growing in high concentrations of chromium and copper, which were used by tanneries to prevent bacterial growth or rotting of the hides once stored. After investigating the mechanism of resistance to copper, we sequenced the genome and elucidated all its secrets. We discovered that this bacterium has the ability to promote growth in plants, as colleagues in the United States have described”, explained the also in charge of the Laboratory of Environmental Microbiology and Extremophiles of the aforementioned campus.

“These initiatives are super good for doctoral students to realize how research is done. I started 2011 isolating microorganisms resistant to metals and now I am doing tests to promote the growth of grass so that it can be eaten by cows in the south. When you start with laboratory tests, you don’t know how it turns”, she pointed out.