Improper and excessive fumigation with pesticides makes the most widely consumed tuber in the country a potential cause of serious dis-eases. A study in the rural zone of Cuidad Bolivar, in Bogotá, shows the contamination levels of potatoes consumed by people in Bogotá.

Published by Universidad Nacional de Colombia • ISSN 1657-0987 • www.agenciadenoticias.unal.edu.co/english-news

http://www.unperiodico.unal.edu.co/en • un_periodico@unal.edu.coBogotá D.C. - Colombia • Issue 6 • January 2012

Phot

o: V

ícto

r M

anue

l Hol

guín

/Uni

med

ios

Society Ecology InnovationAlienated in terms of food

Drug for cholesterol could attack osteosarcoma

Forest in Chocó Would be Fragmented within 40 Years

2 5 12 19

Pág. 22

8

Rescuing the Amazon forestA severe dry season in 2010 in the Amazon Rain Forest killed many trees in the Amayacu parcel. Tons of carbon dioxide were released into the atmosphere, according to forest ex-perts who study the natural dynamic of these forests to find out what their response has been to abrupt climate changes.

HealthSoftware Makes it Possible to Predict Abnormalities in the Human Body

Excess of ChemicalsIs Detected in Potato Crops

Excess of ChemicalsIs Detected in Potato Crops

Janu

ary

2012

6

ww

w.a

genc

iaden

otici

as.u

nal.e

du.c

o/en

glish

-new

s2

Executive Director: Carlos Alberto Patiño VillaPress Chief: Nelly Mendivelso Rodríguez Copy Editor–Translator: Edward Helbein

Associate Spanish Editor: Carlos Andrey Patiño Art Editor: Ricardo González Angulo Spanish Copy Editor: Verónica Barreto Agencia de Noticias UN Editors: Félix Enrique Blanco, Luis Miguel Palacio

Printing: Imágenes Gráficas Expressed opinions are those of the authors alone and don’t compel or compromise principles by the Universidad Nacional de Colombia or politics by the UN Periódico.

Web Page: http://www.unperiodico.unal.edu.co Mail: un_periodico@unal.edu.co Phones: (571) 316 5348 - (571) 316 5000 ext. 18384 / Fax: (571) 316 5232 Edificio Uriel Gutiérrez Carrera 45 Nº 26-85, piso 5º. Bogotá - Colombia ISNN1657-0987

Alienated in terms of food

Antonio Elizalde, Sociologist and Ph.D

in Human Development and Social ParticipationRector Emeritus

of Universidad Bolivariana de Chile

For thousands of years, hu-mans have experienced differ-ent ways of inhabiting a territory and living in community, finding and then producing food, creat-ing languages to describe internal and external worlds and sharing them with others, building houses and infrastructures, transmitting acquired experience to new gen-erations and creating institutions to regulate life in communities. Current life forms are a product of cultural evolution.

Only eight thousand years ago, when it was discovered that collected seeds would grow into plants similar to those that grow in the wild, cultivation and do-mestication of vegetal species be-gan. This made the development of a horticulture economy pos-sible. After that, Homo sapiens developed cultivation techniques, producing a change in the exist-ing relationship between life and nature.

After domesticating plants, humans learned to domesticate animals, changing from hunter gatherers into farmers. Three thou-sand years ago, the invention of

plowing, which uses other sources of energy apart from that of hu-mans themselves to remove soil, enabled the emergence of an ag-ricultural economy. At that point, a growing segment of the popula-tion could begin to do something other than just obtaining food. The industrial economy emerged a few centuries ago and the urban life-style began to spread.

Nearly 250,000 plants are trad-ed in the world, most of which are part of our diet. In a limited area in terms of botanic diversity such as North America, the natives used to eat 1,112 different species, and even today Bushmen in the arid regions of South Africa use 85 wild vegetables in a normal meal.1

Cultivation and its techniques have changed to fit this reality, and humans have incorporated less than 1,500 food elements in so–called formal agriculture. At the end of the 1920s, a typical grocery store in Canada would offer 900 different products. Today, an aver-age store has over 12,000, includ-ing more than 50 different brands of breakfast cereal. However, just 30 crops provide 95% of human nutritional requirements (three–quarters of our diet are based on just eight crops), and 75% of ce-real consumption consists of rice, wheat and corn.

Homogenization Vs diversification

Important restrictions on pro-duction have increased the risk of vulnerability due to the consider-able genetic uniformity commer-cial homogenization has imposed. This is happening even though agronomists are aware of the situ-ation.

In November of 1979, genetists K.E. Prasada Rao and M.H. Menge-sha visited Sudan, a possible cen-ter of the origins of sorghum, to search for the wild relatives of this variety of grass. However, they did not find the hegaris variety in any of the samples taken, and they found that the zera-zera variety close to Damazin was “almost ex-tinct”.

Sorghum is very important in tropical and subtropical countries and zera-zera is much appreciated due to its characteristics and as one of the bases of most mod-ern hybrid varieties. “Germplasm botanists are shocked at the mag-nitude of the genetic erosion of primitive crops and the situation is even more alarming with respect to wild sorghum,” asserted Rao and Magesha.

Over the last 50 years, more than 30,000 different local variet-ies of rice have been grown in

India. However, this situation has changed dramatically in the last 15 years. The director of agricultural research at the Institute of India in New Delhi, H.K Jain, predicted 25 years ago that this larger num-ber of varieties of rice would be reduced to just 50 over this period of time. From these 50, the first ten would represent almost three quarters of the total amount of rice in the subcontinent.

Consumers have been educat-ed by the market to buy “natural” products, which are completely regulated and standardized as to shape, taste and color. Increas-ingly, commercial possibilities for non–favored species are reduced in order to facilitate mass produc-tion, relegating self–consumption to isolated places or to those that are not part of global trends.

Tension between globalization

and productive localization

The tendency towards mon-oculture dominates global agricul-ture. Crops of just one species and one variety represent a potential phytosanitary risk in which a plague could affect and boost the spreading of the disease.

Experience shows that when seeds from a crop are used outside their genetic “country”, a reduction of their diversity occurs. This has led to a number of disasters. A century ago, the rediscovery of Mendel’s laws about genetics made the science of modern plant breeding possible, creating a few new varieties of high performance crops, but eliminating, in a few decades, the limited genetic diversity that existed in the northern hemisphere.

New varieties were scientifically “designed” to satisfy the demand-ing requirements of mechanical har-vesting, milling, fermentation and baking, but their uniformity has in-creased the risk of disease. The pro-ducers of “improved” seeds found it necessary to travel to ancient genetic diversity centers in Africa, Asia and Latin America in order to guarantee the success of their new varieties. The so–called “granary” of nations is rich in grain but poor in genes, and, as a result, has become totally de-pendent on third world agriculture for the long term survival of western agriculture.

The information provided here is to make it possible to look at the “obstacles” rural practices encoun-ter from a different perspective. We need to find solutions to the chal-lenges that ecological, biodynamic, native, family, and rural agricultures face, along with the challenges for natural agriculture. All of these prac-tices attempt to achieve equilibrium with the ecosystem and, at the same time, sustainable agricultural pro-duction for diverse regions in the world, despite current trends that jeopardize food security.

1Development dialogue. The Law of the Seed- Another Development and Plant Ge-netic Resources, 1983, pp. 1-2.

The globalized market standardizes consumers’ tastes and aims to homogenize crops, posing a risk to genetic biodiversity.

Phot

o: V

ícto

r M

anue

l Hol

guín

/Uni

med

ios

Nowadays, the trend towards monoculture dominates globalized agriculture. Crops of just one species represent a potential phytosanitary risk. The so-called “granary” of nations is rich in grain but poor in genes.

Society

Janu

ary

2012

6w

ww

.age

nciad

enot

icias

.una

l.edu

.co/

engli

sh-n

ews

3Maria Victoria Valero,

PhD in Tropical Medicine and Public HealthLeader of the Complexity and Poverty Group

Universidad Nacional de Colombia

Diseases caused by infections or parasites are part of the list of forgotten, neglected diseases, ac-cording to the classification made by the Pan American Health Orga-nization (PAHO). Interest in carry-ing out and improving clinical and pharmaceutical research is limited and there is little innovation in ef-ficient and economical diagnostic methods. These diseases are char-acterized by deficient investment in their control and management.

For the World Health Orga-nization (WHO), the importance of neglected diseases (ND) stems their impact and persistence among poor or marginal popu-lations. They are also concerned about their secondary effects on the improvement of health condi-tions for those who do not receive timely attention, using safe and efficient therapeutic tools.

According to the WHO, close to 1 billion people suffer from one of these diseases (ND). Estimates compared to those for HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis classify them as an important problem in the world (Figure 1).

Leprosy, leptospirosis, the plague, trachoma, Buruli’s ulcer, Chagas, African trypanosomiasis, cutaneous and visceral leishma-niasis, onchocerciasis, dengue, human rabies, dracunculiasis, dis-tomatosis, cholera, schistosomia-sis, lymphatic filariasis, geohel-mintiasis and ophidian accidents are included in the group of NDs made by the WHO

Local scenario

One of the difficulties in de-termining the situation in Colom-bia is that only certain Neglected Diseases must be reported im-mediately, such as human rabies, ophidian accidents, congenital syphilis, cholera, dengue, leishma-niasis, diphtheria, anthrax, food-borne illnesses, Chagas, the plague and leprosy.

Those with the highest in-cidence on this list are dengue (Colombia has the third highest number of cases in Latin America), rabies exposition and leishmania-sis. Estimates for 2010 include ap-proximately 18 million cases of intestinal parasitosis and 22,000 cases of leishmaniasis.

Conditons in Colombia are favorable to the prevalence these diseases, which occur among pop-ulations with low socioeconomic status, high levels of illiteracy, pre-carious households, overcrowding and inadequate health services (particularly potable water), in ad-dition to problems in access to public health services.

According to the last census by the DANE in 2005, 27.7% of the Colombian population has close to 100% of Unsatisfied Basic Needs (UBN) in remote areas far from big urban centers where all the ele-ments for the persistence of NDs are present. In 2008 46% of Colom-bians lived below the poverty line and 17.8% were indigents.

This, however, is not the only risk factor. The scope of heath pro-grams, in which ethnic minori-ties (indigenous populations and Afro–descendants) children and women are the most negatively affected, must be examined. The accumulation of all of these epi-demiologic and social conditions creates a vicious circle.

It must also be pointed out that there are deeper differences in Figure 1: bias in international policy?

Sour

ce: M

aría

Vic

toria

Val

ero

& M

. Tan

ner.

Inte

rnat

iona

l Hea

lth S

emin

arPh

oto:

AFP

Neglected diseases,forgotten populations

the country’s health systems, such as the attention models for the subsidized and contributive regi-mens, complementary programs and prepaid health insurance.

Stigmas

All of these problems have long-term consequences, as in cases of elephantiasis and filari-asis. The effects of some diseases during the chronic stage have con-siderable economic costs for pa-tients and for the health systems. These diseases also affect societies by decreasing productivity along with the wellbeing and develop-ment of those affected by them.

The world has become inter-ested in addressing this topic in the context of compliance with human rights. In Colombia, the Ministry of Social Protection is-sued Resolution 412 of 2000, which

included some of these patholo-gies. Its updating in 2006 included others such as American trypano-somiasis or Chagas disease.

In 2009, the PAHO, of which Colombia is a member, approved a resolution on Elimination of ne-glected diseases and other infec-tions related to poverty. It affirmed that their reduction or elimina-tion is possible with the available instruments. The Member States have therefore undertaken to re-duce them with the goal of elimi-nating them as a public health problem by 2015.

To achieving this objective, the need to improve the system of oversight for these diseases in the Member States country was cited, along with the allocation of effi-cient resources to achieve the sus-tainability of programs based on prevention, diagnosis, treatment, control and elimination strate-

gies. Additionally, the creation of “safer accessible diagnosis tests, safer medications and appropriate mechanisms to reduce late com-plications was proposed.”

The most affected countries will be those with higher indexes of Unsatisfied Basic Needs (UBN) and limited health systems to carry out control and implementation of operative programs, with faster diagnostic methods and safe and cheap medications to permit uni-versal access by target populations.

Efforts made by researchers, academia and some nongovern-mental organizations have led to the inclusion of all of these dis-eases on the international health agenda, as indicated by increased investment, the development of safer medications and faster and cheaper diagnostic tests for re-mote areas with difficult access, or politically unstable zones.

Estimates of neglected diseases compared to HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis

The plague, Chagas, cutaneous and visceral leishma-niasis, onchocerciasis, dengue and human rabies are part of the list of forgotten diseases. Although finding solutions to these problems is a national priority, in-ternational health policies tend to lose sight of them.

Society

Janu

ary

2012

6

ww

w.a

genc

iaden

otici

as.u

nal.e

du.c

o/en

glish

-new

s4

In Latin America, the countries with the most antibiotic use are Argentina, Venezuela, Peru, Mexico, and Chile. The less use is present in Brazil, Colombia and Uruguay.

Inappropriate use of antibiotics increases mortality

Alejandro Borraez,Unimedios

Antibiotics are the main drugs used to fight against bac-teria that cause infections in the body, stemming from the use of catheters, needles and other im-plements in a clinical context. They are also used for treating ulcers and viruses among other pathologies.

However, the resistance that microorganisms develop to these drugs (due to the speed of their genetic adaptation) causes an-tibiotics to lose their effective-ness, giving rise to the need to use higher and stronger doses for longer periods of time. The World Health Organization (WHO) de-clared this to be a public health problem in 2008.

