12

TWA

SN

ewsl

ette

r,Vo

l.25

No.

2,20

13

FEATURE

ARGENTINA’SSTAR IS RISING

From a reputation in the biomed-ical sciences that grew from three

Nobel prizes, to new prominence inthe study of astroparticles, modern-day Argentina is an appealing placeto be a scientist. By strongly sup-porting its public universities andinstitutions, the country has built ascientific framework for research in biomedicine, agro-technology, physics, space sciences, climatology andEarth sciences. Now, the nation is a model for scientificgrowth in the developing world.

The central piece of Argentina’s scientific frame-work is CONICET, the National Scientific and TechnicalResearch Council, established in 1958, which supportsthousands of scientists and their research. The Argen-tinian daily newspaper La Nacion said recently thatCONICET financially supports 6,000 researchers, 2,500technicians and 8,500 fellows at institutions and col-leges. Further demonstrating the importance of scienceto its agenda, the Argentinian government appointedchemist Lino Barañao its first-ever minister of science,technology and productive innovation in 2007.

This autumn, for the first time ever, TWAS is bring-ing its General Meeting to Buenos Aires, the capital of

Argentina. TWAS’s annual event hasbeen held in Latin America fourtimes before: in Venezuela (1990),in Mexico (2008), and twice inBrazil (1997 and 2006). This year’smeeting will run from 1 to 4 Octo-ber, and those who come to BuenosAires for the meeting will find a

nation focused on science, engineering and technology.It can claim a range of significant scientific accomplish-ments in recent years, and it is confidently scaling upits ambitions for the future.

A LIVELY PLACE FOR LIFE SCIENCESArgentina has a longstanding tradition in the biologi-cal sciences, including three Nobel Prize winners:Bernardo Houssay, Luis Federico Leloir and César Mil-stein (see boxes). Leloir’s work allowed Argentina toset initiatives and found institutes on molecular biolo-gy in the early 1980s. Leloir and his fellow laureates’accomplishments served as an inspiration for Argen-tines everywhere, including for Alberto Kornblihtt, amolecular biologist with the University of BuenosAires and CONICET. Kornblihtt is a 2011 TWAS Prizewinner in the medical sciences and one of Argentina’s

THE COUNTRY’S COMMITMENT TO RESEARCH AND EDUCATION

HAS MADE IT A LEADER OF SCIENTIFIC ADVANCEMENT IN THE SOUTH.

The Leloir Institutein Buenos Aires, Argentina,at night. The instituteis a centre of biomedicalresearch foundedby Argentinian Nobellaureates Luis E. Leloirand Bernardo A. Houssay(Photo: Leloir Institute).

six foreign associates with the US National Academyof Sciences.

“Undoubtedly I am a product of the Leloir school”,said Kornblihtt. “I did my PhD with Héctor Torres whohad done his PhD with Leloir, who in turn had done hisPhD with Houssay, and my postdoc with TWAS mem-ber Tito Baralle, who in turn hadbeen formed in the Leloir school. Inthat school I learnt a love for exper-iments and the importance of com-mitment and rigorousness.”

He credited Argentina’s publiceducation system for the country’sstrength in biochemistry and med-ical sciences. “Our university system is an open one”,he said. “There are no fees for students; all throughoutthere is a principle that it’s open to everybody.” It alsohelps that Argentina has been a free society withoutintellectual repression for 30 years. “We’ve had democ-racy since the end of 1983”, Kornblihtt noted.

There are several researchteams working on important prob-lems in biology at the moment, Kornblihttnoted. Hugo Daniel Luján’s research team at CatholicUniversity of Cordoba and CONICET has done land-mark work on controlling human parasites, such as the

single-celled giardia that wreakshavoc on the human digestive sys-tem. Andrea Gamarnik, an inde-pendent researcher for the Argen-tinian Council of Investigation, dis-covered a method the deadlyDengue virus uses to reproduce.Alejandro Schinder, at the Leloir

Institute in Buenos Aires, is one of Argentina’s leadingneuroscientists, and demonstrated that neurons createdin the adult brain function in a fundamentally differentway from other neurons. Cancer researcher and 2010TWAS Prize winner Gabriel Rabinovic has publishedimportant contributions on the biology of malignant

13

TWA

SN

ewsl

ette

r,Vo

l.25

No.

2,20

13

CONICEThas done landmark

research on controllinghuman parasites.

