As part of the event created by the JOGL platform, we present ourselves as members of the scientific community in Latin America working to approach one of the most important challenges we face every day, which is science investment and development in LATAM countries.
Session curated by: SynBioBR and iGEM Community
Schedule:
Overcoming the Challenges of being a Scientist in Latin America
19:00 - 19:40 CET (5min Welcome Speech + 20min Talk + 15min Q&A) - Gather Room 3
Our proposal is to bring renowned scientists from different parts of LATAM and present their origins, their history and journey in science. We believe that creating this type of event will be important to motivate young scientists and students to continue their own journey.
Speakers: Robson Tramontina (ECRA Biotech)
Gambiarra: the Do it Yourself Bio in LATAM
19:40 - 20:20 CET (2 x 15min Talks + 10min Q&A) - Gather Room 3
This is a popular world used in Brazil that represents audacious and creative ways to overcome issues related to complex experimental designs being executed with low-cost reagents and equipment. The space will be dedicated to sharing knowledge about hacks, DIY tools and protocols.
Speakers: Fernan Federici and Lucio Freitas Junior (SociaLab)
Collaborations: Joining Forces to Increase our Impact
20:20 - 21:00 CET (15min Talk + 25min Panel Discussion) - Gather Room 3
Despite our cultural differences, languages and political context, all Latin American scientists express the same passion and dedication for their work and the collaborative team spirit is one of our main forte. The need for a space where we can gather together and find projects, establish partnerships and work together to solve common problems in our contexts is a necessity. Cooperation between countries and groups is the core DNA of the JOGL platform.
Speakers: Caroline Salvati, Cibele Zolnier, Manuel Piñero and Estefany Sofia Sanchez Martinez
Speakers:
Robson Tramontina
Robson is a Pharmacist and an Enzymologist with a Master's and Doctoral degree in Science & Technology. Who has worked with bio entrepreneurship experiences for 12 years in six different research institutions in Brazil, the Netherlands, Argentina, and the United Kingdom. He's focused on innovation through enzymes to create biotechnological solutions at the service of Brazil. You can find out more about his company at:
https://www.linkedin.com/company/ecrabiotec/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-robson-tramontina-3505506b/
Fernan Federici
Fernan is based at Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile and Millennium Institute iBio where he continues his research interest in bioengineering. Fernan is part of the open science hardware and open technology movements.
You can find out more at
https://labtecnologialibre.org/
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Fernan-Federici
Lucio Freitas Junior
Lucio Freitas-Junior is a scientist dedicated to basic and applied infectious diseases research, from the mechanisms of gene regulation and nuclear architecture to drug discovery. From 2005 to 2013, he worked at the Institut Pasteur Korea, where he became Director of the Center for Neglected Diseases Drug Discovery (CND3), leading drug discovery activities for leishmaniasis, Chagas disease, malaria, dengue and chikungunya using phenotypic screening assays. He is also the founder of the online platform SociaLab and the recently established company Quasar Bio, which is a company dedicated to develop and validate products for the treatment and control of covid-19.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucio-freitas-junior-b5877311a/
Caroline Salvati
Caroline is Biotechnologist and cofounder of Profissão Biotec. She works with innovation, partnerships management and new business development. She is engaged in many initiatives that aim to empower Biotech and SynBio in Brazil and LATAM such as iGEM Design League, SynBioBR and STATE Innovation Hub.
https://profissaobiotec.com.br/
@igemdesign
@synbiobrasil
https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolinesalvati/
Background:
Latin America countries are the source of not only great natural but also human resources. In that sense, from the mineral resources coming from the Andes, to the exuberant forests in Brazil and Costa Rica, amongst other regions, our natural diversity is accompanied by a cultural richness and a scientific enthusiast community. But the issues mentioned above can limit and discourage this development.
In a world currently facing consequences of unsustainable economic growth and development that has significantly impacted our biodiversity, deployed natural resources and shifted our natural climate patterns; we know first hand that LATAM countries have both strengths and weaknesses that need to be addressed if we wish to achieve prosperity and a more equal and sustainable growth that allows us to pave a better the future for the coming generations.
One of the strengths is the richness of natural and non-renewable sources; such richness is at risk due to uncontrolled/unsupervised extraction. An issue provoked by unregulated rules of exploitation, lack of supervision to control law infractions and corruption from the local/national governments.
Among the challenges we have:
- Lack of information and communication. This problem extends to scientists being unable to communicate their results to the general population or even to politicians. Also, the misuse of social media platforms and the recent scandals regarding fake news has spread among them.
- Discouragement amongst the scientific community due to lack of financial support and infrastructure to develop science and innovation, which forces scientists to move out of their countries in order to pursue better job opportunities in the scientific world.
Based on these and other insights, we created and divided our LATAM Track in 3 main topics we hope will generate a space for reflection and open discussion within the community.
*This Track is part of Just One Giant Summit: the first community science and innovation conference. For more details on the Summit, including date, schedule, location, etc., return to the main event page here.
