{"id":207421,"date":"2015-09-15T13:10:59","date_gmt":"2015-09-15T16:10:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/?p=207421"},"modified":"2015-12-28T16:17:46","modified_gmt":"2015-12-28T18:17:46","slug":"cultivating-connections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/cultivating-connections\/","title":{"rendered":"Cultivating connections"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"FAPESP

HEITOR SHIMIZU<\/span>FAPESP Week Munich held in 2014: cooperation agreements and new relationships between researchers from S\u00e3o Paulo and GermanyHEITOR SHIMIZU<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

With 12 editions held in eight foreign countries since 2011, FAPESP Week symposia seek, among other things, to publicize the international-level research that is being carried out at institutions in S\u00e3o Paulo and establish new connections among scientists in Brazil and abroad.\u00a0 Researchers who have already taken part in the events say that the exchange of experiences helps plant the seeds for future collaboration.\u00a0 This happened recently, in fact, at a session on cancer and inflammatory diseases during FAPESP Week California, held on the campuses of the University of California Davis and Berkeley campuses in November 2014.\u00a0 Silvia Rogatto, a biologist at the Botucatu School of Medicine at S\u00e3o Paulo State University (Unesp), shared the details of her study on molecular oncology with Colombian biochemist Luis Carvajal-Carmona, a professor at the University of California, Davis.\u00a0 In the 2000s, the two had met during annual meetings on the project known as CHIBCHA (Genetic Study of Common Hereditary Bowel Cancers in Hispania and the Americas), which is an international consortium that investigates the genetic roots of colorectal cancer.\u00a0 At the time, Carvajal-Carmona was working at Oxford University in the UK and Rogatto represented the A.C.Camargo Cancer Center, which had contributed 1,000 Brazilian samples to the study.\u00a0 But they ended up losing contact with each other.<\/p>\n

At the California symposium, Rogatto spoke to Carmona about cases of testicular, thyroid and breast cancer that each were studying, knowing that Carmona had just published an article in the journal Nature Communications<\/em> about breast cancer, as well as articles on thyroid cancer.\u00a0 That was enough to establish collaboration.\u00a0 \u201cWe sequenced the exome [the part of the genome that encodes the genes] and conducted data analysis of Brazilian cases of testicular cancer in twins, and he helped me with the final part of the analyses.\u00a0 We are writing an article together,\u201d Rogatto says. \u201cThe presence of testicular cancer in twins increases the probability of detecting the gene associated with the disease.\u00a0 The chance to study identical twins provides us a way to increase our knowledge about the genetic origin of this type of cancer,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n

The trip to California also proved useful to Paulo Mazzafera, a professor at the Intitute of Biology of the University of Campinas (Unicamp) and director of the Brazilian Bioethanol Science and Technology Laboratory (CTBE). At Davis, a researcher who had just completed her doctorate at that institution and had expressed interest in doing an internship at Unicamp sought him out.\u00a0 Portuguese native Ana Raquel dos Santos Figueiredo recently received a FAPESP-funded fellowship and began work at Mazzafera\u2019s laboratory on suberin, a biopolymer found in plant cell walls.\u00a0 In the case of sugarcane, suberin is one of the substances responsible for biomass recalcitrance, which makes it difficult to use sugarcane bagasse in producing ethanol.<\/p>\n

\"036-039_FapespWeek_235\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Mazzafera also took advantage of the trip to California to look up Markus Pauly, who leads a laboratory devoted to the study of plant cell walls at the University of California, Berkeley.\u00a0 \u201cHe had traveled to Australia at the time of the symposium but I was able to contact him via Skype and we\u2019re talking about a possible collaboration,\u201d he says.\u00a0 Mazzafera sent Pauly\u2019s laboratory four species of sugarcane, two with high levels of sucrose, and two with high fiber but low sucrose.\u00a0 \u201cDepending on the outcome of the analyses being performed, we may start a partnership.\u00a0 Pauly\u2019s group is very strong in characterizing the compounds found in the plant cell walls,\u201d the professor explains.<\/p>\n

