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News from Latin America

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 19-Jun-2025 01:10 ET (19-Jun-2025 05:10 GMT/UTC)

Nanotechnology delivers hepatitis B vaccine

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

X-ray imaging shows that nanostructured silica acts as a protective vehicle to deliver intact antigen to the intestine so that it can trigger an immune response. The material can give rise to a polyvaccine against six diseases.

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

Study contributes to the production of flexible electronic devices

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

Research conducted by Brazilian and Italian scientists ordered the structure of polythiophene to enhance the optical and electronic properties of this organic conductive polymer.

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

New dairy cattle breeding method increases genetic selection efficiency

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

Inclusion of a parameter that measures an animal's capacity to transmit its genetic traits resulted in gains of up to 16% compared with a traditional method of selection.

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

A mechanism that makes infants more likely than adults to die from sepsis is discovered

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

Scientists at the Center for Research on Inflammatory Diseases (CRID) show why pediatric patients with sepsis suffer from more inflammation and organ injury than adults. New treatment strategies may be tested.

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

Yellow fever virus responsible for current epidemic in Brazil originated in Amazon in 1980

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

Researchers have retraced the pathogen's route as it spread from the state of Pará by analyzing tissue samples from dead monkeys. Their findings are published in Scientific Reports.

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

Amphibians infected by ranavirus found in Atlantic rain forest

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

Ranavirus is linked to amphibian decline or extinction in other parts of the world, but in Brazil, it has been reported only in captive animals.

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

The world needs a global system to detect and halt the spread of emerging crop diseases

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

Climate change and global trade drive the spread, emergence, and re-emergence of crop disease, and containment action is often inefficient, especially in low-income countries. A Global Surveillance System (GSS) to strengthen and interconnect crop biosecurity systems could go a long way to improving global food security, argues a team of experts in the June 28, 2019 issue of Science.

Journal: Science
Funder: BBSRC, Gatsby Charitable Foundation, BASF Plant Science GmbH, GIZ, Rockefeller Foundation

Experiment reverses the direction of heat flow

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

A study led by Brazilian scientists used quantum correlations to make heat flow from a colder to a hotter medium without adding external energy, affording a deeper understanding of the second law of thermodynamics.

Journal: Nature Communications

Insects need empathy

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Peer-Reviewed Publication

In February, environmentalists in Germany collected 1.75 million signatures for a 'save the bees law.' Citizens can stop insect declines by halting habitat loss and fragmentation, producing food without pesticides and limiting climate change, say the authors of this Perspectives piece in Science.

Journal: Science

Genetically modified virus combats prostate cancer

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

In a study with mice, a gene therapy developed in Brazil kills cancer cells and avoids adverse side effects when combined with chemotherapy.

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