This study by the Universi-dad Nacional de Colombia, the Ministry of Health and Colcien-cias clearly showed that excessive use of antibiotics in this country is a source of concern. In 13 high level hospitals (specialized for the treatment of serious illnesses), the use of carbapenem deriva-tives such as Metropenem (used for severe infections) increased by 300 percent, according to Aura Lucia Leal, a microbiologist from the Universidad Nacional de Co-lombia and the coordinator of the study. This reveals the growing need to use these antibiotics to fight against increased bacterial resistance.

“Options are becoming lim-ited, which is why doctors must vary the doses or use different types of antibiotics at the same time to fight against bacteria. This brings other types of conse-quences,” asserted Leal.

In the body, there are mil-lions of bacteria in the throat, intestines, skin, etc., which are necessary as a protection mecha-

Phot

o: A

ndré

s Fe

lipe

Cas

taño

/Uni

med

ios

A study made by the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, in which the impact of the use of antibiotics on bacterial resistance in 17 hospitals in the district health network in Bogotá was analyzed, showed that mortality and length of hospital stays among patients increased by 14%.

nism. Antibiotics are not selective and attack microorganisms in-discriminately, also killing those that are beneficial. The result is a process called “selective pres-sure”, which means the presence of resistant bacteria.

Another consequence was seen in the presence of two of the most dangerous bacteria in the intensive care unit: staphylococ-cus (present in mucus and skin) increased its mortality level from 46% to 57% while hospitalization periods for patients increased from 26 to 37 days.

In the case of Pseudomona (transmitted in hospitals), the increase in mortality went from 41% to 61%, and hospitalization periods rose from 33 days to 43.

Improper use

The improper use of these drugs in the community is also a concern. In the study led by Pro-fessor Leal, 20% of the patients surveyed (536) had used antibiot-ics before hospitalization, which shows the need for so–called “prudent use of antibiotics” with respect to decreasing bacterial re-sistance.

“They must be prescribed only when the patient truly needs

them, using diagnostic guides, determining correct doses, and accurate times of use. From an economic standpoint, antibiotics account for the highest costs in health services because they are used in great quantities,” said the Professor.

The figures show the reality that in–hospital infections cost the country nearly 727 billion pe-sos (some 370 million USD) each year.

The Universidad Nacional de Colombia microbiologist also stated that people in Colombia know the names of many anti-biotic, particularly beta lactams (derived from penicillin) such as amoxicillin, bactrin, etc., and use them indiscriminately fol-lowing instructions from rela-tives, friends, local drugstores, etc. “When the disease becomes serious, they go to hospitals with resistant bacteria that generate complications, not only for them but for other patients,” asserted Leal.

Roberto Tamara, a physician at the infectious disease unit at San Ignacio Hospital, highlights other elements that influence the prescription of antibiotics: patient’s expectations that they will receive medications immedi-

ately after the consultation (this is particularly frequent during holidays) and a tendency to exag-gerate their symptoms, among others mentioned in the report entitled ‘Psychosocial factors that influence the prescription of an-tibiotics, non pharmacological bases for therapy’.

Hand washing is effective for controlling infections

Among the recommenda-tions by the WHO to control the dissemination of resistant bacteria, the Ministry of Health –along with other specialized research groups such as the one led by Doctor Aura Lucía Leal and Carlos Arturo Álvares, an associate professor at the Uni-versidad Nacional de Colombia- hand washing is emphasized as the simplest and most effec-tive method for controlling this problem.

“In the 19th century, Iganz Semmlewis observed that ob-stetric mortality was higher in patients attended by medicine students who came directly from the morgue, with a disgusting smell on their hands. When he demanded that they wash their hands with a chloride solution, maternal mortality decreased from 13% to 2%, explains Álvarez. However, despite specific studies that stress the importance of this measure for preventing the pro-liferation of bacteria, sometimes even doctors themselves neglect to carry it out.

Because the creation of new molecules for fighting resistant bacteria can be impossible and minimizing their spread in clinical and community environments is difficult, experts consider is nec-essary to use measures to prevent the increase of resistance, based on existing possibilities.

Health

Janu

ary

2012

6w

ww

.age

nciad

enot

icias

.una

l.edu

.co/

engli

sh-n

ews

5

2. This disease has been reported in patients older than 50 who suffer from a loss of bone mass; however, the percentage is lower than among young people.

Gra

ph: J

onny

F. F

lóre

z/U

nim

edio

s Phot

o: p

erso

nal f

ile

Drug for cholesterol could attack osteosarcoma

Herman Saenz,Unimedios

In 1980 Canadians were sur-prised to learn of an athlete that ran the width of their country, the world’s second largest, with the aid of an orthopedic prosthetic device. His aim was to obtain funding for osteosarcoma research, a cancer that had led to the loss of his leg.

Almost 5,000 kilometers of sacrifice resulted in the creation of the foundation that bears his name, Terry Fox. It supports the studies on all types of this disease, which became famous throughout the world thanks to the “Marathon of Hope” run by this athlete, who died at the age of 22.

But osteosarcoma is still the most common bone tumor and the second cause of cancer–re-lated death among young people and adults, after leukemia. 75% of patients are between 15 and 25. It also represents 15% of all primary bone tumors and 0.2% of malignant tumors in children. Its prevalence has increased by 1.4% per year over the last 25 years.

In Colombia, according to fig-ures from the National Cancer In-stitute, 74% of bone tumor cases reported were caused by this dis-ease. Although its origin was ini-tially thought to be viral, its origins remain unknown; the only known agent associated with this disease is ionizing radiation, which is as-sociated with 2% of the cases.

High mortality

In general, 80% to 90% of os-teosarcoma cases occur in long tubular bones that surround the knee and the shoulders. The aver-age age of patients is 16 years, with male predominance, during the stage of higher growth.

“Generally, the disease starts at the top of the bone. Externally, it is possible to see a mass that grows as a spherical tumor. It is an accumulation of cells on the bone that is not easy to detect; some x-rays have to be taken to identify it. If people suffer from pain in this region, it is frequently attributed to a muscle injury but not to the generation of cells on the bone tis-sue,” according to Adriana Umaña, professor at the Chemistry Depart-ment of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia.

Frequently, metastasis occurs in joints or muscles surrounding the bone. One in three patients develops metastasis to a lung, this being the biggest cause of death from this disease.

The prevalence might be lower compared to other types of cancer, but the mortality rate is greater than 90%, and possibilities of suc-cess following treatment are low, which shows its aggressiveness.

“In the past, amputation of the extremity was the safest and most practical measure to fight the disease,” said María Claudia Sandoval, a doctoral student at the Chemistry Department. Currently, this treatment is performed de-pending on the condition of the disease. Surgery without chemo-therapy, in patients with localized osteosarcoma, fails in 85% to 90% of cases.

“Generally, during this treat-ment a combination of medica-tions commonly used in chemo-therapy is used. Complete extir-pation of the tumor is necessary to guarantee the success of the

procedure. Nowadays, 80’% and 90% of interventions do not re-quire amputation. Once metasta-sis occurs, surgery is essential,” ac-cording to Chemistry Department professor Myriam Sanchez.

A multifaceted medicine

A new focus of the treatment, using statins (an essential compo-nent of a large group of currently–used medications), could mitigate the effects of osteosarcoma. Scien-tists from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia are currently working on this along with colleagues from the Universidad de las Palmas de Gran Canaria (Spain).

Statins, which initially came from the metabolism of a fungus, have been known since the 1970s. They help to prevent the negative effects of certain enzymes. In the

case of cholesterol, they prevent fat deposits in the arteries. They are now used commercially and are only produced synthetically.

Apart from their use for cho-lesterol control, atherosclerosis and cerebrovascular diseases, it has been proven that they help to decrease cardiovascular incidents such as myocardial infarction, strokes, and kidney dysfunction.

“In studies carried out using in vitro cells in the lab, it has been shown that statins decrease the proliferation of cancer cells, as well as several of its biological effects such as the capacity for invasion and migration. Some clinical ex-periments focus on evaluating re-duction of the risk of prostate and breast cancer,” explained Sánchez,

Sandoval also stated that “it was found that the most invasive cells die easily due to the effect of

the medication; but normal liver cells that were analyzed resisted a higher dose. This means that statins do not have collateral dam-age because they do not affect the patient’s healthy cells.”

Diseased cells grow and last longer. What statins do, according to the specialist, is to accelerate the natural process of death of these tumor cells, whose natural life programming has been al-tered.

For now, studies on the treat-ment for osteosarcoma using sta-tins are being carefully analyzed, in that the research models are based on tumor cells extracted from patients and adapted models of lab rats, which are not entirely compatible with the human body. This work, however, is a source of great hope for those who suffer from this disease.

Osteosarcoma attacks the unions of the bones and it is characterized by a spherical mass.

Statins are mainly used to reduce bad cholesterol. Now, they could be used to fight osteosarcoma, one of the most lethal cancers in people between the ages of 15 and 25. Laboratory results are promising.

Terry Fox: thanks to the marathon that Terry Fox started in 1980, the world began to know the drastic effects of osteosarcoma.

Health

Janu

ary

2012

6

ww

w.a

genc

iaden

otici

as.u

nal.e

du.c

o/en

glish

-new

s6

Therapeutic patches without chemicals

Elizabeth Vera Martinez,Unimedios

Due to diabetes, Pablo Ramir-

ez has been injecting insulin into his body using small needles for more than 20 years in order to con-trol his blood sugar levels. Apart from the time he needs to use the needles (a minimum of 10 min-utes) and the pain caused to his skin, he has to pay for the needles, alcohol and cotton (around 50,000 Colombian pesos per month).

Like him, many people have to use medicine intravenously, orally (drops, syrups), rectally (supposi-tories and ointments) topically (baths and drops) or through the skin (percutaneous or transder-mal). This last method has been researched over the past 30 years and involves the use of patches to administer certain pharmaceuti-cals.

They have traditionally been made from chemical substances, but now the Research Group in Pharmaceutical Technology, con-sisting of Professors Hélber de Jesús Barbosa and Bibiana Valle-jo, has come up with innovations in their design. They are making these films based on polymeric substances of vegetable origin such as cellulose, starch and jelly extracted from trees and plants.

Some pharmaceuticals and extracts with proven biological ac-tivity are being applied to these films and, when they are attached to the skin, they facilitate, in a controlled way, the degradation of these substances until they reach the bloodstream. They are used to treat infections.

According to professor Bar-bosa, all medicines are composed of three elements: an active ele-ment or substance that causes an effect; auxiliary formulation ele-ments that help it to act in a stable and safe way, and a technological application for its manufacture. “The final results are pills, tablets, syrups and capsules, among oth-ers,” said the expert.

At the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, some certified ex-tracts of vegetable origin (essen-tial oils and medicinal plants, etc) studied at the Chemistry Depart-ment were applied to the plaster, under the direction of Professor Luis Enrique Cuca.

The in vitro pilot test to prove its effectiveness is being carried out by Researcher Lucy Gabriela Delgado, who leads an alternative project to treat cutaneous leishma-niasis. This pharmaceutical chem-ist has successfully experimented

Patches relieve pain, minimize the risk of following schedules and are better accepted by pa-tients, because they do not cause discomfort.

Phot

o: A

ndré

s Fe

lipe

Cas

taño

/Uni

med

ios

Phot

o: p

erso

nal f

ile

Polymeric films made using substances such as starch and jelly extracted from trees and plants will relieve the pain of those who, due to arthritis and chronic pain, among other diseases, have difficulties in swallowing medicine. This plaster of botanic origin will facilitate the absorption of medicine through the skin.

This new method will help to change traditional practices for using medication, such as injections.

The films are a means of transporting medicine and their development is being performed in the Pharmacy Department at Universidad Nacional de Colombia.

Health

with the use of botanic extracts, and is now testing their inclusion in polymeric films to determine their therapeutic action and re-sponse in patients who suffer from this tropical disease.

Professor Barbosa asserts that for cases of cutaneous disease, a patch is being developed to put directly on the wound without coming into contact with blood circulation.

Although the use of patches is common, “our objective is to take advantage of the film to transport medications such as diclofenac, iodine, and insulin, to prove that they can be released in a specific place that the body requires and thus prevent collateral effects.”

Traditional transdermal patches are used to treat patholo-gies such as hypertension, chronic pain and smoking. As contracep-tives, they inhibit ovulation and their effectiveness is similar to that of traditional oral tablets, accord-ing to gynecologist Maria Yolanda Torrente. “Few women use them, because they are not included in the Compulsory Health Insurance Plan. Most prefer monthly injec-tions or pills that are offered in health plans,” said the gynecolo-gist.

Advantages

Several benefits have been found with the use of these films. For instance, patients who have difficulties swallowing medica-tions can simply put them on their skin.

Those who have to consume medicine two or three times a day can occasionally suffer from diges-tive problems and adverse reac-tions to the medication in their bodies. Because patients do not directly swallow the medicine, patches prevent any secondary ef-fect.

The speed with which media-tions work is related to a prolonged therapeutic action. Therefore, the user will not depend on a few lim-ited hours of tranquility (as in the case of pills or injections every 6 or 8 hours, depending on the doses), nor will they risk missing the time of day or night for administering the medicine.

Additionally, skin will not be seriously affected over time, a situ-ation that happens in patients with diabetes, nor will those who need to take large amounts of medicine daily suffer digestive problems.