BERNARDO A. HOUSSAY, NOBEL PRIZE IN PHYSIOLOGY OR MEDICINE, 1947

• Houssay (1887–1971) won the Nobel prize for his discovery of how pituitary hormones regulate blood sug-ar while working for the Institute for Biology and Experimental Medicine in Buenos Aires.

Houssay entered the School of Pharmacy of the University of Buenos Aires at the age of 14 and just three years lat-er took a job with the Department of Physiology. By 1910, he became a physiology professor in the university’s veteri-nary medicine school. He became a physiology professor in 1919 at the Medical School at Buenos Aires University.

He worked in almost every field of physiology, having a special interest in the endocrine glands. He worked onmany other topics in physiology and pharmacology, including the physiology of circulation and respi-ration, the processes of immunity, the nervous system, digestion, and snake and spider venoms.He also had an active role promoting education and science research in his home country.Houssay was also the first-ever director of the National Scientific and Technical ResearchCouncil, the main Argentinian government agency that supports Argentinian science.

cells in Nature Medicine, Nature Immunology and Can-cer Cell. Kornblihtt’s lab at the University of BuenosAires has been recognized for its work in gene expres-sion and how a single gene can generate multiple pro-teins – the molecules that travel between genes andother biological structures, with papers in Cell, NatureStructural and Molecular Biologyand Molecular Cell.

Argentinian scientists alsohave an important part in scienceinstitutions around the world.

“The Howard Hughes MedicalInstitute had grant programmemany years ago for Canada andcertain countries in LatinAmerica, including Argentina”,said Kornblihtt. “Those programmes were five-yeargrants – very competitive. For years, Argentina hadalmost as many resident scholars as Canada.” TodaySchinder and Kornblihtt are two of the 13 senior inter-national scholars of the institute.

Some major findings in agri-cultural technology have alsobeen made through Argentinianscience. A study by biologist JoséEstévez of the University of Buenos Aires and CONICETon how sugars affect plant growth was published by

Science in 2011. Also, Raquel Chan’steam at the Agrobiotechnology Insti-tute of the Universidad del Litorallast year was able to use genes fromsunflowers, one of Argentina’s majorcrops, to make a more resilient strainof corn. Argentina is also home toInstituto Nacional de TecnologíaAgropecuaria (INTA), a governmentagency founded in 1956 that is dedi-

cated to agricultural technology research, studying arange of plants from crops to forest trees. In an inter-view with the Argentinian journal Revista de Investiga-ciones Agropecuarias, Barañao called INTA “one of thepillars of scientific and technological activity in our

14

TWA

SN

ewsl

ette

r,Vo

l.25

No.

2,20

13

Left: A sunflower field in La Pampa, Argentina.Sunflowers are a major crop in Argentina (Photo:Wikimedia/Claudio Elias). Close right: A surface detectorat the Pierre Auger Observatory in Argentina, 1.4kilometres above sea level (Photo: Pierre AugerObservatory). Center right: A close-up view of a telescopemirror and camera in a Pierre Auger Observatoryfluorescence detector (Photo: Pierre Auger Observatory).Far right: Argentina’s National Atomic Energy Commissionin Buenos Aires (Photo: Wikimedia/Pepe Robles).

LUIS F. LELOIR, NOBEL PRIZE IN CHEMISTRY, 1970

• Leloir (1906–1987) won the Nobel prize for identifying and isolating specific sugar molecules with a role inbuilding carbohydrates while working at the Institute for Biochemical Research in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

His findings proved important for treating a genetic metabolic disorder called galactosemia. The disease inter-feres with the body’s ability to use a sugar called galactose to make energy, and can lead to liver, brain, kidneyand eye damage in infants.

Leloir received most of his education at the University of Buenos Aires, and started his scientific career work-ing with Bernardo A. Houssay in 1932. His career flourished, and he did biochemical research inCambridge before returning to Buenos Aires. He was a Founding Fellow of TWAS.

Houssay and Leloir founded a major biochemistry research centre known as the LeloirInstitute. It is now connected to the University of Buenos Aires.

Argentina is in therunning for the

Cherenkov TelescopeArray, the location forwhich will be decidedby November 2013.

country” that carries out good basic research combinedwith “irreplaceable outreach activities”.

REACHING FOR THE SKYArgentina also holds a prominent place in the physicaland space sciences. Argentina is part of the six-nationconsortium behind the Gemini Project, which is build-ing, installing, commissioning and operating two new8.1 metre diametre optical and infrared telescopes,one in Hawaii, the other in Chile. Argentinianastronomers involved with Gemini receive 2.5% of theobservation time available for their own studies, saidFederico Sánchez of the Institute of Technology inDetection and Astroparticles (ITeDA).

