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News from Latin America

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 9-Jun-2025 08:09 ET (9-Jun-2025 12:09 GMT/UTC)

Predator invasion had devastating, long-term effects on native fish

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Peer-Reviewed Publication

In 1969, 60 to 100 peacock bass imported from Colombia, were introduced into a pond in Panama for sport fishing. Several individuals escaped. By the early 1970s, they colonized the reservoir forming the main channel of the Panama Canal. Forty-five years later, native fish populations in the lake still have not recovered, Smithsonian reports.

Journal: Ecology
Funder: Panama's SNI, Panama's SENACYT, Fonds de Recherche Nature et Technologies -- Quebec, National Geographic Society, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute

Study finds capuchin monkeys produce sharp stone flakes similar to tools

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

In a study published in Nature, researchers describe that rock fragments produced unintentionally today by primates in Serra da Capivara National Park in Brazil resemble tools made deliberately 2.6 million years ago by ancestors of humans.

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

Study proposes new protocol for treatment of thalassemia

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

Brazilian scientists, in an article in the journal Blood, shows that administering the anti-hypertensive drug amlodipine in conjunction with conventional chelation therapy helps combat health problems caused by the buildup of iron in organs

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

Substance present in ayahuasca brew stimulates generation of human neural cells

D'Or Institute for Research and Education
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Human neural progenitors exposed to harmine, an alkaloid presented at the psychotropic plant decoction ayahuasca, led to a 70 percent increase in proliferation of these cells. The effect of generating new human neural cells involves the inhibition of DYRK1A, a gene that is over activated in patients with Down syndrome and Alzheimer's Disease. Thus harmine could have a potential neurogenesis role and possibly a therapeutic one over cognitive deficits.

Journal: PeerJ
Funder: Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico, and others, Fundação Carlos Chagas Filho de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro

Test created in Brazil can diagnose 416 viruses from tropical regions

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

Researchers from the University of São Paulo (USP) in Brazil have developed a platform that analyzes clinical samples from patients to diagnose infection by 416 viruses found in the world's tropical regions. The tool can be used to assist epidemiological surveillance by detecting pathogens with the potential to cause epidemics in humans.

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

Untangling fibril formation and dissociation in Parkinson's disease

Publicase International
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new study reveals the pathway into amyloid species formation and neurotoxic seeding mechanism leading to Parkinson's disease.

Journal: Scientific Reports
Funder: Carlos Chagas Filho Foundation for Research Support, Ministry Of Health, National Institute of Science and Technology for Structural Biology and Bioimaging, National Council for Scientific and Technological Development

Macrophage-dependent IL-1β production induces cardiac arrhythmias in diabetic mice

D'Or Institute for Research and Education
Peer-Reviewed Publication

One of the most serious complications of diabetes, heart arrhythmias, is now on its way to be prevented and combated. Heart problems are responsible for 65 percent of the deaths related to diabetes. This work confirms that the increase in blood glucose causes a specific inflammation, which directly affects the heart. Here the authors propose new therapeutic tools that are promising to treat the heart disease caused by diabetes.

Journal: Nature Communications
Funder: Fundação Carlos Chagas Filho de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Instituto D'Or de Pesquisa e Ensino, Centro Nacional de Biologia Estrutural e Bioimagem

Corals survived Caribbean climate change

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Corals in the genus Orbicella survived previous temperature changes in the Caribbean and may be able to survive future climate change events as well.

Journal: Current Biology
Funder: Pennsylvania State University, Hudson Alpha, NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program, National Science Foundation, The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and The Cannon Foundation

Astronomers unveil 'heart' of Eta Carinae

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

An international team of astronomers has imaged the Eta Carinae star system -- a colossal binary system that consists of two massive stars orbiting each other -- including a region between the two stars in which extremely high-velocity stellar winds are colliding. With these observations, is possible to map the zone in which the two stellar winds collide and make sure we genuinely understand the basic parameters of the binary system.

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

Ant bridges connect shy tropical tree crowns

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Tropical forest tree crowns don't quite touch, a phenomenon known as 'crown shyness.' To ants, shy canopy trees are like islands, and island biogeography rules apply. But connect the trees with vines, and the story changes.

Journal: Ecography
Funder: National Science Foundation