Janu

ary

2012

6w

ww

.age

nciad

enot

icias

.una

l.edu

.co/

engli

sh-n

ews

7

Colombia’s Position Is Weak in Termsof Biopharmaceutical Patent Exhaustion

Laura Garzón Acosta,Unimedios

Between 2009 and 2015, more than 100 patents for medications will expire (figure 1). These medi-cations, according to the Latin American Pharmaceutical Industry Federation, are made from two ac-tive components: one of biological origin extracted from microorgan-isms, organs, vegetable and animal tissue, and cells or fluids from hu-mans and animals; and the other of biotechnological origin, meaning proteins obtained from chemically or genetically modified cells.

For this reason, the National Council for Economic and Social Policy (Conpes) has approved the use of Bioprospecting, a tool to su-pervise sustainable use of genetic and biological resources that cost close to 27 billion pesos and will go into effect in 2012.

Using this control, scientists aim to accelerate the process of locating and studying molecules and genes for making biopharma-ceuticals that do not exist in this country. The exhaustion of these patents implies a huge decrease in the revenues of Colombia’s main laboratories, but at the same time represents a big opportunity for the manufacturers of new medica-tions.

Limited access

One of the molecules whose patent will expire in the coming months is anti–TNF, a substance used to counter the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis. In the market it is sold under the name of Remi-cade and is produced by Schering–Plough laboratories, which also of-fers treatments for diseases related to allergy and respiratory compli-cations, among others.

Remicade is not freely sold and is therefore not available in pharma-cies. Its presentation includes just one ampoule that costs 1,999,300 pesos (currently US$ 1000) in the Colombian market.

Gerardo Quintana, a rheuma-tologist from the Universidad Na-cional de Colombia, asserted that this medicine is recommended to patients who do not respond favor-ably conventional medicine. “Re-micade prevents erosion and re-duction in the joint space. It is 97% effective in patients who have had rheumatoid arthritis for less than three years,” said the specialist.

The expensive Remicade is not covered by the Compulsory Subsi-dized Health Plan (POS); however, injunctive action to obtain it is not necessary, as in the case of HIV.

“After a medical council proves the existence of the disease, the POS then approves it and it is given to the patient,” according to Quin-tana.

Patents and recombinant drugs

Advances in genetics and mo-lecular biology have led to the cre-ation of biotechnological medica-tions that, as previously mentioned, are obtained from microorganisms, cells, animals and plants, among

other genetically modified living things. Its complexity ranges from simple proteins, such as insulin, to large molecules.

Protein molecules have a spe-cific sequence of amino acids that determine the characteristics of a drug. María Teresa Reguero, a pharmaceutical chemist from the Universidad Nacional de Colom-bia, explains that proteins (carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen) are similar structures, and amino acids are the bricks that hold them together. Thus in biopharmaceu-ticals, the expression biosimilar medicine is used instead of generic medicine, since their compounds are proteins.

The expert asserted that when a protein is extracted from a living organism, other proteins normal-ly come with it, called impurities, which can alter its function. What would happen to a diabetic patient who has to use insulin every day and his or her biosimilar medica-tion has a different structure?

“If the new medication does not have the same sequence, its structure would be different and it would therefore produce second-ary effects and even death. Biop-harmaceuticals are used over long periods of time and can produce immunogenicity, which means, creating antibodies,” said Reguero.

The pharmaceutical industries

that create these products protect them with patents. In Colombia, such exclusive production rights last between 18 and 20 years. But when these patents expire, other laboratories can produce the same compound and compete in the market. However, the second mol-ecule to be commercialized must prove that it does not include any additional compounds other than the protein itself.

The entity in charge of over-seeing fulfillment of the require-ments by the laboratories is the Na-tional Institute for Drug and Food Oversight (Invima), which deter-mines if the second molecule can be approved as a biocompetitor medicine. If the second molecule is different from the first, the manu-facturer has to explain the reasons for the differences along with their implications for patients.

Unclear policy

Until now, new biopharma-ceuticals have been registered as new products and not as biosimilar medications. Laboratories provide Invima with all the clinical and pre-clinical information to ensure their quality under Decree 677 of 1995, which includes all the information for registration and commercial-ization of medications. “However, biopharmaceuticals require an in-dependent policy that has so far not been created. That is the ob-jective of the Compes document that aims to create a special chap-ter within the decree dedicated to biopharmaceuticals,” according to Reguero.

Julio Delgado, from Genera-tion Bio Foundation and coauthor of the decree that regulates the pro-duction of biotechnological medi-cations in Colombia, indicates that this type of medications are the most expensive in the market and are responsible for most of the me-diation compensation payments made to Fosyga. “In 2008 alone, six of the top ten belonged to this cat-egory, as is shown in the data of the Information System on Drug Prices (figure 2),” asserted the expert.

According to inter-national studies, once the patent on a medication ex-pires, the cost of this me-diation can drop to as little as 30%. The largest phar-maceutical laboratories are located in the USA and Europe, although some emerging countries such as China, India, Korea and Brazil have already begun to participate.

Figure 2 Data of the Information System on Drug Prices

Medicine (commercial name) Pharmaceutical laboratory BiotechnologicalValue of Fosyga

recovery in 2008

1. Riruximab (Mabthera) Roche Yes 72.098.539.117

2. Adalimumab (Humira) Abbot Yes 51.660.225.786

3. Infliximab (Remicade) Schering-Plough Yes 48.757.813.578

4. Imatinib (Glivec) Novartis No 40.397.095.490

5. Trastuzumab (Herceptin) Roche Yes 35.428.470.001

6. Interferon beta Ib (Betaferón) Bayer Schering farma Yes 31.644.084.802

7. Etanercep (Enbrel) Wyeth Yes 28.357.478.203

8. Micofenolato (Cellcept) Roche No 26.472.955.055

9. Temozolomida (Temodal) Schering-Plough No 25.874.795.954

10. Toxina butolínica (Botox) Allergan No 21.892.249.881

Figure 1 Biopharmaceuticals with 2009-2015 patens Medicine Use Laboratory

Eprex® Increases the production of the erythropoietin hormone Amgen/J&J

Neorecormon® For diabetic patients with primary renal anemia Roche

Betaferon® Increases the defenses in the organism Bayer

Neupogen®Increases the amount of white blood cells,

a defense against infectionsAmgen

Intron-A® y Roferon-A®Treats leukemia and chronic hepatitis types B and C,

used to treat genital wartsSchering-Plough/Roche

Enbrel® Fights early active, moderate and severe rheumatoid arthritis Amgen/Wyeth

Remicade® For rheumatoid arthritis Schering-Plough

MabThera® For rheumatoid arthritis Roche

Herceptin® Fights metastatic breast cancer Roche

Erbitux® Treatment for colorectal, head and lung cancer Merck-Serono

Imag

e: A

FP

To improve over-sight on biological and biotechnological medications, Invima signed an agreement with the Pharmacy Department of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia to train professionals from the Heath Records Sub-Division of that regulatory authority on this topic.

Although patents for some medi-cines made from living organisms have expired (such as Remicade used to treat rheumatoid arthritis), the regulatory, creation and commer-cialization policy for these biophar-maceuticals have not yet not gone into effect.

Health

Janu

ary

2012

6

ww

w.a

genc

iaden

otici

as.u

nal.e

du.c

o/en

glish

-new

s8

Rescuingthe Amazon forest

A severe dry season in 2010 in the Amazon Rain Forest killed many trees in the Amayacu parcel. Tons of carbon dioxide were released into the atmosphere, according to forest ex-perts who study the natural dynamic of these forests to find out what their response has been to abrupt climate changes.

Gimena Ruiz Pérez,Unimedios

Thousands of leaves of diverse sizes and shapes, different fruits, and deep dark pathways sur-rounded by trees used by birds as shelters are part of the landscape of the Amacayacu parcel, which has some of the world’s greatest arboreal biodiversity and is suf-fering from the effects of climate change.

This situation was detected through monitoring the demog-raphy, functioning and variety of vegetable species by researchers from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia in Medellin and the Amazon Institute of Scientific Re-search (Sinchi) in the Colombian Amazon.

“This classification makes it possible to determine, among other aspects, the endangered di-versity of vegetable species, some of which are recently discovered, as well as timber and non–timber tress,” explained Alvaro Duque, professor at the Department of Forest Sciences.

Dairon Cardenas, a researcher from Sinchi, asserted that “one of the main benefits of this study carried out in Amacayacu is its contribution to the National Cata-log of Biodiversity and to the World Strategy for the Preservation of Plants, in that it has identified spe-cies facing some degree of threat, such as Cedar (Cedrela odorata), a timber tree that has been sub-ject to intense pressure stemming from over exploitation.”

Until now, 125 thousand trees have been mapped in 25 hectares of forest, from which 1,000 species have been identified according to their morphological characteris-tics. These include some types with timber potential such as Lauracea, Myristicaceae and Lecythidaceae. In addition, several varieties of veg-etables with potential for the devel-opment of beauty products such as hand creams and shampoos along with pharmaceutical and medical products have been found.

“We have identified species such as assai (Euterpe precato-ria), which is very important from a nutritional perspective and is commercially exploited for its an-tioxidant properties; milpesos or seje (Oenocarpus bataua), an oily plant with medicinal and cosmetic properties; Chuchuwasa (Mayte-nus amazonica), used as a medica-tion, the Para rubber tree (Hevea brasilienisis), which is widely used in the automotive industry, among others”, said Cardenas.

“We are interested in study-ing the natural dynamics of these diverse forests and knowing about their response to abrupt climate change,” asserted Duque.

To achieve their objective, the researchers have focused on de-scribing and cataloging each of these arboreal timber species more than 1 centimeter in diameter and 1.3 meters in height. In doing so, the experts evaluate the character-istics of their leaves, fruit and logs.

CO2 and the atmosphere

From this sample, it was pos-sible to analyze the impact of glob-al warming on plants, since some respond better than others that rapidly die off.

This initiative, which focused on a zone characterized by its vir-gin forests, diversity of flora and fauna and multicolored land-

130,000 trees have been mapped in 25 hectares of forest.

This sample will make it possible to analyze the impact of global warming on these ecosystems.

Phot

os: p

erso

nal f

ile

Ecology

scapes, will, according to Duque, give the country unique tools to understand the complex function-ing of the natural forest systems of the Amazon region and low tropi-cal wetlands.

The results obtained so far help to explain the increase in deaths among hard wood species as a response to a dry season that occurred in the Amazon. The study indicates that in 2010 tree mor-tality doubled, causing a strong impact.

“When trees die, they stop being CO2 receptors; as a result, this polluting element is released into the atmosphere. Studies by researchers from Leeds University (England) showed that Amazon for-ests would be unable to absorb 1.5 billion tons of CO2 from the atmo-sphere in the period between 2010 and 2011, and another 5 billion tons would be released in the next few

years once these trees rot,” said the researcher from Sinchi.

Global task

This is a long–term project that began five years ago with dedicated work and a continuous search for information. Subsequently, partici-pation by other institutions in Co-lombia will be important to repli-cate, on a local, regional and global scale, options for managing the for-ests of the Colombian Amazon.

35 undergraduate and post-graduate students at the Univer-sidad Nacional de Colombia have joined the study to support mea-surements and sample collection, along with the identification of species and analysis of materials.

The Amacayacu parcel is part of the Center for Tropical Forest Sciences global network, which in-cludes 22 other parcels and whose

purpose is examine current phe-nomena such as global climate change, sustainability and the management of forest resources in a worldwide context.

The task continues

The researchers from the Uni-versidad Nacional de Colombia, aware of the importance of this ex-ploration that makes it possible to know the life history of these arbo-real species in this Amazon region, are attempting genetic identifica-tion of each species.

This is a difficult task because this vegetation is found in natu-ral parks. Describing the species is just the first step, according to Pro-fessor Alvaro Duque. That is why knowledge of their genetic and chemical structure would make it possible to better understand the real potential of these forests.

Janu

ary

2012

6w

ww

.age

nciad

enot

icias

.una

l.edu

.co/

engli

sh-n

ews

9Ecology

Botanical Common Names on the Web

Elizabeth Vera Martínez,Unimedios

Around 8,000 species of plants, described beginning with the his-torical botanical expedition and continuing until today, with their common or vulgar names used in the regions where they can be found and the different uses that popular wisdom makes of them, can now be consulted in the vir-tual world.

This is the first Colombian plant dictionary on the Internet. It is written in a simple and friendly language for all users, no matter their degree of knowledge, to en-able them to have easy access to information just by typing in the common name of the species. Ex-perts can also use scientific names, such as Taraxacum officinale (ge-nus and species, respectively).

This work gathers together more than 18,000 common names, and is based on a large scale ini-tiative begun more than 15 years ago by botanist Rodrigo Bernal, a former professor at the Natural Sciences Institute (ICN, from its Spanish acronym) at the Universi-dad Nacional de Colombia. Since then, students and professors have joined the project, including bota-nist Gloria Galeano, biologists Hel-ena Sarmiento, Angela Rodriguez, Mauricio Gutierrez and Lauren Raz, director of the Biodiversity In-formatics Group at the ICN, who is in charge of the virtual herbarium.

For this huge edition, the au-thors used three important sourc-es to gather data: a review of the literature associated with Colom-bian plants, traditional and bo-tanic bibliographies and different books related to plants.

In the Colombian National Herbarium and in the Amazonian Herbarium of the Amazonian In-stitute for Scientific Research (Sin-chi), these experts found points of reference and data bases that were used to complete the information on each species.

