• Universidad de Santiago’s interdisciplinary research team, led by Dr. Silvia Matiacevich from the Technological Faculty, is focused on developing an edible film that could increase the shelf life of fresh foods by 30%.

Improving the way of preserving foods has been a permanent concern in food industry. This is the reason why packaging is essential for the quality and shelf life of the product. But this packaging should be in harmony with the environment.

In light of this situation, a sustainable alternative for food packaging has been developed: food covering edible films, which are being widely used and have become a world trend nowadays. At Universidad de Santiago, an interdisciplinary research team is trying to replicate this development, giving value added to different national byproducts.

This initiative will be viable thanks to the Associative Dicyt Project called “Bioactive Coatings for Foods”, which gathers together experts from different faculties of the University.

“We will use food industry byproducts which are considered as dispensable or waste material. We are going to give them a value added by adding antioxidant and antimicrobial components to them in order to increase the shelf life of fresh food products,” Dr. Daniel López says.

Academics from three different faculties gathered for this purpose: Dr. Rubén Bustos, from the Faculty of Engineering (Department of Chemical Engineering); Dr. Diego Venegas and Dr. Marlén Gutiérrez, from the Faculty of Chemistry and Biology (Department of Materials Chemistry); and Dr. Daniel López and Dr. Silvia Matiacevich, from the Technological Faculty (Department of Food Science and Technology), being Dr. Matiacevich the leader of the project.

During the two years scheduled for the project, the researchers plan to study the synergistic effect of this combination of products and they expect to increase food shelf life by over 30%.

Interdisciplinarity

Most of the academics related to this project are part of a larger group created by the end of 2013 called Indi, Asociación de Investigadores por el Desarrollo e Interdisciplinariedad of Universidad de Santiago de Chile, a group of researchers that promotes development and interdisciplinarity at the university.

“All of us have participated in some of these initiatives at some point, seeking for this interdisciplinarity. This is how we have met other people and created contacts. What is good is that more than just admiring the work of others, we have the real possibility of conducting studies together. For this reason, we value this type of projects, as they promote the integration and interdisciplinarity that define a university,” Dr. Matiacevich says.

Translated by Marcela Contreras
 

• The candidacy of the renowned electrochemist for the highest scientific award of the country is supported by our University and different associations and representatives of the national and international scientific world.

With the support of Universidad de Santiago de Chile, through its highest authority, President Juan Manuel Zolezzi, the candidacy application of the University’s renowned researcher was submitted last week. He has been recognized by his peers and has been honored by international scientific societies that validate the experience and contributions made by this researcher of the Faculty of Chemistry and Biology.

The National Award is the maximum prize given by the State to acknowledge the work made by Chileans who stand out by their excellence, creativity and significant contribution to culture and the development of different areas of knowledge and the arts.

In the University’s scientific community nobody has been awarded this prize yet; for this reason, Maritza Páez and Jorge Pavez, both academics at the Faculty of Chemistry and Biology, did not hesitate to promote Doctor José Zagal’s nomination to the National Award of Natural Sciences 2014, who has been honored both in Chile and abroad.

Contribution to education

Jorge Pavez, a researcher, and Maritza Páez, the Director of the Department of Chemistry of Materials of Universidad de Santiago, were both among Dr. Zagal’s students and they highlight his enormous contribution to teaching, as well as his scientific career. At an academic level, they stress the work he has done directing Master’s degree and doctoral dissertations.

“Dr. Zagal’s contribution is notable, because it has positioned Universidad de Santiago and the country in the electrochemistry research world scene,” Dr. Pavez said. He added that Dr. Zagal’s nomination is based on his career throughout these years contributing to this field, both at a scientific and at an educational level, at training new generations.”

Also, professor Pavez said: “His contribution to electrochemistry has gone beyond the country’s borders and the region. Proofs of this are the two international prizes that were awarded to him this year by the world most renowned scientific societies in this field: the Electrochemical Society (ECS), in the United States, and the International Society of Electrochemistry (ISE), in Europe, that record the highest-impact publications on electrochemistry.”

In April and June, both societies, ECS and ISE, sent Dr. Zagal letters of recognition appointing him “Fellow”, “for his exceptional contribution to electrochemistry” and “scientific achievements.” The ISE has scheduled its awarding ceremony for September, during its annual meeting in Switzerland, while the ECS has scheduled its ceremony for October, during its bi-annual meeting that will be held in Mexico.

Valuable work

According to the candidate for the National Award of Natural Sciences, this year 2014 has been especially meaningful due to the recognition of his work. On the one hand, he received the recognition of the societies mentioned above, and on the other, he received the support from the University and his peers.