But that’s just a small element of the space sciencein Argentina – the country is also home to the PierreAuger Observatory, the world’s largest cosmic rayobservatory, aiming to discover the origin of the mostenergetic particles in the universe so far observed fromEarth.

Cosmic rays are mostly protons and more complexatomic nuclei that hail from deep space and largelyoriginate either from supermassive black holes at thecentres of distant galaxies or stars that died in hugeexplosions. They travel near the speed of light to theEarth and produce cascades of other particles whenentering the atmosphere. One cosmic ray can producemillions of those other particles spanning several kilo-metres on the Earth’s surface.

In 1992, American nuclear physicist James Croninand British astrophysicist Alan Watson wanted to build

the best cosmic ray observatory ever conceived,Sánchez said. The Southern Hemisphere happens topresent the best view of the Galactic centre – the rota-tional centre of the Milky Way. The observatory’s plan-ners also needed enough space, over 3,000 square kilo-metres over a large flat area for cosmic ray detectors.Finally, they needed the sky above to contain fewclouds and a quiet atmosphere. Several workshops lat-er, there were three candidates for host countries,Australia, South Africa and Argentina – and an interna-tional panel selected Malargüe, Argentina.

Since then, the Pierre Auger Observatory has pro-duced standout results in the study of cosmic rays.Today the Observatory has more than 490 scientistsfrom all over the world and about 30 Argentinian sci-entists are members of the collaboration.

“The success of the Pierre Auger Observatorydemonstrated that Argentina was a country trustableto host large scientific astrophysical projects”, saidSánchez. “In this sense, it opened the door to otherproposals to consider Argentina as a host country.”

Some of these new projects, such as the EuropeanSpace Agency’s Deep Space Antenna, are already builtand installed in Argentina. Argentina is also in the run-ning for the Cherenkov Telescope Array, the locationfor which will be decided by November 2013.

The conditions for science in Argentina improvedquite substantially over the decades, said Juan PabloPaz, a quantum physicist with the University of BuenosAires who won last year’s TWAS Prize in physics for hiswork on the loss of quantum information into its envi-

15

TWA

SN

ewsl

ette

r,Vo

l.25

No.

2,20

13

ronment. “People are going abroad for postdocs andare returning back to work here. The number of stu-dents graduating increased substantially. There is zerounemployment in physics nowadays, and there is moremoney flowing into science.”

Physics became a major field in Argentina in the1950s, Paz said. At the time, the government haddeveloped the National Atomic Energy Commission ina push to develop nuclear power. Now, there are morethan 10 universities where people can get a degree inphysics in Argentina, and most have a PhD pro-gramme. The largest universities are Buenos Aires,Cordoba, La Plata and the Balseiro Institute in Bar-iloche. In Buenos Aires, which hasthe largest physics department inArgentina, more than 20 PhD stu-dents graduate with a physicsdegree every year.

“There are about 1,500 physi-cists working at the moment in thecountry and they work at a numberof institutions, mostly owned bythe state”, said Paz. “Research in private companiesdoes exist but is not the main player here. Research inuniversities suffered a lot during military dictatorshipsas it was viewed as dangerous to mix scientists withstudents and politics. But that past seems to be overand, especially during the last 10 years, there arerather good conditions for science in universities.”

Many physicists were involved in the developmentof the Argentinian company INVAP in the 1970s, noted

Paz. INVAP recently designed and built a satellite calledSAC-D that launched in 2011 and carried NASA equip-ment called Aquarius, which measures global oceansalinity. INVAP, Paz noted, also builds high-tech radarsand exports nuclear reactors (see box on page 21.)

DOWN TO EARTH SCIENCEEarth scientists from Argentina have contributed inthree major issues during recent decades, includingleading research on the tectonic evolution of theAndes, which are still growing from the effects of thetectonic interaction along South America’s west coast.

The Earth science field also has economic use, saidVictor Alberto Ramos, a geologistwith the University of Buenos Aireswho studies Andes formation. “Thestudy of the Andes fuels the findingand mining of giant copper andgold mines of Argentina and Chile,as well as the oil fields all along theAndean foothills from Colombia toPatagonia”, said Ramos.

“The Earth Sciences, mainly geology, was one of thefirst disciplines taught in the School of Sciences of theUniversidad de Buenos Aires, as early as 1865”, saidRamos. There are 14 geology departments in Argenti-na, including large ones in Buenos Aires, La Plata, Cór-doba, Salta and Tucumán. These departments, he said,have staffs of over 40 people.