Native knowledge

A third source was to go di-rectly to the places where all the medicinal uses that these plants traditionally have were consulted. “In doing so, we spoke to the farm-ers and elders who are the real experts,” said Sarmiento.

Infusions with dandelions to lose weight, treat arthritis or re-duce cholesterol levels, elderflow-er for treating coughing, insomnia and migraines, among hundreds of recipes that popular wisdom has adapted for different needs can be found in this catalog.

According to professor Sarm-iento, each of Colombia’s 32 de-partments or provinces has its own botanic biodiversity, and in each region the same species has its own name, which is why her work focuses on the knowledge of

When you use the dictionary http://www.biovirtual.unal.edu.co/nombresco-munes/index.php?option=com_wrapper&view=wrapper&Itemid=3&lang=es, a window is displayed with three spaces for you to type in the common or scien-tific name of the species and the region of origin. For instance if you type in the word “destrancadera” and type “Cundinama-rca” in the space for region, apart from the photographs you will be able to see:

Destrancadera(Hypoestesphyllostachya – Aantáceas)Origen of the name(Because of its famous effects for good luck)This name is used in:Cundinamarca, TolimaHypoestesphyllostachyaAlso known as:abrecaminosestrancaderapecaspintorpolca

This catalog gathers together more than 18,000 common names in Spanish of Colombian plants, and includes others in Raizal (the English-language variant used in San Andres and Providencia).

Phot

o: A

ndré

s Fe

lipe

Cas

taño

/Uni

med

ios

Botanists published the first virtual dictionary of common plant names that gathers together complete information on around 8,000 Colombian species. Some such as elderflower, Palo Santo and quiebrabarrigo, used to relieve pain, lose weight and for good look, can now be accessed just by clicking on to them.

• According to Patrick Bryan Heidorn, who was invited by the Natural Sciences Institute to visit the Universidad Nacional de Co-lombia, information technology in the 15 century was based on the printing press, developed in 1440 by Johanes Guttemberg, although the Chinese actually developed this tool earlier. This caused a huge revolution in the way information about biology was disseminated.• Heidorn explains that “scientists developed classification systems that allowed them to organize spe-cies. They used to use card cata-logs and note books. They used to carefully determine the location of species on paper maps that could be copied or included when print-ing material. This technology era for information was the most ad-vanced at that time.”

common names, to provide users with all of this natural wealth.

Although this virtual diction-ary made by ICN is the most com-plete such catalog to date, its au-thors know that many things still need to be included. “This is a never-ending process because ad-ditional plants are every day and new species are described that en-large the catalog.”

Informatics and biodiversity

For Professor Lauren Raz, in-formatics is a very important tool for acquiring knowledge about diversity, as “it permits constant updating of information on new botanic discoveries.”

In fact, its use is necessary in

all knowledge–based sciences. “No researcher can carry out a study and take advantage of data only with paper; every expert has their own database and tools for pro-cessing information,” according to Patrick Bryan Heidorn, director of the School of Information Re-sources and Library Science at the University of Arizona.

Heidorn, who serves as chair of the JRS Biodiversity Foun-dation, a private philanthropic foundation in the US that sup-ports program development for the preservation of biodiversity, affirmed that science is based on data, and for this reason Infor-mation, knowledge and technol-ogy complement each other to increase the spectrum of knowl-edge about nature.

Janu

ary

2012

6

ww

w.a

genc

iaden

otici

as.u

nal.e

du.c

o/en

glish

-new

s10 Ecology

Ana Maria Pelaez,Unimedios

In 2006, Colombia imported 1,121 tons of olive oil, paying close to 5 million dollars. This expendi-ture could have been avoided by taking advantage of a Colombian palm known as milpesos or seje (Oenocarpus bataua), from which a similar substance with high pro-tein content is extracted.

This plant is present through-out the Amazon, in the forest of the Llanos Orientales (Eastern Plains), Magdalena Medio, Bajo Cauca, Alto Sinú and along the Pacific caost from Uraba to Na-riño. However, it is used only for its fruits, while in other countries its economic advantages are well known and improvements are made to the plants to enhance cultivation.

This is one of the findings presented by professors Gloria Galeano and Rodrigo Bernal, who specified the morphological data, geographical and ecological dis-tribution, common, scientific and indigenous names, as well as the uses of native species in the coun-try in a 688 page book entitled called Colombian Palms – a field guide.

With support from the Natu-ral Science Institute at the Uni-versidad Nacional de Colombia, Colciencias and institutions such as The International Palm Society, the Lindberg Fondation, the Real Botanic Garden of Madrid, among others, these researchers carried out a study for almost 30 years on this large family of trees.

The result is a book that uses simple and practical language, with the purpose of offering infor-mation to the general public about this resource and its potential for sustainable development.

Privileged in terms of diversity

With 231 species and 44 ge-nuses, Colombia is the world’s second most biodiverse country after Brazil. The third is Malaysia. These plants are present in almost the entire country and have di-verse uses for people. They are also important for ecosystems and provide food and shelter for wild fauna.

Roofs, walls, hammocks, handicrafts, backpacks, energy drinks and marimbas are made with wood or derivatives from palms, which facilitate life in some regions. At least 142 wild species are used for different purposes, particularly for construction, food, manufacturing, and for medicinal, cosmetic and ritual purposes.

For instance, the American Oil palm (Attalea butyracea), located in dry regions in Colombia, pro-vides the biggest number of uses, around 36. Its leaves are the most important roof material in large areas of the Guaviare River. In the municipalities of Honda and Mel-gar they are cut to obtain sap, which is then fermented and sold as wine.

From the mesocarp (the fruits’ pulp) and the seeds, fat with 60% of semisolid white oil is extracted, which is perfect for making mar-garine and cosmetics. However, one of its most important qualities is its potential as a source of sugar and biofuels, obtained by extract-ing the sap that comes out when the flowers are cut. This is an op-tion that the experts feel the need to explore.

Native Colombian palms at risk

Sub-products from palms can be used for handicrafts and in the food industry.

The American Oil palm (Attalea butyracea), located in dry regions in Colombia, provides the biggest number of uses in the territory.

In Nature

The researchers found in their study that, in a country where the main sectors (mining, cattle farm-ing, oil extraction) deforest and degrade the land, palms are a re-source that produces the opposite effect: they preserve the fauna and flora, as well as the nutrients of the soil. They also produce large amounts of biomass that captures carbon and provides a source of food for birds and mammals.

The Natural Tree in Colom-bia, called Ceroxylon quindiuense, for instance, produces between 2,000 and 4,000 fruits per truss, a banquet for blackbirds, magpies,

toucans, parakeets, and parrots, including the famous Yellow-eared Parrot, which is an endangered species and has been associated with the decrease of the palm pop-ulations in Quindio.

This, along with the other seven species of the genus Ceroxy-lon that grow in the wild, are lo-cated in the three main mountain ranges, particularly in the Central and Eastern ranges. Unfortunately, most of the plants in Colombia are adults more than 200 years old so that the risk of extinction is evident.

This is just one part of the vast information presented in the book, whose greatest contribution is as a

tool to bridge the gap between science, community, poverty and development.

“We want to contribute to spreading scientific knowledge to support decision making about natural resources, represented in this case by the group of palms, which have an extraordinary eco-nomic potential for this country,” said the authors.

This work summarizes their great passion for this family of plants, but also involves their dream of a legacy for future genera-tions while symbolizing the charm and enjoyment of landscapes for domestic and international ecot-ourism.

Phot

os: p

erso

nal f

ile

A 30—year study, carried out by professors from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, proved the favor-able properties of native palms for economic and sus-tainable development.

Different from other trees

• The stem of the palms is marked by the leaves that fall. Some of have spines and can take almost 50 years to ripen and reproduce.

• There are hermaphrodite, monoe-cious (with flowers of both sex) or dioecious (with separate individuals and sexes) plants, and in contrast to other trees, they have just one growing point at the end of the stem, so that if it is cut, the plant dies.

Janu

ary

2012

6w

ww

.age

nciad

enot

icias

.una

l.edu

.co/

engli

sh-n

ews

11Ecology

New Butterfly Species on the Outskirts of Bogotá

30 minutes from the capital’s urban area, researchers from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia discovered two new species of the Satyrinae subfamily. This is good news for science and for the Forest Reserve on the borders with the municipalities of Chia and Cota, as it confirms the impor-tance of endangered semi urban forest.

Alejandro Borraez,Unimedios

They do not have traditional or visible colors, which are typical of Lepidoptera (the family to which butterflies belong), but they none-theless represent two new impor-tant findings for science. They also show the favorable environmental conditions that persist on Bogota’s northern limits, a zone that was declared a Forest Reserve on July 19 of this year.

The two species are part of the satyrinae subfamily (Nymphalide family), whose most relevant char-acteristic is the dark color of their wings. They have an enlarged vein on top of their wings that allows them to move and increase their body temperature, which is very useful when we consider that they live at altitudes above 2,600 meters above sea level.

They have yellow patches on the lower back part of their wings that they use as a defense mecha-nism against other insects; this characteristic enables researchers to identify them rapidly.

To survive in these conditions they must maintain body temper-atures above 36°C. Due to their dark colors that absorb heat faster and their efficient circulation sys-tems, Satyrinae can resist the cold temperatures of the Sabana de Bo-gotá.

Their main sources of food are Solanaceae and Chusquea leaves, typically found in well–preserved wetlands.

Considering that lifespan of butterflies ranges from 21 days to 8 months, these recently discovered species have a medium lifespan of just two months.

Their function in the ecosystem

“It was an important discov-ery, because on the city limits with Cota, bordering on the Mercedes forest and the Cerro La Conejera, we found 23 butterfly species. What was most surprising was that we were very close to the urban area (30 minutes by car) and had previously been unable to identify new species for science”, explained researcher Gonzalo Andrade, dis-coverer of the two Satyrinae.

The butterfly expert from the Institute of Natural Sciences at the Universidad Nacional de Colom-bia found the species in January,

With 3,274 species, the country is the world’s second most diverse county in terms of butterfly biodiversity, after Brazil.

Phot

os: A

ndré

s Fe

lipe

Cas

taño

/Uni

med

ios

2010, while he was studying the natural characteristics of this area bordering on the municipalities of Chia and Cota.

According to professor An-drade, the existence of butterflies in natural scenarios is a bioindica-tor of the environmental quality of this area in which these butterflies live.

“Male specimens fly long dis-tances to find females for repro-duction, while females find bet-ter places to spawn. This pattern makes it possible to determine the environmental quality of the area, because females only lay eggs on plants where caterpillars can eat,” according to the researcher.

He also mentioned that fe-males have chemical sensors on their legs that allow them to iden-tify the metabolisms produced by nature, their main source of food. “That way, they detect the best conditions for laying eggs so that the larvae can be born. In most cases they live in the middle of plants to protect themselves from the weather.”

Besides their importance as environmental indicators, the newly discovered species play an important role as pollinators of Solanaceae flowers (herbaceous or woody plants) and Chusquea (simular to bamboo).

Now they are part of the national biodiversity

With 3,274 species, Colombia is the world’s second most diverse

country in terms of butterfly bio-diversity, after Brazil. However, Co-lombia is in first place regarding unique species that only exist in this country. At present the record-ed number is 350, which has grown with the discovery of these two new species of Satyrinae.

According to technical re-quirements, which consist in giv-ing them a Latin name and assign-ing taxonomical information, this butterfly could be called ‘Vander-hammiensis’ or something similar, due to the characteristics of the species and its family.

In favor of the reserve

This finding was used as an argument for authorities to declare the northern limits of Bogotá as a Forest Reserve, according to Dal-ila Camelo, a biologist at the Office for Natural Resourc-es at the Autonomous Regional Corporation of Cundinamarca (CAR, from its Span-ish acronym).

“The terrain has the necessary characteristics to preserve and host species despite the contamina-tion from the city. Chameleons, liz-ards, collarejos, hum-mingbirds, blackbirds, owls, squirrels and bats, among others, can be found there. This shows that

the capacity of the ecosystem in this area still has favorable condi-tions,” said the CAR researcher.

The Regional Forest Reserve Protector–Producer in the north of Bogotá (as it is officially named) includes the Torca and Guaymaral wetlands, the Conejera hill and wetland and part of the Bogotá River.

There are nearly 1,500 hect-ares classified as protected areas that serve as a migratory route for species and as an area for ecologi-cal connectivity for the city. If the ecosystem is preserved as it is now, these two butterfly species will be able to continue in their natural habitat and scientists may be able to discover new flying surprises.

Janu

ary

2012

6

ww

w.a

genc

iaden

otici

as.u

nal.e

du.c

o/en

glish

-new

s12

Alejandro Borráez,Unimedios

Although Colombian cartog-raphy, along with environmental research, portrays half of Colom-bia’s territory as being covered by forests, the accelerated increase in deforestation (336 thousand hectares per year), the use of soils (mainly for agricultural and cattle production) and increased water flows (that generate floods) point to a devastating future for our for-ests.

The need to control defores-tation became even more evident with the recent critical rainy sea-son. The government also admits that forestry policies in Colombia are inadequate and there is no consensus regarding such basic matters as regulatory concepts on the use of forests. Citizens are unaware of this situation, accord-ing to Sandra Sguerra, advisor to

the Vice Minister for the Environ-ment.