“Curiously, this year I have been honored by two international associations and I think this is important, because they are external organizations that recognize that, at Universidad de Santiago, our work is valuable,” Dr. Zagal said.

In addition, renowned scientists of other universities support him too and so do the editors of noted international publications in which he is part of the editorial board, like the Journal of Solid State Electrochemistry, Electrochemistry Communications, International Journal of Electrochemistry, Electrocatalysis, International Journal of Biotechnology & Biochemistry, ISRN Electrochemistry, Electrochemistry Communications, Journal of the Serbian Chemical Society and Electrochemical Energy Technology.

At present, Dr. Zagal is working in two lines of research at Universidad de Santiago: The development of electrodes for energy conversion systems and the development of sensors for detecting substances in fluids.

“There are prominent scientists at our University, but none of them has been honored with a National Award and I believe that sometime one of them should be awarded a prize like this; this would be very important for the prestige of our University, because it is one of the universities that conducts more research in Chile,” Dr. Zagal said.

The jury that will decide on the National Award 2014 (according to Law 19.169) is made up by the Minister of Education, Nicolás Eyzaguirre; the President of Universidad de Chile, Ennio Vivaldi; the President of the Chilean Academy of Science of Instituto Chile, Juan Alfonso Asenjo; the President of Universidad de Antofagasta (on behalf of the CRUCH), Alberto Loyola Morales; and the previous award winner (2012), Bernabé Santelices González

Translated by Marcela Contreras

•  Carolina Aliaga, professor at the Department of Environmental Sciences of the Faculty of Chemistry and Biology of Universidad de Santiago was appointed representative in Latin America by her peers during the last meeting of the Inter-American Photochemical Society. “It is a recognition for the work we have done at the university, the place of birth of Photochemistry in our continent, where several generations have been trained in this field,” she said.

During the 25^th Meeting of the Inter-American Photochemical Society (I-APS), Carolina Aliaga, professor at the Department of Environmental Sciences of the Faculty of Chemistry and Biology of Universidad de Santiago, was appointed representative of this society in Latin America. She is the first Chilean to hold this position.

The meeting was held in Chile, for the first time, between May 24^th-27^th, at the Centro de Extensión of Universidad Católica, in Santiago. Carolina Aliaga and Alexis Aspee, both professors at Universidad de Santiago, were part of the organizing committee.

“All the participants were so glad about the high level of the meeting. It was beyond their expectations,” professor Aliaga said. “They all appreciated the level of the works presented.”

The organizing committee had the collaboration of researchers at Universidad Católica, Universidad de Chile and Universidad Andrés Bello. More than 150 people attended the activity: undergraduate and graduate students, professors and researchers from USA, Spain, Germany and Argentina, among other countries.

The meeting, which focal point was Photochemistry, included works related to bioenergy, nanocatalysis, photoluminescence, photodynamic therapies, basic chemistry and others.

“I feel glad because everyone can contribute to science development through cooperation and generate new collaboration opportunities among researchers,” professor Aliaga said. “This is a recognition for the work we have done at the university, the place of birth of Photochemistry in our continent, where several generations have been trained in this field,” she added.

Regarding her new position, she will act on behalf of the association suggesting speakers for future meetings, awards for experienced researchers and young researchers, among others.

“I think the first challenge I have to face is to position the names of researchers who are just starting in this field and support good students,” she said.

The Inter-American Photochemical Society has more than 600 members in academia, industry, and government throughout North and South America. It promotes collaborative networks among its members, so that they can share their experiences and knowledge.

Translated by Marcela Contreras

• Through a Fondecyt Initiation into Research Project, Dr. Luis Lemus, professor at the Faculty of Chemistry and Biology, has studied the interaction between new molecules called “helicates” and DNA, in order to evaluate the development of more specific drugs to fight cancer, avoiding the destructive effects of chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

According to Globocan, a worldwide survey on cancer conducted in 2012; there are 14.1 million new cases of this disease. At present, the most widely used treatments are chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Their purpose is to stop cancer spreading in the body by killing malignant cells that divide rapidly, one of the main properties of most cancer cells; however, in the process healthy cells are killed too: hair follicles, gastric mucosal cells, blood cells, etc. These side effects make these non-specific treatments very destructive:

Something that could help to change this situation is the development of new compounds with a higher selectivity towards a specific biological target, the line of research of Dr. Luis Lemus, professor at the Faculty of Chemistry and Biology of Universidad de Santiago, who leads the Fondecyt* Initiation into Research Project named “Study on Helicates as DNA coordinators”. Its results could lead to developing more specific anticancer drugs.

