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News from Latin America

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 10-Aug-2025 02:10 ET (10-Aug-2025 06:10 GMT/UTC)

Startup innovates by developing IoT technology for forestry sector

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

Treevia, a internationally-awarded Brazilian firm, replaces costly manual collection operations for a wearable device that uses electronic sensors to monitor tree growth, quality and health in real time. The system also employs big data to generate reports in order to increase forest management efficiency.

Funder: Sao Paulo Research Foundation - FAPESP

Study describes enzyme's key role in immune response to Chagas disease parasite

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

A study shows that the expression of PI3Kγ protein increases during infection by T. cruzi, an essential response in avoiding excessive inflammation and controlling parasitemia. Heart tissue analyses involving human patients who developed cardiopathy in the disease's chronic stage also provided results. The next challenge is to devise treatment for Chagas using molecules capable of modulating the cellular signaling pathway mediated by PI3Kγ.

Journal: Nature Communications
Funder: Sao Paulo Research Foundation - FAPESP

Treatment prevents symptoms of schizophrenia in tests with rats

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

Researchers carried out studies in animal model that mimics condition in children and adolescents considered at risk for development of the disease in adulthood. Young and hypertense rats displaying cognitive and social impairments as well as hyperlocomotion have reached a healthy adulthood after being treated with daily doses of sodium nitroprusside doses for 30 days.

Journal: CNS Neuroscience & Therapeutics
Funder: Sao Paulo Research Foundation - FAPESP

Researchers detect Higgs boson coupling with top quark

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

Detection of Higgs-top quark interaction at LHC by CMS and Atlas international collaborations, with Brazilian researchers participating, confirms theoretical predictions of Standard Model of particle physics.

Journal: Physical Review Letters
Funder: Sao Paulo Research Foundation - FAPESP

Study finds new genomic regions associated to weight gain in Nelore cattle

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

Brazilian research aims at enhancing quality of beef and raising Nelore's food efficiency. Because they are rooted in tropical lands, Nelore cattle does not gain weight as easily as the breeds forged in regions featuring harsh winters.

Journal: Genetics Selection Evolution
Funder: Sao Paulo Research Foundation - FAPESP

Study investigates the reproductive habits of the fungus that causes athlete's foot

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

Genomic analysis suggests that asexual reproduction is the rule among individuals of the species Trichophyton rubrum. The authors believe that this factor should be considered in drug development.

Journal: Genetics
Funder: Sao Paulo Research Foundation - FAPESP

Innovative management system for tilapia fish farms cuts feed costs

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

System uses circular aluminum tanks that float on rafts of plastic bottles releasing a correct dose of fish food 48 times per day. The new method also reduced mortality in 12% by dispensing switching of tanks in fish grading.

Funder: Sao Paulo Research Foundation - FAPESP

History of side-necked turtle diversification revealed

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

Brazilian paleontologists have elucidated the evolutionary history of today's Yellow-spotted Amazon River turtle and of the oldest turtle in Brazil which inhabited the country 125 million years ago.

Journal: Royal Society Open Science
Funder: Sao Paulo Research Foundation - FAPESP

Substance found in grapes prevents agglomeration of a mutant protein that leads to cancer

Instituto Nacional de Ciência e Tecnologia de Biologia Estrutural e Bioimagem (INBEB)
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A novel Brazilian study published in Oncotarget is the first to show the action of resveratrol, a bioactive compound present in grapes and red wine, on the inhibition of aggregates of the mutant p53 protein. Because they are found in more than half of human malignant tumors, these amyloid aggregates are considered strategic targets in the fight against cancer.

Journal: OncoTargets and Therapy
Funder: Carlos Chagas Filho Foundation for Research in the State of Rio de Janeiro (FAPERJ), Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (Capes/Ministry of Education), National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq)

Research shows how a moderate dose of alcohol protects the heart

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

Results published in Cardiovascular Research suggest the effect is associated with activation of the enzyme ALDH2, which helps rid the organism of an aldehyde which is a toxic byproduct of alcohol digestion as much as it is a byproduct of heart cells submitted to stress.

Journal: Cardiovascular Research
Funder: Sao Paulo Research Foundation - FAPESP