The policies that are in force since 1996 have been insufficient to mitigate the environmental damage. In places like the Chocó, where the deforestation rate is the lowest in the country (18%), a its forest could nonetheless become fragmentes within 40 years, or, as Julio Carrizosa, a researcher from the Universidad Nacional de Co-lombia affirms, it could be extinct in less than 70 years, if proper mea-sures are not taken immediately.

Acandí in Patches

Through satellite images (Landsat), data collection taken in the zone, and mathematical models, biologist Henry Arellano, a member of the Biodiversity and Preservation Group at the Univer-sidad Nacional de Colombia, de-signed a simulator that accurately

measures (90%) the vegetation and coverage in Acandí.

This municipality, located in the north of the department of Chocó, is part of Darién, and ac-cording to the Geographical Insti-tute Agustín Codazzi covers 86,900 hectares.

“When analyzing a thousand hectares, we find eight different types of vegetation in the same forest: Brosimum utile, Carpa gui-anesis, Hymenaea oblongifolia and chrysophyllum, among other trees that are cut indiscriminately by the timber industry. However, the of-ficial maps do not record this situ-ation, but instead show a large veg-etable mass,” asserted Arellano.

These species are mainly used to make rubber, glue, oil and fun-gicides.

With the information collected (altitude, humidity, soil inclination and structural characteristics of the vegetation) and the historical

satellite information on the zone (1987–2010), Arellano made an as-sessment of the current condition of Acandí and made a projection of the image that the satellite would capture in 2040, if measures are not taken to halt the transforma-tion of this forest.

The biologist explains that fig-ures are low compared to those from other regions such as the Am-azon and Andean, but they are still alarming because between 1987 and 2001, 11.76% of forest coverage in this municipality was lost, which means 7,617 hectares.

Between 2001 and 2010 the problem intensified. There was a 13.90% loss (8,400 hectares). Data indicate an increase of approxi-mately 4,000 hectares of bushes, affecting the natural forest. “These figures reflect the biggest transfor-mation in the zone over the last de-cade and the resulting extinction of species”, said the expert.

The estimate of 336 thousand hectares of deforested lands per year in Colombia could actually be triple that because forestry cartographic and identification sys-tems do not reflect reality. Through satellite images, data collection and math-ematical models, a study by the Natural Science Institute of the Universidad Nacio-nal de Colombia illustrates changes in the forests along with loss of forest cover in the municipality of Acandí.

Phot

os: c

ourt

esy

Hen

ry A

rella

no

Ecology

Forest in Chocó Would be Fragmented within 40 Years

Forest in Chocó Would be Fragmented within 40 Years

Janu

ary

2012

6w

ww

.age

nciad

enot

icias

.una

l.edu

.co/

engli

sh-n

ews

13

Forests are regulators of water resources and offer products such as seeds, chemicals for the extraction of medicines, raw materials for making glue, dyes, and rubber; they are also places for diversity and conservation of fauna.

Colombia is the second country in the world in botanic biodiversity with 26,500 species of plants with flowers, 1,562 lichens, 840 hepatics and 927 mosses, according to studies from the Natural Science Insti-tute of Universidad Nacional de Colombia.

(Satellite image of the maps in 1987 and their projection by 2040)

1987

2020

2001

2030

2010

2040

Ecology

Responsible use of resources

Given this situation, di-verse environmental, scientific, and social institutions work to increase understanding of the problem and propose effective solutions.

The director for research at Colciencias, Carlos Fonceca, stated that “we depend a lot more on knowledge. We do not have com-plete information on all of the spe-cies of trees in this country. We do not have information about their reproduction systems and possible uses. That is our main challenge. We cannot deny that forests are an important economic resource, but we cannot limit our economy to timber exploitation.”

For Ligia Arregocés, executive director of Ecofondo, if communi-ties that live around the forest have created preservation mechanisms

that have not affected the use of resources, there is no reason to stop using those systems, on the supposition that there are species of rapid growth, such as those used for forest and non-timber prod-ucts.

Arellano reaffirms this idea by asserting that “before the 1980s, we experienced a considerable re-covery of the forest in Acandí. This was due to moderate exploitation of wood by the inhabitants. Cur-rently, it is evident that the forests are being devastated in lowlands and flood plains.”

That is why by the end of 2011 –declared by the UN as the Inter-national Year of Forests- the re-sponsible institutions, such as the Ministry of the Environment, the environmental organizations, re-search groups and universities are expected to draw up clear propos-als for an effective forest policy.

In 2010, the highest defor-estation rates were record-ed in the Magdalena Medio region, with around 81,188 hectares of forest devas-tated each year. In Acan-dí (Chocó), the figure was 239 hectares. The simula-tion shows that, despite low percentages of vegetation destruction, the territory changed significantly and its effect on biodiversity, con-nectivity and genetic vari-ability threaten the offering of environmental services.

Janu

ary

2012

6

ww

w.a

genc

iaden

otici

as.u

nal.e

du.c

o/en

glish

-new

s14 Biodiversity

Biological crisis due to massive snake loss

John D. Lynch,Member of the Colombian Academy of Exact,

Physical and Natural sciences

Colombia has a wealth of snake species that is not appre-ciated in scientific publications. There are more than 270 species, a number that inspires fear in some people but an advantage for the country. Only 48 (18%) are poison-ous and represent a risk to hu-mans.

This group of animals has been little studied since 1940, when Emmet R. Dunn from the US, who spent a year in Colombia, and Brother Nicéforo María, from La Salle Museum, described some species and reported on their lo-cation. Much about this biologi-cal richness still needs to be re-searched.

These reptiles are present

Talla equis (Bothrops asper) is used in popular markets as traditional medicine.

Phot

os: c

ourt

esy

José

Ran

cés

Cai

cedo

There are four main threats to ophidians in Colombia: killings, habitat destruction, road accidents and illegal trafficking. It is estimated that between 54 million and 113,600,000 are exter-minated every year.

throughout the country, except at altitudes above 3,500 meters and in the Caribbean waters. In order to preserve them, the dangers that reduce their density and diversity must first be determined along with their geographical distribu-tion.

In the most populated and productive regions, five threats to ophidians have been identified. First of all, killings by farmers, who think that snakes pose a risk to them in their daily labors. Then there is mortality due to being run over by vehicles on the roads. Thirdly, there is the destruction of their natural habitats caused by several factors, and fourthly traf-ficking for commercial purposes.

Finally there are captures made by scientists, which the Min-istry for the Environment wants to prosecute as illegal trafficking be-

cause it has no justification. There are many difficulties in assessing these problems, but we can never-theless estimate their importance.

Bad reputation

There are no reliable data re-garding the first threat (killings), which is why it must be explored further in order to quantify it. This analysis comes from inter-views with farmers in different ar-eas, particularly in lowlands. They clearly remember when they used to go out to kill snakes.

Several species are killed on a daily basis. Small farmers be-lieve that all snakes (or similar animas) are poisonous. For this reason, they kill snakes that are harmless or blind along with tata-coas, and lizards. Their intentions may be noble since they are trying

to protect their families, but such ignorance depletes biodiversity, and what is even worse is that it is handed down to future genera-tions.

A farmer may kill 700 to 1,400 such animals per year. Consider-ing the number of rural families and assuming that this rate is what generally applies, there would be 21 to 31 million ophidians killed yearly.

Adverse development

The second factor is associ-ated with the degree of develop-ment in each region. The system of roads does not correspond to the number of inhabitants. Mortality on the roads is a well known prob-lem but has not been quantified by Colombian biologists.

These kinds of observations

Janu

ary

2012

6w

ww

.age

nciad

enot

icias

.una

l.edu

.co/

engli

sh-n

ews

15Biodiversity

We must begin to preserve

• Colombia needs to have more biologists studying snakes in all regions; otherwise, ignorance about spe-cies distribution, details about their biology and ecolo-gy, and their role in the natural economy will prevail.

• The destruction of their environment is a factor regarding which the State must act. However, seri-ousness with respect to the survival and health of the snake population remains unclear. The Ministry for the Environment and the CARs play a fundamental role in this issue and need to redouble their efforts.

• The impact of illegal traffickers and zoos is trivial compared to the other factors, but it must be pointed out the effectiveness of control mechanisms on illegal trafficking of fauna is inadequate. Market places in Bogotá operate as though there were no official con-trols, despite regulations governing trade in animals. The situation is similar zoos all over the country. The environmental police and the CARs must be more ef-fective.

1

3

2

4

1. Micrurus sangilensis, Bucaramanga (Santander).2. Porthidium lansbergii, Riohacha (Guajira).3. Pseudoboa neuwiedii, Sabana de Torres (Santander).4. Mastigodryas boddaerti, Floridablanca (Santander).

have been made in other coun-tries. Using recent data from Bra-zil, (the closest reference), mortal-ity rates for snakes are between 0.9 and 1.9 per day on a 67 km road, or between 1.4 and 2.8 snakes per day on a 100 km road.

There are around 130,000 km of roads in Colombia, 16,800 km of which constitute the main national network. According to recent data from the Ministry of Transporta-tion, 10,300 km are paved.

When these estimates from Brazil are used (510 to 1,020 deaths per year for each 100 km), mortal-ity in Colombia due to this factor could amount to 52,000 to 105,300 snakes killed per year (without counting departmental, municipal or private or unpaved roads).

Reduction of their habitat

The third item, which is related to the destruction or intervention of natural habitats, also represents a tragedy for ophidians. The great majority of the Colombian snake population lives in the Cauca and Magdalena river basins, where the cities and towns are located; that is why frontiers of settlement need to be expanded.

Agriculture, cattle farming, road building and the expansion of cities are factors that work against the great variety of snakes present in the forests, some of which are endangered species.

In the Andean humid region, environmental destruction has a minor impact on snakes because there are few species. However, this area is quite large and includes certain ecological “units”, such as the Colombian coffee belt, where these reptilians are endangered.

In the departments of Ca-quetá and Meta, as well as in the Magdalena Medio region, the de-struction of humid natural envi-ronments has severely affected snakes, which are incapable of adapting to warmer and dryer en-vironments. They have thus had migrate to other areas that do not offer any protection.

The situation for native dry forest species is quite different because their micro climate is relatively similar to that of prai-ries. However, it does represent a drastic change for amphibians and other reptiles that are the snakes’ prey, which has a direct impact on the snakes themselves.

There is also a serious vicious cycle, because the more forest is destroyed, the more contact there is with humans, with its typical consequences. The destruction of natural environments has certain-ly had an impact on snake popula-tions that is difficult to measure, but which is clearly substantial.

However, when determin-ing the degree of snake diversi-ty depending on the region, for instance in humid forests or dry zones, some conclusions can be made. It is estimated that close to

1,000 such animals live on each hectare of lowlands.

According to field observers, the estimated cost of timbering can be estimated in the loss of between 100 and 250 individuals. If the annual rate of deforestation (native and secondary forests) of 330,000 hectares is considered, the direct loss of snakes is between 33 and 82 million.

This is far more serious than indiscriminate killings by farm-ers. Also, taking into account that 58% of the wood that is extracted from the forest is done so legally, meaning with permission from the Regional Autonomous Corpo-rations (CAR) and the Ministry of the Environment, then it can be deduced that between 19 and 140 million snakes are killed in a legal context.

Illegal Trafficking is of no less concern

Although it is limited to certain species, animal trafficking makes this situation even worse. Species such as güios (boa constrictor), which are appreciated in interna-tional and national markets: rat-tlers (Crotalus durissus), and some talla equis (Bothrops asper), used in traditional medicine, are the main targets for traffickers. As a result, 1,000 to 5,000 such animals are killed every year.

Absurdly, the Ministry for the Environment also classifies scien-tists who collect samples for ac-ademic or research purposes as traffickers. The paradox is that the records show that no more than 300 to 5,000 of this species are collected each year, depending on the particular projects and acqui-sitions.

Two figures are important to mention: first of all, in all the years of scientific snake collection in Colombia, only 13,000 animals have been accumulated in biologi-cal collections, and secondly, the number in foreign museums (col-lected over many centuries) to-tal less than half the number that there are in Colombia. It is ironic that the Ministry only regulates this practice while ignoring others that are endlessly destroying the national heritage.

If we combine all of the previ-ously mentioned factors, we see an alarming number that in the best case is around 54 million snakes killed and in the worse scenario would be over 133 million. In ei-ther case, this is a massive loss that if it continues at the same pace will produce a biological crisis of snakes in Colombia.

References 1. Monteiro, et al. (2011). Avaliacao de dois anos de monitoramento dos at-ropelamentos de serpentes nas estradas Raymundo Mascarenhas e Manganès Azul, Floresta Nacional de Carajàs, Parà, Brazil. 2. El Tiempo, September 1, 2011, p. 7.

Janu

ary

2012

6

ww

w.a

genc

iaden

otici

as.u

nal.e

du.c

o/en

glish

-new

s16 S & T

For the First Time Airborne pollutants Will Be Measured in Colombia

Thanks to a cooperation agreement between the Univer-sidad Nacional de Colombia and NASA, Colombia will have a photometer able to calculate particulate matter present in the atmosphere, which is contributing to climate change and causing diseases such as lung cancer.

Hemann Sáenz,Unimedios

The story of the photometer (an instrument able to measure the intensity of light) began over steaks at a Buenos Aires restau-rant. It will be used for the first time in this country thanks to a cooperation agreement between the Universidad Nacional de Co-lombia and NASA.