“These molecules (helicates) are able to bind to DNA strands by means of specific and strong interactions, modifying its structure, what prevents the genetic material from replicating inside the cell. What should be noticed is that cancer cells are the ones that produce the largest amount of DNA; therefore, these molecules could be a potential treatment against cancer progression,” professor Lemus stresses.

To make progress in the treatment of this disease, first it is essential to deepen the knowledge about these compounds, which started to be studied less than 30 years ago. According to professor Lemus, nowadays there are a few groups in the world dedicated to study the use of helicates as anticancer drugs and the way in which this type of interaction affects the DNA structural modification has not been studied yet. This is the line of research that Dr. Lemus intends to develop.

“Helicates are inorganic chiral molecules with a helical shape similar to the one of DNA, in which each molecule has a helical twist sense defined according to its structure. These positive molecules interact with negatives ones, in this case, DNA. After this electrostatic attraction occurs, the DNA is able to recognize and selectively establish secondary interactions with helicates with better twist sense than others. Here, documenting this phenomenon is essential.

This project will be implemented in two stages. First, by performing the structural study and synthesis of different types of helicates with different transition metals; and second, by doing DNA tests to evaluate the affinity between the molecules and DNA, and the extent to which helicates could modify the latter.

Regarding the projections of the study, professor Lemus says that in the future, “it would be ideal to evaluate these compounds against cancer cells and therefore, to prove if they are able to kill these cells. However, today we are trying to build a very basic knowledge, because it does not exist. Acquiring this knowledge will be very helpful for us and for other groups.”

A field to explore

Creating a research group dedicated to study inorganic complexes for biological applications is among the goals that Dr. Lemus has for this project. According to the academic, this area is little developed in Chile, so this study could start a new line of research both at the University and in the country.

“We have the facilities, equipment and experience in synthesis to meet the initial goals of this project; but we also need help from other researchers who could contribute with their knowledge in biology to make the study more valuable. This project is the first step for the expectations that we have as a group,” Dr. Lemus says.

*Fondecyt: National Fund for Scientific and Technological Development.

Translated by Marcela Contreras

• During the 226^th meeting of the Electrochemical Society (ECS), the researcher at Universidad de Santiago was appointed Fellow of the 2014 ECS Class for his contribution to the progress of science and technology, his leadership in this discipline and his active membership in the ECS. He became the first active researcher in a Latin American country to be awarded this honor.
• Dr. Zagal showed himself gratified at receiving this award from this international scientific society with more than 100 years of history that has gathered together the most renowned scientists and innovators in the world. “My achievements in this field are the result of many years working with excellent colleagues and collaborators and outstanding students. This award encourages me to continue giving my students my best, with devotion and eagerness, and promoting our University research work around the world,” he said.
• This year, professor Zagal, academic at the Faculty of Chemistry and Biology, was also honored by the International Society of Electrochemistry of Europe and was a candidate for the National Award of Natural Sciences.

Scientists from all over the world met in Cancun, Mexico, to hold the 226^th version of the bi-annual meeting of the Electrochemical Society (ECS), a scientific American society founded in 1902 that gathers together more than 8 thousand 700 scientists in the field of electrochemistry.

The meeting was attended by more than 2 thousand people and included several activities, among which it is worth to mention the 2014 ECS Class Fellow award ceremony. Fifteen international scientists were appointed Fellows and one of them was Dr. José Zagal, researcher at the Faculty of Chemistry and Biology of Universidad de Santiago de Chile. He was honored for his contribution to the progress of science and technology, his leadership in the field of electrochemistry and his active membership in the ECS. He is the first active researcher in a Latin American country to be awarded this honor.

“It is very gratifying to me to be awarded this honor because our work is being recognized by an international scientific society founded and based in the United States, with more than 100 years of history and that has gathered renowned scientists and innovators in the world, like Thomas Edison, for example,” Dr. Zagal said.

According to Dr. Zagal, the honor he was awarded – that can be added to the one he received this year from the International Society of Electrochemistry of Europe-, “confirms that we are being recognized abroad,” making reference to the strong research groups in the field of electrochemistry that work at the Faculty of Chemistry and Biology of Universidad de Santiago.

“I speak in plural, because my achievements in this field are the result of many years working with excellent colleagues and collaborators and outstanding students. This award particularly encourages me to continue giving my students my best, with devotion and eagerness, and promoting our University research work around the world,” he added.

Finally, Dr. Zagal thanked the Faculty of Chemistry and Biology and Universidad de Santiago for their unconditional support during his 41 years of work at this institution.