Argentina also has a long history of natural hazardssuch as earthquakes and volcanoes and has developed

16

TWA

SN

ewsl

ette

r,Vo

l.25

No.

2,20

13

With more rainfall insome areas and warmer,drier weather in others,Argentina is focusedon climate science.

Right: Headquarters ofthe Research Centre of the Seaand Atmosphere (CIMA) andthe French-Argentinian Institutefor Climate Studies and itsImpacts (UMI-IFAECI) in BuenosAires. Far right: (from left) CIMAand UMI-IFAECI director CarolinaVera talks with Virna Mecciaand Fernanda Cabre, formerlyPhD students at CIMA(Photos: CIMA).

several institutes to monitor them. The recent 2011Maule mega-earthquake shook and moved the city ofBuenos Aires 3 to 4 centimetres in a few hours, Ramosnoted. “Based on more than hundred years of experience,our scientists and technicians have developed networks ofseismic detection as well as volcanological observato-ries to mitigate those natural disasters”, he said.

Argentina is also keeping on top of atmospheric,oceanic, and climate sciences through Argentinianorganizations, the Research Centre of the Sea andAtmosphere (CIMA) and the French-Argentinian Insti-tute for Climate Studies and its Impacts (UMI-IFAECI).

“Climate-related investigations have remarkablygrown worldwide and in particular in Argentina duringthe past decades”, said Carolina Vera, an atmosphericscientist and director of both CIMA and UMI-IFAECI. “Itis now possible for climate scientists to monitor, simu-late and project global climate with unprecedentedaccuracy so that climate information can be used fordecision-making.”

CIMA researches how to numerically simulate andpredict atmospheric and ocean processes. Since 2010,CIMA became a part of UMI-IFAECI, an internationalunit jointly sponsored by Centre national de la recherchéscientifique (CNRS) of France, CONICET and the Uni-versity of Buenos Aires. The French-Argentinian Insti-tute works to simulate and predict climate variabilityand change, as well as their impacts in southern South

America and surrounding oceans. It also fosters studieson how climate variability and change will impact pop-ulation, biodiversity, production and vulnerability.

Argentina has good reason to have a stake in climatescience, said Vera. More warm-season rainfall in the cen-tral lowlands of Argentina has partly led to agriculturalregions shifting from grazing animals to farmland in the20th century, and modern climate models are projectingthose regions will have increasingly wetter summers,which will continue to influence agricultural trends.Meanwhile, in the southern-most region of Argentina,projections expect a warmer, drier climate, which couldcause glaciers to further retreat in the region, affectingan important source of fresh water in the country.

The Institute’s staff includes 47 researchers withpositions. In the last four years, 14 postdocs performedresearch at the unit, 76 PhD students performed theirthesis work, and 35 master-level students have alsodone their theses in climate science. Between 2010and 2013, a total of 254 articles were published in ref-ereed journals. UMI-IFAECI researchers also have lead-ership roles in international panels and programmeslike International Panel on Climate Change. “UMI-IFAECI (is) a very powerful research pole not only ofrelevance in Argentina, but also at the internationallevel,” Vera said. �

> Sean Treacy

17

TWA

SN

ewsl

ette

r,Vo

l.25

No.

2,20

13

CÉSAR MILSTEIN, NOBEL PRIZE IN PHYSIOLOGY OR MEDICINE, 1984

• Milstein (1927–2002) won the Nobel prize for his work on the laboratory production ofmonoclonal antibodies, an extremely useful medical tool with applications ranging fromdrugs to diagnostics.

In Les Prix Nobel, a yearbook published by The Nobel Foundation, he credited his immigrantparents with the sacrifices that made his academic life possible. He had a prosperous career in the biochemistryof enzymes, but government persecution of scientists and intellectuals interfered with his work and forced him toleave Argentina in 1963 for Cambridge in the United Kingdom. There, Milstein’s research interests shifted fromenzymes to the immune system. At MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, he did landmark work in immunology,discovering a means to produce monoclonal antibodies.

Milstein was an Associate Founding Fellow of TWAS. His work was characterized as “the most importantimmunological advance of the century” in a commentary by Abraham Karpas, the assistant director of research atCambridge’s Department of Haematology, for a 2002 edition of the British magazine Times Higher Education. Thework “opened numerous new and unforeseen avenues for research, many with medical implications”, Karpas wrote.