Professor Rodrigo Jiménez, from the Science Faculty at the Universidad Nacional de Colom-bia in Bogotá, and Professor Ál-varo Bastidas, from the Science Faculty in Medellin, were invited to an event in the Argentine cap-ital, co-sponsored by the Euro-pean Space Agency and NASA. Over lunch, both professors dis-cussed with the NASA members the need to have an instrument in Colombia to provide accurate information on microscopic par-ticles that float in the air, known as airborne pollutants.

“They told us to write a pro-posal, and in December of last year they approved a plan to be-gin implementation in October of this year,” said Professor Jime-nez.

NASA will provide the equip-ment and make all the technical reviews each year.

What is this device for?

NASA dedicates 80% of its budget to observation of the planet, and measuring airborne pollutants is one of their focuses of interest. “To validate the in-formation from the satellite (in-formation about weather, global warming, etc), the photometer is aimed at the sun and detects amounts of airborne pollutants that affect the atmosphere and the quantity of light that reaches the ground. This data can then be used to predict the properties of the particles, such as their size and movement.

This aspect is very important for public health, because ma-terials from soot, such as those from fuels, are very small and can affect the respiratory system to the point of generating lung cancer” according to Jiménez.

Current air quality measure-ments made in Colombia make it possible to quantify the concen-tration of particles at ground–level; however, atmospheric pro-cesses at night, when particles accumulate in the upper part of the atmosphere and circulate the following day, remain unknown.

Origin and impact

Airborne pollutants can form due to the action of nature or be-cause of human activity, which is why understanding their com-position is very important. The eruption of the Nevado del Ruiz not only caused the avalanche in Armero but also reduced the temperature of the planet by one tenth of one degree, because air-borne pollutants (of sulphur ox-

With the photometer, airborne pollutants produced in the city will be measured accurately. In this way, their impact on public health will also be measured.

The device will initially be located on the Bogotá campus for six months; after that, it will be rotated among different cities.

Phot

o: p

erso

nal f

ilePh

oto:

Víc

tor

Man

uel H

olgu

ín /

Uni

med

ios

ide) reached the upper part of the atmosphere and remained there. This layer currently works as an umbrella that blocks sunlight. In Colombia there are a dozen ac-tive volcanoes.

Deliberate burning of bio-mass also produces airborne pol-lutants. Studies indicate that 20% of CO

2 emissions that reach the atmosphere are the result of de-forestation from the burning of forests. In Colombia, this is a crit-ical topic. According to satellite data, forest fires destroy 14,000 of km

2 of vegetation each year, with the greatest impact in the Llanos Orientales (Eastern Plains), ac-cording to a study by the Biology Department at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia in Bogotá.

This is a very common prac-tice in Africa, where peasants burn the land to clean it and then cultivate it. During dry seasons, the Amazon region, where vege-

tation is destroyed to feed cattle, is not immune to this problem. That is why experts feel that it is important to have an observa-tion site with a photometer in Leticia to identify how this region evolves.

The experiment will start in Bogotá

The measurements obtained with this instrument can have a significant effect, at both an urban and rural level. “Apart from pre-dicting climatic change, it makes it possible to establish public health policies aligned with the composition and distribution of the airborne pollutants. These mi-croscopic atmospheric particles have a dynamic with certain char-acteristics: they can increase size, coagulate, and fall to the ground. That is why they must be moni-tored” said Jiménez.

After the eruption of the Chil-ean volcano Puyeue, the density of the ash placed the Argentine meteorological service in a diffi-cult situation, because it experi-enced difficulties in authorizing flights. According to Professor Jiménez, “thanks to the photom-eter, they were able to determine when there was a reasonable lev-el of airborne pollutants to per-mit air operations.”

The device will initially be located on the Bogotá campus for six months; after that, it will be rotated among different cit-ies where the Universidad Na-cional has campuses. Thus, with the photometer, reliable mea-surements will be obtained and the experts will gain knowledge about the dynamics of these pol-luting elements in the Colombian atmosphere.

With this instrument, Colom-bia will be part of a global network led by NASA called Aeronet.

Janu

ary

2012

6w

ww

.age

nciad

enot

icias

.una

l.edu

.co/

engli

sh-n

ews

17S & T

Liliana Salazzar B.,Unimedios

Scientists from the Universi-dad Nacional de Colombia in Me-dellin are among the few people working to create this material, which has become a panacea for industrial and technological appli-cations, because it enables tech-nological devices to be more pow-erful and thinner.

Carbon nanotubes have dif-ferent uses. They have made it possible for mobile phones to be smaller and more powerful. The Universidad Nacional de Colom-bia in Medellin is one of the few institutions that is manufacturing and developing new applications. Its researchers are creating new uses, for example as an environ-mentally friendly substitute for ti-tanium in human implants.

In order to understand the im-portance of these tiny structures, it is necessary to consider their origins. They were discovered by Japan’s Sumio Lijjima when he was studying the behavior of materials at high temperatures. He found that the only substance able to survive high temperatures was car-bon, and they did so in a very pe-culiar way, namely in the form of small nanometric tubes (10 times thinner than a human hair).

In laboratories around the world, their characteristics were studied. It was found that they are 10 times stronger than stainless steel and twice as light as alu-minum. They also have great ca-pacity for energy transportation. That is why they are considered to be essential materials for cur-rent industrial and technological applications. This has led to many publications and studies.

“German companies have designed automobiles with rein-forced polymers made using nano-tubes. They are thought to be more resistant. These cars use less fuel because the polymer means that they are lighter in weight,” said Germán Sierra Gallego, professor at the School of Materials at the Mines Faculty.

He affirms that this character-istic makes nanotubes closely re-lated to nanotechnology. “They are a tiny material with very advanta-geous properties for transporting energy; they make it possible to produce smaller devices.”

Carbon is changed

At the characterization labo-ratories of the Materials Science and Technology Group, carbon nanotubes are produced using a method called Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD).

This method makes use of a gas that contains carbon. Carbon is introduced into an oven at high temperatures (between 600°C and 800°C). The process is facilitated by a metallic catalyst (nickel, silver and other metals depending on the objective), which permits the creation of nanotubes, prevent-ing the formation of amorphous carbon and speeding up chemi-cal reactions that break molecular hydrocarbon bonds. Finally, the carbon encapsulated in gaseous molecules reorganizes itself into small metallic particles or nano-tubes. Under the microscope they look like tiny spaghettis.

The added value of this work performed on the campus is the use of precursors such as ethanol, methane and CO

2. Using ethanol, the creation of a renewable source

These small structures share distinctive characteristics of material such as diamond and graphite, which are used in the electronic industry.

Phot

o: fi

le U

nim

edio

sPh

oto:

AFP

Carbon nanotubesto reinforce properties

of Diverse MaterialsCarbon Nanotubes are ten times stronger that steel, twice as light as aluminum, have great capacity for energy trans-portation, are thinner than a human hair and are produced at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia.

Carbon nanotubes are produced in the characterization laboratories of the Materials Science and Technology Group at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia in Medellin.

is boosted. The methane and CO2 make the method environmentally friendly.

“When I use CO2 from the at-

mosphere and put it into a reactor, I capture the carbon and condense it as nanotubes; that means that I take carbon from the atmosphere and change it into something solid. If this idea were performed at pilot scale, it would be a useful mechanism to reduce the concentration of green-house gasses,” said Sierra Gallego.

Applications

These nanotubes are used in different projects. At the Univer-

sidad Nacional de Colombia they reinforce pieces of stainless steel for use as biomaterials in human implants that are normally made of titanium and other expensive al-loys. With this invention, people of limited means would have access to these types of devices.

Their applications include mi-croelectronics and modification of the friction coefficient, which means an increase in levels of re-sistance to wear due to friction between pieces.

“We have findings from the use of carbon nanotubes as lubri-cants in dry or liquid surfaces. Fric-tion coefficient is reduced from 0.45 to 0.15, amounting to a two

thirds reduction,” according to the researcher.

Another project aims to im-prove the properties of alumi-num. The idea is to reinforce an economical material with nano-tubes to give them added value. The goal is to go beyond alumi-num that is terminally treated, which is a process that gives it better resistance.

The Universidad Nacional de Colombia is one of the few univer-sities that is working to produce and characterize this material, which constitutes one of the fun-damental elements in industry and technology for the future.

Janu

ary

2012

6

ww

w.a

genc

iaden

otici

as.u

nal.e

du.c

o/en

glish

-new

s18

Samples of urine and blood are used to prove that a person uses psychotropic substances; the problem is that traces of these substances in the body last just one month. The Uni-versidad Nacional de Colombia is now implementing a new technique using hair fragments, which are an organic ele-ment in which traces of drugs last for many years

Elizabeth Vera Martinez,Unimedios

The standardization of this new technique in a Colombian laboratory will more accurately determine if a person has used illicit substances and the amount used. There are currently different tests to determine drug use; how-ever, this approach offers bigger advantages.

The technique consists in using hair fibers to find traces of compounds such as cocaine. This organic element allows knowing a person’s use history, since the evi-dence last longer, much longer than other samples traditionally used.

According to Marian Dalila Vallejo, a pharmaceutical chemist and Masters student in toxicol-ogy at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, traces of drugs in urine or blood remain in the body for a maximum of 30 days. In hair, however, which grows one centimeter per month, traces can last for years. Even if the per-son shaves, the new hair grows with minimum traces that help to determine the presence of such substances.

This technique is useful in processes such as doping control, crime investigations, confirma-tion of use by convicts and em-ployee selections. It can also be used in processes for the suspen-sion of driving licenses or exhu-mation of cadavers.

In detail

Led by Nancy Patiño Reyes, Vallejo developed a method to extract traces of cocaine from hair samples that can only be detected using a high technology gas chro-matograph.

This practice, which is rare in Colombia, will be implemented at the Toxicology Lab of the Medical School at the Universidad Nacio-nal de Colombia in order to per-form routine tests.

The researchers needed to test to determine whether the technique was effective. During the study, samples of hair from 30 teenagers were collected at a rehabilitation center in Bogotá.

The study

Supported by pharmacy students Luz Adriana Pérez and Mónica Andrea Bejarano, the ex-pert took very small hair samples close to the scalp.

Once they were collected, she measured them and then put them in aluminum foil, identify-ing the tip and root. Each sample was measured in the Toxicology Lab with a chemical tracer, in this case methylene blue.

If hair changes its color un-der the microscope in response to the reagent, it means that it is not suitable for analysis, since the sample has been very much affected by the excessive use of chemicals, such as bad quality hair dye.

Useful material is cut into three–centimeter segments to de-termine the presence of substanc-es within the hair. Each segment is washed with an organic carbon–based solvent to eliminate any possible external contamination, thus ensuring that the cocaine extracted is the result of use as opposed to coming from floating

Drug traces in urine and blood last for just one month; in hair, they last for years.

Phot

o: V

ícto

r M

anue

l Hol

guín

/Uni

med

ios

Phot

o: p

erso

nal f

ile

Innovation

particles in the environment.Clean and dry hair is de-

stroyed with a strong acid to lib-erate the illicit substances. The alkaloid is treated with an organic solvent and then analyzed using a gas chromatograph that gener-ates computerized reports, called chromatograms. They are similar to those produced by an electro-cardiogram, but in this case they reflect peaks representing the presence of the drug.

Illicit use

According to the National Study on Drug Use in Colombia,

in 2009, around 2.5% of the popu-lation between 12 and 65 years of age (amounting to 19,764,799 inhabitants) used cocaine some-time in their lives, and around 0.4% (79,059 people) were classi-fied in the “abuse” or “dependent” groups.

“Statistics show the impor-tance of Rehabilitation Centers that aim to lower or eradicate drug use,” explained Vallejo, who is drafting a proposal from the Research Group on Psychoactive Substances of the Toxicology De-partment, led by Professor Jairo Alfonso Téllez Mosquera, coordi-nator of the masters program in

this field.The researcher mentioned

that this procedure has been adapted to national conditions and will soon be ready to serve the community at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia. It will be used in evaluating children’s ex-posure in places or homes where there is evidence of constant drug use by adults.

It could also be applied as a control measure for institutional-ized addicts who leave their fa-cilities on weekends. This will give the country a new scientific sup-port tool for legal proceedings and rehabilitation centers.

The test is performed using 3 cm of hair.

Hair as Proof of IllegalDrug Consumption

Janu

ary

2012

6w

ww

.age

nciad

enot

icias

.una

l.edu

.co/

engli

sh-n

ews

19

Bodily reactions to prosthesis, motor problems or any other abnormality could be detected just by analyz-ing the movements of joints using a computer. This is a fast, simple and objective process that makes medical diagnosis easier.

Fanny Lucia Pedraza Valencia, Unimedios

Mercedes Valencia suffered a fall, with serious consequences for her left foot; as a result, she had to be in a cast for a month. When she thought she had recovered, she tried to walk but found it impos-sible due to intense pain.

The injury was more serious than she had thought. In an at-tempt to save her leg, the specialist removed all of the nerves, but that turned out to be useless. Her leg had to be amputated.

Mercedes had to have differ-ent sessions with orthopedists, a rheumatologist, a specialist in pain management and a psychologist. Through therapies, she has begun a process to try to understand that her foot is not there anymore, and she is being trained to walk using a prosthesis.

“It has been explained to me that this device will help me to walk, but I worry that if it does not work or if it does not match the size my foot had, I will start to experience pain again”.

According to Surgeon Alejan-dra Hurtado, “these insecurities are common among patients who have had amputations and need orthopedic prosthesis to improve their bodily movements. However, in most cases, neither patients nor health institutions are prepared to diagnose the degree of reliabil-ity, satisfaction or accuracy with which this equipment works and adapt in a person who requires them.

