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News from Latin America

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 30-Oct-2026 00:16 ET (30-Oct-2026 04:16 GMT/UTC)

Novel compound interrupts malaria parasite's lifecycle

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

Compound inhibits key enzymes, interrupting the parasite's lifecycle in human organisms and preventing transmission to vector insects. This discovery published in Science involved researchers funded by FAPESP.

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

Researchers discover a link between two important products of nitric oxide

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

Oxide plays a key role in cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases as well as cancer. Experiments reveal a hitherto unknown mechanism underlying the formation of nitroso thiols.

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

Imprinting on mothers may drive new species formation in poison dart frogs

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Peer-Reviewed Publication

By rearing frogs with parents -- or foster parents -- of different colors, a team from the University of Pittsburgh working at the Smithsonian in Panama discovered that behavior in response to color may be more important than genetics in the evolution of new species.

Journal: Nature

Novel material with strong action against fungi and tumors was developed

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

Researchers have created a composite with antifungal properties that are 32 times greater than those of silver by irradiating a metallic tungstate with electrons and femtosecond laser.

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

New species of parasite is identified in fatal case of visceral leishmaniasis

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

Phylogenomic analysis shows that pathogen isolated in Brazilian hospital does not belong to the genus Leishmania. Researchers are investigating whether this species alone can cause severe disease or intensifies symptoms in co-infected patients.

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

Microbes in warm soils released more carbon than those in cooler soils

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Simply by moving tropical soils down a mountainside into warmer environments, a team including Smithsonian scientists Andy Nottingham and Ben Turner discovered that much more CO2 may be released due to increased microbial activity as soils warm.

Journal: Ecology Letters

Underwater manatee chatter may aid in their conservation

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Scientists propose a new method for calculating populations of the Antillean manatee, a marine mammal in danger of extinction, through underwater recordings.

Journal: The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America
Funder: Secretaria Nacional de Ciencia, Universidad Tecnológica de Panamá, AES-Changuinola, S.R.L., Gas Natural Fenosa Panama (now Naturgy Panama), Tecnología e Innovación (SENACYT), Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute

Lipid produced by organism helps control blood sugar

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

Blood sugar levels in obese mice were controlled more efficiently when the mice were challenged with a glucose overload and treated with 12-HEPE, a lipid produced in response to cold by brown adipose tissue.

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

Living coral cover will slow future reef dissolution

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Peer-Reviewed Publication

The living tissue on corals protects their skeleton from dissolving as a result of ocean acidification according to an in situ experiment on Australia's Great Barrier Reef.

Journal: Nature Ecology & Evolution
Funder: Pacific Blue Foundation, Queensland Government's Smart State Premier's Fellowship, National Science Foundation, Australian Research Council, Schmidt Marine Technology Partners

New mechanisms that regulate pluripotency in embryonic stem cells are discovered

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

A study by researchers at the Center for Cell-Based Therapy, which is supported by FAPESP, identified microRNAs involved in pluripotency maintenance and cell differentiation.

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