Affinities
\n<\/strong>The topics addressed at FAPESP Week are selected according to the affinities and interests of the S\u00e3o Paulo science community and the country hosting the event, notes physicist Marcelo Knobel, a professor at Unicamp and member of the FAPESP Adjunct Panel on Collaboration in Research, who took part in organizing the symposium.\u00a0 In the case of FAPESP Week Peking, which took 10 Brazilian researchers to the Chinese capital in April 2014, the hosts decided to focus the sessions on topics such as the materials, agrarian, environmental and medical sciences.<\/p>\n

FAPESP Week Buenos Aires, which took place in April 2015, offered a more extensive range of topics, however.\u00a0 They included presentations about advances achieved by S\u00e3o Paulo and Argentine science in such fields as astronomy, functional foods, energy, nanotechnology, quantum information, health and the humanities.\u00a0 \u201cWe took a large delegation of researchers from S\u00e3o Paulo State to Buenos Aires.\u00a0 It was the largest of the FAPESP Week editions,\u201d Knobel says. To H\u00e9ctor Luis Saint Pierre, a professor in the School of History, Law and Social Services at Unesp, in Franca, and a specialist in defense and international relations, the Buenos Aires meeting generated an opportunity for valuable networking.\u00a0 On the final day of the event, the researcher, an Argentine native who has lived in Brazil for the past two decades, reunited with colleagues from several universities including the universities of Buenos Aires, La Plata, Quilmes and Lan\u00fas, in addition to the researchers associated with the Argentine National Council for Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET), co-sponsor of the event. \u201cThere were three meetings where researchers got together because they were friends or had an interest in the topic,\u201d says Saint Pierre. \u201cAll of them expressed interest in taking part in cooperation networks with Brazil.\u201d\u00a0 These meetings focused around two topics.\u00a0 One, led by researchers from the University of Quilmes, involves studying the status of the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas) and the diplomatic dispute surrounding their sovereignty.\u00a0 The other, out of Lan\u00fas, is analyzing the strategic significance of the South-South cooperation.\u00a0 \u201cThese are foreign policy and defense topics that have to be worked out through international cooperation,\u201d Saint Pierre says.\u00a0 Some members of the group have already met since then, in Lima, Peru in July 2015 at a conference promoted by the Latin American Association of Political Science (ALACIP).\u00a0 \u201cI was unable to attend, but we are continuing our conversations virtually and plan to submit projects together,\u201d says Saint Pierre.<\/p>\n

The symposia are often an opportunity for FAPESP and foreign institutions to sign new cooperation agreements.\u00a0 At FAPESP Week London, held in the British capital in 2013, memoranda of understanding were signed that established cooperation among researchers from S\u00e3o Paulo and the Imperial College London.\u00a0 There were also agreements signed with Cambridge and Manchester Universities, in addition to the partnerships already in place with the seven Research Councils UK (RCUK), the British\u00a0 Council and 13 British universities.\u00a0 Another symposium that inspired cooperation was FAPESP Week Munich, held in October 2014. There, agreements were signed with the Ministry of Education and Research of the Federal Republic of Germany, the University of Munster, and Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, Germany\u2019s largest organization for applied research.\u00a0 In 2015, an agreement was signed with the Friedrich-Alexander-Universit\u00e4t Erlangen-N\u00fcrnberg (FAU). According to Sister Melo-Reiners, executive director of the Bavarian University Center for Latin America (BAYLAT), co-sponsor of the symposium, FAPESP Week Munich has already begun to produce collaborations.\u00a0 She mentions a project approved in a BAYLAT call for proposals by researchers Thomas Hamacher of the Technical University of Munich, and Gilberto Jannuzzi of Unicamp, that involves supplying energy to remote regions of Brazil.\u00a0 Hamacher and Jannuzzi took part in a symposium session that discussed sources of renewable and sustainable energy. \u201cWe plan to send one of our students to Germany next year to study models of policies for distributing electricity generation and integrating renewable energy into the electrical system,\u201d Jannuzzi adds.<\/p>\n

