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News from Latin America

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 8-Jun-2025 22:09 ET (9-Jun-2025 02:09 GMT/UTC)

A portable DNA sequencer enables researchers to monitor the evolution of Zika virus

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

Article in Nature describing the analysis of 54 new whole genomes suggests that Zika virus arrived in Brazil in February 2014 and spread silently through the Americas for at least a year.

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

Software helps industry to design lighter, more efficient parts

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

Recently launched, a topology optimization software has already been licensed to advanced research departments of major multinationals and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States, one of the world's leading research and education institutions.

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

Study reinforces the Amazon forest's importance in regulating atmospheric chemistry

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

Airborne measurements show that the Amazon rainforest emits three times more isoprene than was previously estimated. Isoprene is one of the main precursors of ozone and indirectly influences the balance of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Journal: Nature Communications
Funder: São Paulo State Research Support Foundation (Brazil). Geochronologic research at the MIT Isotope Lab, DOE/US Department of Energy, Amazonas State Research Funding Agency

The undertaker's census

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Scientists working at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama tested a new technique: recruiting carrion-eating flies to detect mammals. This new method surpasses standard techniques, detecting more species than researchers could count along trails or photograph with hidden cameras.

Journal: Molecular Ecology Resources
Funder: US Department of Education Math-Science Partnerships Project, Gregory E. Willis, National Natural Science Foundation of China, and others, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute

Company innovates by using magnetic resonance to evaluate food quality

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

A Brazilian company has developed a low-field NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance) device that takes a few seconds to perform chemical and physical analyses of fruit, grains, olive oil, milk and meat, among other products.

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

New virus discovered in migratory bird in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

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

Researchers at the University of São Paulo's Biomedical Science Institute (ICB-USP) in Brazil have discovered a new virus in a white-rumped sandpiper (Calidris fuscicollis), a migratory bird species captured in April 2012 in the Lagoa do Peixe National Park in Rio Grande do Sul State. The current evidence suggests that it is not a risk to humans. The discovery was published in PLOS ONE.

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

Prior dengue infection does not increase Zika disease severity

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

A study involving 65 people who live in and around São José do Rio Preto (São Paulo State, Brazil), where dengue is endemic and there was a particularly rapid outbreak of Zika during the 2016 epidemic, show that prior dengue infection in human beings infected by Zika does not necessarily lead to a worse illness.

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

Litter bugs may protect chocolate supply

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Mother's microbiome seems to protect baby cacao plants, a result with important implications for protecting the world's chocolate supply.

Funder: Garden Club of America, Smithsonian Tropical Research InstituteMycological Society of America, Indiana University, National Science Foundation, Simons Foundation

Nanoparticles coated with antibiotic eliminate drug-resistant bacteria

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

Brazilian researchers developed coating nanoparticles that are made of silver and silica with a layer of antibiotic. The silver and silica nanoparticles without ampicillin are highly toxic, but conventional ampicillin and ampicillin combined with silver were found to be equally safe. the same strategy could be used to combat other bacterial species that have developed resistance to antibiotics.

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

Is this the long-sought answer to the question of tropical biodiversity?

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Peer-Reviewed Publication

The question of 'Why so many species of tropical trees and other organisms' has challenged biologists for centuries. A group of 50 scientists from 12 countries think they have the answer.

Journal: Science
Funder: National Science Foundation