That is why the Group for the Control and Processing of Digital Signals (CPDS, from its Spanish acronym) at the Universidad Na-cional de Colombia in Manizales, coordinated by researcher German Castellanos, has created a new pro-gram that allows health specialists to analyze human movements, as well as analyzing the process of rehabilitation and adaptation in patients who receive these types of devices, before being adapted. This program was conceived as a supplement to medical examina-tions.

In the presence of extraneous devices, it is common for the af-fected extremity to swell or devel-op infections stemming from the proliferation of bacteria, causing pain. This is especially common when the device has not been ad-justed to the size of the mutilated organ.

For Gerardo Daza Santa-coloma, an electronics engineer with a PhD in engineering and part of the CPDS group, study-ing human movements is very im-

portant because each signal that is sent can reveal different situa-tions. “For instance, when some-one limps, it does not necessary mean inadequate functioning of the joints (hips or feet), it can be a dysfunction in the spinal column or neurological problems mainly associated with diseases such as Alzheimer and Parkinsons.”

Based on proposed computer models, diagnosis can be support-ed, and the evolution of such ab-normalities can be verified in or-der to obtain more accurate results and use less invasive procedures, according to Daza Santacoloma.

Daza Santacoloma said that this new tool is based on a tech-nique called Locally Linear Em-

bedding (LLE), used to study the response of living biological sys-tems to an external stimulus (pros-thesis).

However, “we found three as-pects of LLE that we had to im-prove: the tuning of free param-eters (the user of this technique has to know and establish initial values for final results to be con-clusive, such as the number of adjacent video frames to be con-sidered and the amount of ap-plied regulations), cost effective-ness (objective analysis and cor-rect interpretation of data) and the simultaneous management of multiple variables (the possibility of examining different data at the same time in order to make com-parisons),” said the expert from the CPDS group.

It is important to mention that there is a large number of mea-surements that define the charac-teristics of any type of movement, for example, the cadency and length of the cycle, speed, flexion/extension of the hip, flexion/ex-tension of the knee, dorsiflexion/plantarflexion of the ankle, among others.

If these measurements are not sufficiently accurate, incorrect as-sessments of a person’s problem can be made, as well as omitting situations (such as joint and bone degeneration) that, with time, can aggravate the problem.

This technique makes pos-sible computer modeling of pa-tients’ behavior when using the prosthesis. The movements that these individuals make are the first step for evaluating their progress during the rehabilitation process.

The evaluation focuses on assisted diagnosis in orthopedics that, among other features, can be made by capturing all movements of every joint (knees, hips, ankles, wrists, shoulders, etc.), in order to offer a more complete diagnosis.

Daza Santacoloma explains that “when capturing movements made by a person and analyzing them using this technique, we can determine if the problem is related to a deviation of the spine, hip problems, knee problems, or any other abnormality. It also helps to objectively quantify the rehabilita-tion of patients treated for to this type of problems, thereby facilitat-ing a better recovery process.”

Taking into account the rela-tionship between motor and neu-rological problems, this program could be decisive for predicting and detecting at an early age dis-eases such as Parkinsons or any unknown neurological disease a patient may suffer.

Analysisof human movements

3D captures

Non-linear extractionof characteristics

Phot

o: p

erso

nal f

ileIm

age

cour

tesy

: Gru

po C

ontr

ol y

Pro

cesa

mie

nto

Dig

ital d

e Se

ñale

s U

N e

n M

aniz

ales

Not all problems are caused by inadequate functioning of joints; some are caused by dysfunctions of the spine or neurological diseases.

Assisted virtual program to more accurately diagnose movement problems.

Innovation

Software Makes it Possible to Predict Abnormalities in the Human Body

Janu

ary

2012

6

ww

w.a

genc

iaden

otici

as.u

nal.e

du.c

o/en

glish

-new

s20 Agriculture

Giovanni Clavijo Figueroa,Unimedios

While working to consoli-date the herbarium in San Andres, Providencia and Santa Catalina, a particular finding captured the interest of two researchers from the Universidad Nacional de Co-lombia: a male fern whose natural habitat is far from the sea.

It had previously been report-ed in valleys, savannas, moun-tain ranges and plains around the country, which was why its pres-ence in the Serrania El Pico in the Caribbean island of Providen-cia, which has been declared a Regional Natural Park, was quite unusual.

The question was, how did it get to this ecotouristic area, con-sidered the zone least affected by humans in the archipelago? Biolo-gist Alexandra Tobar and taxono-mist Brigitte Gavio (an expert in classifying species) from the Uni-versidad Nacional de Colombia in the Caribbean have a hypoth-esis: that the plant, which belongs to the Pteridium caudatum spe-cies, was brought in planters from the central region of the country, where it is used for decoration and as a purgative.

The researchers based their hypothesis on their observation about the use of this fern in plant-ers and yards as decoration in houses next to the natural reserve. “This means that the inhabitants took it to El Pico and planted it there. Given the warm weather and soil conditions on the island, which are of volcanic origin and moderately acid, it just bloomed.”

However, the concerns of these experts go beyond the mere question of its origins. The fern produces a toxin that can cause gastric illnesses in cattle and other animals that eat grass, and this toxin can then accumulate in their meat and thus easily be consumed by humans.

According to Gavio, the dis-persion of this fern could reach the lands of the Serrania and con-taminate drinking water. “On the island, potable water sources for the inhabitants are underground and their alteration would gener-ate a public health problem.”

Animal Health

This fern contains carcino-genic substances whose main mol-ecule is called Ptaquiloside (pq). According to previous reports on this plant found by the research-ers, when cattle eat it, it releases substances that affect different or-gans of their digestive systems.

Kidneys and the mucus of the

urinary bladder are the most af-fected, according to Carlos More-no, a veterinarian at the Univer-sidad Nacional de Colombia. “Ini-tially, the pq molecule provokes cystitis in bovines, and over time a chronic inflammation that results in bladder carcinoma. Symptoms start with red urine (hematuria), leading to the animal’s death.

Public health This disease can generate gas-

tric cancer in animals, “which is why the milk can affect those who drink it,” mentioned Tobar.

According to the biologist, re-search in Costa Rica and Japan shows a high rate of deaths due to this cause, because a considerable percentage of milk comes from cows that feed on these types of plants. Another important factor is the consumption of this fern in

salads, which is common in Japan, and the use of its leaves for wrap-ping food.

In this regard, William Otero, a gastroenterologist from the Uni-versidad Nacional de Colombia, asserted that “Colombia does not have any scientific documenta-tion to supports the probability of part of the population suffer-ing from diseases stemming from consumption of the fern or milk,” so that further study is needed to prove or disprove the possibility.

Prevention

The identification of this fern in Providencia constitutes a botan-ic contribution to the inventory of terrestrial flora in the archipelago, which is vulnerable to introduced species such as Pteridium cauda-tum, whose reproduction through spores rather than seeds makes its

eradication difficult.In the past, the burning of ter-

rain was used to eradicate vegeta-tion considered dangerous for the population. The researchers rec-ommend that the inhabitants of the island avoid this practice, as the fern since the fem is resistant to fire due to the physical characteristics of its rhizome (root) and the chemi-cal characteristics of its spores.

“While other species die from high temperatures, this fern is re-sistant. Although its leaves burn, the rhizome survives, generating new outbreaks that spread in the absence of plant competitors,” as-serted Tobar.

A study urges environmental authorities to monitor this toxic plant, which grows at altitudes of 130 meters above sea level, and whose presence until now has been detected in seven areas on the mountain‘s peak.

Phot

o: p

erso

nal f

ile

The toxic Pteridium caudatum reproduces at altitudes of 130 meters above sea level, on the peak of the highest mountain on Providencia Island.

This plant is highly invasive and contains chemical com-pounds that can generate gastric cancer not only in ani-mals that eat it but also in humans that drink animal milk. This finding was made in Providencia Island.

Carcinogenic Fernis Found in the Caribbean

Janu

ary

2012

6w

ww

.age

nciad

enot

icias

.una

l.edu

.co/

engli

sh-n

ews

21Agriculture

Caupí and canavalia are two plants that could be used as food for pigs. In the Universidad Nacional de Colombia in Palmira, it was found that these leguminous plants can be a substitute for the expensive and traditional soy that is given to these animals. For pigfarmers, this is great news in the midst of the crisis they are facing.

Jeinst Campo Rivera,Unimedios

According to the Business Opinion survey made by the Co-lombian Association of Pigfarmers (Porcicol, from its Spanish acro-nym), during the first half of this year, pork prices fell dramatically, but production costs increased. This situation stems from an in-crease in international prices for the main raw materials for the pro-duction of food for these animals, such as corn and soy cake.

Total imports of raw materi-als for the production of balanced food for pigs increased by 2.1% during the first five months of the year, compared to the same period of 2010.

That is why Patricia Isabel Sar-ria, who holds a master’s degree in zootechnics, studies new food alternatives that can serve as sub-stitutes for soy cake in feeding pigs. This doctoral candidate in Agri-cultural Sciences and professor at the Universidad Nacional de Co-lombia in Palmira works with the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT from its Spanish acronym).

During this study, the re-searchers found that caupi and ca-

navalia (species of fodder legumes) are efficient food options that pigs adopted in their diet and that rep-resent almost a 50% savings for pig farmers.

High levels of protein

Caupi is an herbaceous le-gume that came from Southwest-ern Africa and is widely grown in Latin America. It is also known as ‘cowpeas’. It is a hot weather forage that tolerates dry seasons.

Incredibly, according to ex-perts, this plant can produce a ton of dry grain per hectare in Sahara environments with just 181 milli-meters of rain per crop. This is very little water distributed over several square meters of land.

Professor Patricia Sarria as-serts that “caupi seeds are rich in proteins and have a high content of amino acids, lysine and trypto-phan, which when compared to the nutritional value of cereals could be similar to beans. Its leaves also have a significant protein content and acceptable digestibility, which is why they are a perfect comple-ment for the pigs’ diet.”

Canavalia brasiliensis is also an herbaceous legume with an eight month cultivation cycle and

leaves that are 12 cm long and 10mm wide: It also tolerates dry seasons and adapts to both low fertility clay soils and sandy soils. Both plants, according to the study, can replace close to 50% of the soy cake.

The plants are tested on pigs

The evaluation of new food al-ternatives for pigs is carried out by the CIAT in countries such as Hon-duras, Nicaragua, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Colombia. In our country, the Mario Gonza-les Aranda Laboratory at the Uni-versidad Nacional de Colombia in Palmira was chosen to perform the acceptance, digestion and growth tests on the pigs. Profesor Sarria was in charge of this process.

Caupi and canavalia crops, cultivated by CIAT in Santander de Quilichao (Cauca), are sent to the laboratory for researchers to evalu-ate their acceptance by the pigs, along with the animals’ degree of tolerance and digestive behavior.

“For 14 days, we give them 600 grams of caupi or canavalia every day. During the first stage of acceptance, we replace almost 40% of the food to monitor the

amount consumed by the animals and the amount rejected,” asserted the zootechnician.

During this stage, the research-ers found that pigs consume this food without any problems and with significant acceptance.

In the second and third eval-uation stages, digestibility tests were performed to determine the amount of nutrients assimilated by the animals’ and the effects in terms of growth and meat quality.

Results show that caupi grain can be digested like soy grain and its nutrients contain high amounts of proteins that could replace al-most 50% of soy. At the same time, the caupi foliage can replace up to 30% and canavalia 20% of it,” said the scientist.

It was shown that pigs feed on the new forage grown in a similar way that they feed on traditional soy cake, using the same 600 grams per day.

This represents a 50% sav-ing for pigfarmers when buying raw materials to produce food for the animals. Normally, they spend COP 32,400 to buy 18 kilograms of soy monthly; with caupi and ca-navalia, they would need to spend just COP16,200 on each pig.

For professor Sarria, this would strengthen the pig farming sector in Colombia by endowing it with an easily grown, reliable and cheap vegetable that can be cultivated on any terrain.”

Phot

o: U

nim

edio

s

A 50% More Economical Alternative Food Source for Pigs

Janu

ary

2012

6

ww

w.a

genc

iaden

otici

as.u

nal.e

du.c

o/en

glish

-new

s22 Agriculture

In some crops, an average of 25 pesticide applications was detected during cultivation, which is considered excessive.

Phot

o: V

ícto

r M

anue

l Hol

guín

/Uni

med

ios

Alejandro Borraez,Unimedios

The use of chemicals to fight plagues in potato crops, such as the Guatemalan moth, the garden chafer and the Naupactus, among others, is one of the most effective strategies to guarantee production of this tu-ber. However, in the rural zone of the Ciudad Bolivar neighborhood in Bo-gotá, where potatoes are produced for distribution centers in the capital city, the use of pesticides exceeds ac-ceptable limits.

This is a problem that could affect consumers if it is taken into account that these toxic substances remain even after food is cooked. Led by researcher Tomás León Si-card, from the Institute for Envi-ronmental Studies (IDEA, from its Spanish acronym), Professor Sonia Pertuz studied the characteristics of potato production in this zone of the Colombian capital. What she found was alarming.

“When potatoes are fried, they do not entirely lose the potential toxic conditions of these pesti-cides. The substances remain in a proportion that could exceed those of the regulations established by the Ministry of Social Protection,” she explained.

