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News from Latin America

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 14-Dec-2025 18:11 ET (14-Dec-2025 23:11 GMT/UTC)

Study of nervous system cells can help to understand degenerative diseases

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

A collaborative research by Brazilian and Dutch scientists shows that many of the genes that are expressed by microglia are different between humans and mice, which are frequently used as animal models in research on Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative disorders. The findings will be important for studies of the gene expression profile of normal microglia during human aging.

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

Magnetic resonance is used to evaluate food quality

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

A Brazilian company has developed a low-field 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: Sao Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP)

Comparing the jaws of porcupine fish reveals three new species

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and colleagues compared fossil porcupine fish jaws and tooth plates collected on expeditions to Panama, Colombia, Venezuela and Brazil with those from museum specimens and modern porcupine fish, revealing three new species.

Journal: PLOS One
Funder: Colciencias

Molecule increases pregnancy rate and number of offspring in cattle

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

Researchers at Inprenha Biotecnologia and the University of São Paulo, in Brazil, have discovered a molecule that can increase bovine pregnancy rates and reduce early embryo loss. The discovery gave rise to a product that enhances reproductive efficiency in domestic animals such as cattle and horses. Product was patented in nine countries and in the European Union.

Funder: Sao Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP)

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