Rekindling partnerships
\n<\/strong>The organizers of symposia usually invite researchers who have had some sort of collaboration with the host institution to lead sessions on those topics.\u00a0 There are cases in which the meeting has served to renew relationships.\u00a0 FAPESP Week North Carolina held in November 2013 in the U.S. cities of Charlotte, Raleigh and Chapel Hill, North Carolina, marked the resumption of a partnership between the Hospital de Reabilita\u00e7\u00e3o de Anomalias Craniofaciais (HRAC) and the Bauru School of Dentistry (FOB), associated with the University of S\u00e3o Paulo (USP), and the Craniofacial Center, associated with the School of Dentistry at the University of North Carolina (UNC) in Chapel Hill.\u00a0 \u201cWe have worked collaboratively since the 1990s when Professor Donald Warren was the director of the Craniofacial Center, but the partnership lost momentum after he retired,\u201d explains Inge Trindade, a professor at FOB, who took part in FAPESP Week. \u201cWe had planned to start it back up, but this event ended up hastening the process.\u201d\u00a0 In Chapel Hill, Trindade met with fellow Brazilian Luiz Pimenta, who had completed his master\u2019s at FOB and is currently serving as Dental Director of the Craniofacial Center.\u00a0 An exchange of studies about rehabilitating patients with cleft palates and other craniofacial anomalies grew out of conversations with him and other researchers.\u00a0 \u201cThese clefts are closed surgically when the patient is a baby, but as people grow, deformities and disorders may appear that can impair breathing, speaking and sleeping,\u201d says Trindade.\u00a0 The new agreement has not yet been signed but the exchange has already been reactivated.\u00a0\u00a0 Ivy\u00a0Trindade-Suedam, a professor at FOB, was invited to serve as adjunct associate professor at the UNC School of Dentistry in Chapel Hill and one of her students, Thiago Freire Lima, recipient of a FAPESP master\u2019s scholarship, did a three-month internship at the Cranofacial Center under the supervision of Luiz Pimenta. Both received training in the use of Mimics software, which creates 3D surface models from computer tomographies of the upper airways. Professor Trindade-Suedam\u2019s thesis is based on studies conducted using the software, which was made available by the center. In 2015, three students from UNC School of Dentistry made a weeklong visit to the Hospital de Reabilita\u00e7\u00e3o de Anomalias Craniofaciais (HRAC) at USP and other annual visits are planned.\u00a0 Soon, HRAC doctoral candidate Let\u00edcia Dominguez Campos will spend time doing graduate research at UNC, where she will use computer simulations to study the morphology of the pharynx and its relationship with sleep in patients with maxillo-mandibular deformities.<\/p>\n

In the case of researcher Carlos Eduardo Ambr\u00f3sio, a professor at the USP Faculty of Animal Science and Food Engineering in Pirassununga,\u00a0taking part in FAPESP Week North Carolina helped jump-start a partnership with Jorge Piedrahita, director of the NC State Center for Comparative Medicine and Translational Research, a relationship that has already resulted in several joint publications of scientific articles.\u00a0 The two groups have long wished to work together and had submitted a joint project in response to a request for proposals by the University Global Partnership Network (UGPN) of the United States that was approved at the time of the 2013 symposium. \u201cBut my participation at FAPESP Week was important for strengthening my contacts and afterwards I was able to use instruments made available under the cooperation agreement signed between the Foundation and the university in 2012,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

The two teams are working with adult animal cell lines in which they induce pluripotency, which is equivalent to the ability that stem cells have to differentiate themselves in any tissue.\u00a0 \u201cOur focus is to obtain a safe line, without tumor-formation potential, for use in pre-clinical and clinical trials,\u201d explains Ambr\u00f3sio. To induce pluripotency in fibroblasts of dogs, the researchers are using a Nobel-prize-winning technique (2012). The method consists of inserting certain proteins known as transcription factors\u2014capable of reprogramming the cell genome\u2014into cells obtained from adult skin. Vanessa Cristina de Oliveira, a master\u2019s student who Ambr\u00f3sio advises, was in North Carolina on a FAPESP-funded scholarship abroad for a research internship to conduct a study that described a new source of stem cells in animal models.\u00a0 It was published in February 2015 in the Journal of Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine<\/em>. Researcher Nat\u00e1lia Nardelli Gon\u00e7alves was also in the U.S. conducting studies using canine induced pluripotent stem cells for her doctoral degree.\u00a0 \u201cIn this study we produced the first Brazilian line of these cells in dogs,\u201d Ambr\u00f3sio says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FAPESP Week inspire top-notch international partnerships ","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[166],"tags":[],"coauthors":[98],"class_list":["post-207421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-policies-st-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207421\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207421"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=207421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}