Translated by Marcela Contreras

 A research team led by Dr Claudio Vásquez Guzmán, professor at the Department of Biology of Universidad de Santiago de Chile, proved that Antarctic bacteria are able to resist tellurium when they are exposed to oxidative stress.

Dr Claudio Vásquez, professor at the Department of Biology of Universidad de Santiago de Chile, together with his research team, proved that Antarctic bacteria are able to resist tellurium when they are exposed to oxidative stress. 

Tellurium (Te) is one of the many elements in the Periodic Table. It belongs to the same chemical family as oxygen, sulfur, and selenium, which are considered essential to life. However, until now, we still do not know if this element has any biological function. For this reason, the research team of the Laboratory of Molecular Microbiology of the Faculty of Chemistry and Biology of Universidad de Santiago de Chile, led by Dr Claudio Vásquez, has studied this element for years, trying to understand the molecular basis of its toxicity.

Since 2013, Dr Vásquez and Dr José Manuel Pérez, of Universidad Andrés Bello, have worked together in the Regular Fondecyt Project N° 1130362 “Tellurite-resistant Antarctic bacteria: Unveiling new toxicant resistance mechanisms,” which was recently completed.

“The hypothesis of our project was the following: As bacteria living in the Antarctica are resistant and adapted to oxidative stress, they should be resistant to tellurite. The idea was to find super-resistant bacteria that could help to establish the usefulness of tellurium to the cell,” Dr Vásquez explained.

The idea of the project came from the observation of isolated samples collected from different places in the Chilean Antarctica. They visited the Prat and Escudero Antarctic Bases, Deception Island and Fildes Peninsula and travelled on the Almirante Óscar Viel ice-breaker of the Chilean Army, where they were able to find, isolate and describe microorganisms resistant to oxidative stress and tellurite.

Tellurium is primarily used in the manufacturing of solar cells. According to Dr Vásquez, “It is an essential part of photoelectric cells that capture sunlight and transform it into electricity.” This is the reason why this element is a potential source of energy. “Now we need to create a system to remove tellurium from the environment, because it is very scarce,” he added.

In Chile, tellurium is produced as a byproduct of the copper refining process. It settles as anode slime and it is not recovered. “If we store it and control it well, we could contribute to prevent its potentially toxic effect on the flora and fauna,” he said.

Dr Vásquez concluded by saying that Universidad de Santiago has been really important during the conduct of this study for its support and constant collaboration.

• The National Institute of Industrial Property recognized Universidad de Santiago as the third Chilean university with the highest number of invention patent requests that seek to contribute to the country development in fields like chemistry and biology, engineering and technology. Maximiliano Santa Cruz, Inapi’s National Director and Óscar Bustos, Vice President of Research, Development and Innovation of Universidad de Santiago,   encouraged the University community to continue constantly producing industrial innovations to contribute to society.

On April 25th, in the context of the World Intellectual Property Day, our University was recognized as the third best national institution in requesting invention patents during 2013.

The National Institute of Industrial Property (Inapi, in Spanish)- an agency responsible to the Ministry of Economy in charge of registering, managing and promoting industrial property rights in Chile- granted our University an award in a ceremony led by Maximiliano Santa Cruz, Inapi´s National Director.

During the activity that took place at Inapi’s building, Santa Cruz highlighted the important role played by our University in producing creative innovations that contribute to our country’s development.

“Universidad de Santiago de Chile is absolutely essential to our patenting system. It has always been in the highest positions at the patent request ranking and this is not a coincidence: it is the result of serious intellectual property policies,” Inapi’s director said.

For Maximiliano Santa Cruz, our University’s interest in industrial property “is a powerful signal to its researchers, professors and innovators, in general.”

“I ask Universidad de Santiago’s innovators to continue creating new things and using the patenting system for it is a powerful tool to protect intellectual property,” he added.

Dr. Óscar Bustos, Vice President of Research, Development and Innovation (Vridei, in Spanish) of our University, who received Inapi´s award, showed himself very pleased with the position in the ranking at a national level.

“We are very satisfied with our exceptional position among the institutions that request for invention patents (…) We would have been happy to keep the second place like we did last year, but being among the main institutions that file patents requests in Chile is excellent news indeed,” Dr. Bustos said.

Pontifica Universidad Católica was at the first place in the patent request ranking while Universidad de Concepción was at the second place.

Finally, Vice President Bustos said that the high position of our University in the ranking reflects that “our researchers have become aware that not only scientific publications are important for our country: developing specific technological projects in key areas for Chile is important too.”

According to data provided by the Department of Technology Transfer of our University, during 2013, this state and public institution filed 11 invention patent requests in Chile, and at the same time, it filed other 42 requests with foreign agencies in charge of registering industrial inventions.