The study found that each ki-logram of this product contains close to 0.12 milligrams (mg) of organophosphates and 0.54 mg of carbomates (two of the most com-mon pesticides), whereas the per-mitted limits are 0.1 mg and 0.05 mg respectively. This is a signifi-cant difference.

How are they grown?

According to anthropologist Raúl Angulo, in the rural zone of Ciudad Bolivar, potatoes are grown for two main destinations: for dis-tribution centers and large food companies and for self consump-tion. The expert warns that the risk from these crops stems from their location near the Doña Juana garbage dump as well as evidence of improper use of chemical sub-stances, despite the authorities’ recommendations.

“Public and private entities in this sector establish guidelines that cover soil preparation, seed selection, use of fertilizers, pesti-cides and storage; however, some farmers keep their products next to chemical substances, machinery or tools, or other elements of their daily life, without any control,” as-serted professor Angulo.

He also mentioned that in some places it is common to find residues of pesticide packages on the floor near water sources. More-over, nutritionist Pertuz also found that farmers, aiming to improve the effect of the chemicals, mix them and use them exaggerated-ly over nearly six months of the plant’s growing cycle.

In some crops, an average of 25 pesticide applications was de-tected during cultivation, which is considered excessive. In addi-tion to failures in the production process, the study indentified the presence of chemical substances that are harmful to consumers.

“After analyzing a potato sam-

ple that was grown in Ciudad Boli-var, it was evident that stages such as washing, peeling and cooking in water decrease the presence of these chemicals. In general, when the tubers are cooked in water (90°C for 20 minutes), the pesticide is reduced to proper levels; how-ever, when fried at temperatures above 220°, high levels of organo-phosphates were detected,” said the Universidad Nacional de Co-lombia Professor.

The consequences

According to information from the World Health Organization, two million people suffer from food poisoning every year due to direct or indirect exposure to pesticides, particularly because of noncom-pliance with industrial security protocols. That is why problem af-fects agricultural workers directly exposed to these substances.

Vomiting, diarrhea, miscar-riages, headaches, drowsiness, be-havior alterations and convulsions, among other symptoms, are as-sociated with accidents in which a single high dose of pesticide pro-duces food poisoning.

There are also chronic cases of cancer, leukemia, liver necrosis, congenital malformations, periph-eral neuropathies, persistent head-aches and pain. The symptoms are noticeable after long periods of ex-posure to pesticides, making them difficult to detect.

On an economic level, agro-chemicals represent 50% of total direct costs related to potato pro-

Tracing residues

• Paradoxically, fried po-tatoes do not lose as many contaminants as boiled potatoes.

• In some tubers, samples showed contamination values between 0.51 and 0.65 mg/kg for organo-phosphates and 0.51 to 0.57 for carbomates.

• In fresh tubers that have not been peeled or washed, contamination was detected of 0.27 mg/kg to 0.45 mg/kg respec-tively.

• Stored potatoes, peeled and cooked, showed a re-sidual level of 0. However, tubers that were fried un-der the same conditions had values of 0.12 mg/kg for organophosphates and 0.54 mg/kg for car-bomates. According to the studies, this is a high level.

Improper and excessive fumigation with pesticides makes the most widely consumed tuber in the country a potential cause of serious dis-eases. A study in the rural zone of Cuidad Bolivar, in Bogotá, shows the contamination levels of potatoes consumed by people in Bogotá.

duction, fertilizers 25%, insecti-cides 18%, and fungicides 7%. That is why improper and excessive use of agrochemicals not only puts consumers’ health at risk but also affects producers’ investments.

Excess of ChemicalsIs Detected in Potato Crops

Janu

ary

2012

6w

ww

.age

nciad

enot

icias

.una

l.edu

.co/

engli

sh-n

ews

23Jose Luis Barragan,

Unimedios

Despite its long history, the tradition of evaluating the academ-ic performance of universities by means of rankings took on added importance during the first decade of the 21st century with the cre-ation of several global lists, such as the Academic Ranking of world Universities (ARWU) made by the Jiao Tong University of Shanghai. In its 2011 edition, it presented the top 500 institutions of higher learning, with unfavorable results for Latin America, particularly for Colombia, which is not even mentioned.

This ranking, which was be-gun in 2003, evaluates the scien-tific production of universities using several indicators such as the budget allocated for educa-tion, the number of Nobel Prize and Field Medal winners (for out-standing discoveries in mathemat-ics), as well as the amount of ci-tations in academic publications, among other aspects. The list is made based on this information, in which the leading universities continue to be from developed countries, especially the G7 (USA, Japan, France, Germany, England, Canada and Italy.

This ranking shows the domi-nant position in higher education of countries like the United States, with 53 such institutions among the top 100, 8 in the top 10 and 4 in the top 5, followed by England, Germany, Canada, Australia, Ja-pan, France and Italy. In contrast, just nine institutions from Latin America were on this list: 7 from Brazil (Universidad de Sao Paulo, Universidad Estatal de Campiñas, Universidad Federal de Minas Gerais, Universidad Federal of Rio de Janeiro, Universidad Estatal de Rio Grande Do Sul and Univer-sidad Federal de Sao Paulo), one from Mexico (Universidad Nacio-nal Autónoma de México) and one from Argentina (Universidad de Buenos Aires).

This is not good news for Co-lombia because ARWU does not include any of its universities on the list. When evaluating the po-tential causes of this situation, the first aspect would be the budget allocated by the government for education and science and tech-nology systems.

Education

First of all, the base indica-tor is governmental expenditure on education as a percentage of GDP that measures the govern-ment’s current capital expenditure on public and private institutions. In 2007, according to figures from the UNESCO Institute of Statistics, Colombia spent 4.1%, while coun-tries such as the USA, spent 5.5%, Canada 4.9% and Germany 4.5%. If a comparison is made with Latin American nations that do appear on the 2011 ARWU list, the disad-vantage is evident insofar as Brazil spent 5.1%, Argentina 4.9% and Mexico 4.8%.

This is a huge difference if we take into account that annual GDP in most developed countries is more than a trillion dollars and in some cases even more, as in the case of the USA, while Colombia this year reached just 207.410 billion.

Another indicator of this gap is expenditure per third level student as a percentage of per capita GDP. In percentage terms, in 2006 Co-lombia reached 19.6%, USA 25%, France 33.3% and the United King-

Phot

o: U

nim

edio

s

Just nine Latin American universities are part of the 2011 Shanghai ranking, which presents the world’s 500 best universities. Unfortunate-ly, none of them are in Colombia.

Education

dom 28.8%, just to mention three countries in the G7. Colombia was above Argentina (14.2%) and below Mexico (35.3%).

However, when evaluating the impact in absolute values, the gap is again considerable. In 2006, Co-lombia had a per capita GPD of USD$ 3,725, while that of the US was USD$ 40,329, France USD$ 35,558, Mexico USD$ 9,137 and Argentina USD$ 5,474. Thus, when establishing real expenditure per student in higher education, Co-lombia is well below the other countries mentioned.

Science and technology

In the field of added value production in terms of academic knowledge, Colombia is also at a disadvantage compared to other countries. This is shown in the in-dicator for Research and Develop-ment (R&D) as a percentage of GDP: In 2007 Colombia invested 0.16% of its GDP in R&D, while Japan invested 3.44%, the USA 2.72%, Germany 2.54% and Cana-da 1.90%.

Compared to other Latin American countries, Colombia was below Mexico (0.37%), Argentina

(0.51%) and Brazil (1.10%). If total GDP values are taken into account, the difference is again obvious. For instance, if Colombia wanted to match Germany, it would need to invest 44.44% of its total of GDP; to match the USA, 210%; Brazil, 6.7% and Argentina, 0.61%.

If the first decade of this cen-tury is analyzed, we could say that Colombian investment in R&D has remained unchanged, 0.106% in 2000 and 0.160% in 2010. Al-though the Santos administration had announced that 10% of reve-nues would be allocated under this heading (in 2010 that would have amounted to 6 trillion pesos), the increase was actually only 0.4%.

Another indicator that shows the differences between countries is the number of researchers dedi-cated to R&D out of each million inhabitants1. In 2006, Colombia had 151 researchers, while Ar-gentina had 8,960, the USA 4,663, France 3,440, Germany 3,392 and Brazil 629. If the total population is taken into account for that year (43,704,486 inhabitants), a total of 6,493 researchers was reached, while the other countries men-tioned, with larger populations ex-cept for Argentina, had more peo-

ple involved in this area. The USA had 1,389,574 researchers, Germa-ny 278,144, France 209,804, Brazil 118,252 and Argentina 34,944.

A third variable are high tech exports, which in 2009 amount-ed to USD$ 466 million, less than Germany (USD$ 142.449 billion), the USA (USD$ 141.518 billion), France (USD$ 83.826 billion), Mex-ico (USD$ 37.353 billion), Brazil (USD$ 8.315 billion) and Argentina (USD$ 1.548 billion).

Given this structural problem, the government’s goal of chang-ing Colombia’s peripheral status to make it part of the first world has to begin by proposing a huge increase in the scale of investment for these sectors. However, this topic is not reflected in draft leg-islation to reform Law 30 of 1992, which will soon be signed into law by the president.

1United Nations Population Division. World Population Prospects 2008 and 2006. Eurostat, national statistics office and estimations of the World Bank staff based on different sources such as censuses, offices of national statistics, World Popula-tion Prospects and surveys of households made by international organizations and International Framework.

Colombia in a Knowledge Gap

Janu

ary

2012

6

ww

w.a

genc

iaden

otici

as.u

nal.e

du.c

o/en

glish

-new

s24

Agencia de Noticias UN

This center will be the first public umbilical cord stem cell bank in the city, country and Andean region. The ini-tiative aims to give hope to many people, especially chil-dren.

The project, led by the District Blood Center of the Ministry of Health and coor-dinated by Guillermo Orjuela, a physician from the Univer-sidad Nacional de Colombia, will be Latin America’s fourth most important such bank af-ter Brazil and Mexico.

Its main objective is to provide millions of people in the country and the world with the possibility to acquire stem cells from umbilical

cords to cure certain diseas-es. “A child or adult patient, without a compatible family member for transplant, will now be able to find possibly compatible cells through the bank’s data base,” according to Orjuela.

According to this re-searcher, the most frequent mortality cases are associated with leukemia and lymphoma or metabolic congenital de-fects. “The idea therefore is to make this product available to patients who need it at a reasonable price so that every-one may have access to these therapies.” Normally, the im-portation of these cells costs US$25,000 to 30,000.

The bank will sign agree-ments with maternity services

for mothers to be informed of its existence so that “the um-bilical cord and placenta will not go to waste”, as frequently occurs in hospitals.

Through a scholarship from Colfuturo that enabled him to attend the University of Bristol in England, Guillermo Orjuela had the opportunity to learn from two of the world’s most prestigious blood stem cell and umbilical cord banks along with the Antony Nolan Cell Therapy Center in Not-tingham and the Stem Cell and Immunotherapy Department of the National Health Service Blood and Transplant (NHS-BT) in Filton, Bristol), which enabled him to return to Co-lombia and be part of this in-novative project.

Innovation

Stem cells would save millions of lives.

Agencia de Noticias UN

Andrés Rodriguez Vega did not get high marks in chemistry during his Icfes (State university entrance exams). Now 26, he is the inventor of an active peptide against the parasite of Leishmania.

In late 2009, this chemist from Universidad Nacional de Colombia in Bogotá synthesized a peptide against micro bacteria cell membranes. He is currently studying for a Masters degree in Chemistry-Science at the Medel-lin campus; Since his arrival in early 2010, he has been a tutor for courses in General Chemistry and Introduction to Biochemistry, at the Agronomy, Forest Engineer-ing and Biology Engineering fac-ulties.

He alternates his studies with his duties as a basketball coach. Every Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, from 12 to 2, he wears his t-shirt to play basketball, and on Saturdays and Sundays he plays with the University team. “I play this sport to avoid think-ing about my academic work all the time. Everything consists in forming the habit and having enough energy”.

Andres Rodriguez used to be first in his high school class. He also used to play guitar in a rock band, as well as zampoña, flute and quena in an Andean music group. “I also used to wear stilts for festivals”, added the scientist. Many people thought that music

was his talent and future profes-sion, but when he registered at the university he did so at the chemis-try department just to see if he was really that bad at chemsitry.

When he arrived in Medellin, the campus did not yet have a lab for synthesizing peptides; however, under the guidance of Blanca Fabi-oloa Espejo, his thesis director in the masters program, he requested the elements that he needed. The university finally inaugurated the Molecular Dynamics Laboratory, where he synthesized the neces-sary peptides to attack the repro-duction and activity of the para-sites that cause this disease, which affects 14 million people world-wide.

The researcher will travel to the International Biotechnology Congress in Havana, Cuba, where he will present this amazing scien-tific breakthrough. “Through this trip I expect to promote my work at international events. I also hope to meet people who can provide support.”

He is planning to begin his doctorate in biotechnology next year, and apply his findings to liv-ing animals.

Because of his achievements and dedication, Andrés Rodriguez Vera is one example and part of Orgullo UN, an institutional cam-paign of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia that highlights the academic, research, cultural and athletic achievements of the uni-versity community.

Andrés Rodriguez Vega, inventor of an active peptide against the Leish-mania parasite

Phot

o: U

nim

edio

sPh

oto:

Uni

med

ios

Colombia’s First Public Stem Cell Bankto Be Created in Bogota,

The Inventor of the Peptide Aimedat Debilitating Leishmaniasis