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News from Latin America

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 17-Jun-2025 23:10 ET (18-Jun-2025 03:10 GMT/UTC)

New clues about the origins of familial forms of Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Instituto Nacional de Ciência e Tecnologia de Biologia Estrutural e Bioimagem (INBEB)
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A Brazilian study made important progress in understanding the accumulation of one of the proteins involved in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Scientists were able to gain insight into the interaction between normal and mutant forms of a protein known as superoxide dismutase 1 (Sod1). The process alters protein accumulation in the cell, but also impairs the function of Sod1 protein, thus contributing to the development of the disease.

Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Most complete commercial sugarcane genome sequence has been assembled

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Based on the information obtained from this latest whole-genome sequencing effort, researchers at the USP are developing tools for the genetic improvement of sugarcane and testing several candidate genes in Genetically Modified (GM) plants.

Journal: GigaScience

Unexpected pattern of fish species richness found in the Amazon Basin

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo
Peer-Reviewed Publication

International collaboration results in largest-ever inventory of Amazon fish fauna. Data will help estimate the risk of impacts related to the construction of dams and waterways as well as deforestation, mining and climate change.

Journal: Science Advances
Funder: São Paulo State Research Support Foundation (Brazil). Geochronologic research at the MIT Isotope Lab

New fossil shrimp species from Colombia helps fill 160 million-year gap

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new fossil species of comma shrimp, exceptionally preserved in mid-Cretaceous rocks of the Colombian Andes, allowed scientists to fill a 160 million-year gap in the evolution of these crustaceans.

Funder: Fondo Corrigan-ACGGP-ARES, NSERC Postdoctoral Fellowship, Andrew Stewart Memorial Graduate Prize, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council/Canada Graduate Scholarships, University of Alberta President's, Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Scholarship

Research for drugs against neglected diseases and malaria to receive BRL 43.5 million

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo
Business Announcement

The goal of the project with MMV is to identify a new anti-malarial molecule which can rapidly kill the parasite without rendering it susceptible to the development of drug resistance.

Funder: São Paulo State Research Support Foundation (Brazil). Geochronologic research at the MIT Isotope Lab, MMV Medicine for Malaria Ventures, DNDi Drugs for Neglected Diseases
Meeting: Research Technological Partnership: PITE-FAPESP Consortium

Theorem explains why quantities such as heat and power can fluctuate in microscopic system

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Brazilian researchers participate in theoretical study that could have practical applications in nanoscale machine optimization.

Journal: Physical Review Letters
Funder: São Paulo State Research Support Foundation (Brazil). Geochronologic research at the MIT Isotope Lab

A new world map rates food sustainability for countries across the globe

The Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A global food system sustainability study builds the first map of its kind to score the sustainability of food systems, country-by-country. The study goes beyond usual questions of productivity and nutrition, and includes economic and social variables.

Journal: Scientific Data

Agroecology is emerging as a new market for peasant farming

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo
Peer-Reviewed Publication

In a lecture given at FAPESP Week France, UNESP professor Bernardo Mançano Fernandes reports that socioterritorial movements are creating alternatives to agribusiness based on sustainable development and healthy food.

Mechanized harvesting has not reduced atmospheric pollution in the sugarcane region

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Data presented by a researcher from UNESP at FAPESP Week France indicate that aerosol and ozone particle concentrations in 2018 were equivalent to those of the period prior to the prohibition of burning; the causes are still to be investigated.

Meeting: FAPESP Week France

Discovery paves the way for blocking malaria transmission in Brazil

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Research that will be presented today at FAPESP Week France suggests that bacteria present in the intestine of the Anhopheles darlingi mosquito influence the development of the parasite that causes the disease in the insect's body and the chances of transmission to humans.