Translated by Marcela Contreras
 

• Academics at the Department of Physics, led by Dr. Raúl Cordero, were part of the scientific expedition made in November by the Chilean Antarctic Institute to Unión Glacier and they contributed with valuable measurements of the optical properties of snow.
   

• The scientific committee of the V Latin American Congress of Mathematicians recognized professor Navas for his scientific contribution to the region in areas like geometry, dynamical systems, algebra and group theory. The activity was organized by the Unión Matemática de América Latina y el Caribe (UMALCA) and it was held in Barranquilla, Colombia.

Dr Andrés Navas, professor at the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science of Universidad de Santiago de Chile, was awarded the UMALCA 2016 Prize during a ceremony in the V Latin American Congress of Mathematicians (CLAM, in Spanish) organized by the Colombian Society of Mathematics (SCM, in Spanish) and Universidad del Norte de Barranquilla, Colombia.

The prize was created in 2000 to honor young mathematicians working in Latin America and to recognize and promote their scientific contributions. After receiving the award, Dr Navas gave a presentation in a plenary session of the congress, which is considered the most important meeting of mathematicians in the region. The 40-year-old professor gave the presentation “Propiedades asintóticas de redes del plano”.

Henrique Bursztyn (IMPA, Brasil), Pablo Shmerkin (Universidad Torcuato di Tella, Argentina) y Robert Morris (IMPA, Brasil) were also awarded prizes for their contributions.

Recognition for scientific research

Dr Navas, who is currently the president of the Mathematics Society of Chile (SOMACHI, in Spanish), said that this award is a recognition for his scientific work; it is the highest recognition that a mathematician working in Latin America may expect.

He thinks that the prize will contribute to the positioning of Universidad de Santiago and the Department of Mathematics in the local and Latin American context.

“It is a significant step for the University and the Department, which has grown very much in the past few years. It will make us more visible at a Latin American level,” he said.

He thinks that another factor that contributed to him being awarded the prize was the publication of his doctoral dissertation “Groups of Circle Diffeomorphisms” (2011) in USA.

 “The University of Chicago Press published my doctoral dissertation as a book, a milestone in the Latin American context, because it was translated from a former publication in Peru and Brazil,” Dr Navas explained.

Promoting Mathematics

In the national context, Dr Navas expects his prize becomes a turning point so that the State creates an institute devoted to fundamental Mathematics.

“We do not have an institute like this in Chile and it would be similar to the National Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics (IMPA) of Brazil. I think we already have all the human potential to do it, but we need the relevant policy making,” he said. “We really need something like this in our country.”

Translated by Marcela Contreras

• Paula Núñez, a professor at the School of Obstetrics and Child Care of Universidad de Santiago has effectively contributed to midwifery students training: she learned to make vinyl-based reborn babies which are so real that it is difficult to distinguish them from real newborn babies and which help students to develop professional and soft skills.

Paula Núñez, professor at the School of Obstetrics and Child Care, has pioneered the “reborning” technique to make vinyl dolls with realistic features in our country. These dolls are used by the Faculty of Medical Sciences’ students to facilitate their practice and their approach to neonatology and pediatrics.

“Having these baby simulators will allow our students to become more reliable and empathic professionals in the future,” she says. She thinks that the experience allows the students to approach the reality that they will face every day when delivering babies.

“These dolls have all the features to resemble a real newborn baby: nerve endings, the color of veins, and even their weight is similar to the one of a baby, what makes the students to be as careful as if they were handling a real baby and develop more skills,” she explains.

Students at the Obstetrics and Child Care program have benefited the most from these baby simulators; however, Núñez makes dolls for other institutions too.

She has been making these reborn dolls for four years. She learned about the technique on the Internet, when almost nobody knew about it, but then someone who had learned it in Spain taught her how to make them.

Núñez felt that learning the reborning method involved much more than only learning this German artcraft: she could create more real simulators that would be useful to train professionals whose work required getting familiar with babies and little children.

Making simulators more human

Together with a business partner, Núñez created the company Pequeñas Maravillas (Little Wonders), where they make customized dolls for different purposes. “People believe that dolls are only for girls, but they can also be used for academic purposes. For me, learning this technique gave me the possibility of making simulators more human and, at the same time, contributing to students training,” she says.

In the future, Núñez intends to continue improving her technique to make these dolls. Now she is working to create with dolls with different conditions like cleft palate and other inherited disorders. “These simulators will allow our students to acquire specific skills to work with babies with congenital conditions and to get used to the specific care that they need,” she concludes.

Translated by Marcela Contreras