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The scientific muscle of Brazil's health biotechnology

Nature Biotechnology volume 22, pages DC8–DC12 (2004)Cite this article

Brazil has a relatively long history of science and technology, and the current leftist government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva continues to prioritize scientific and technological development in the country. Successes in the agricultural, energy and engineering (e.g., aeronautics) sectors reflect its scientific strength. Brazil's terrestrial biodiversity, with numerous diverse biomes including the Cerrado, Amazon rainforest, Pantanal wetlands, Caatinga region, and Araucaria and Atlantic forests, is also unrivaled in the South American continent and probably elsewhere. This combination of natural and scientific resources gives the country great potential to promote health biotechnology. In 2004, a DNA bank was established at the Jardim Botânico (Botanical Garden) in Rio de Janeiro to preserve the genetic material of endangered plant life. With an expected 1,000 specimens to be collected per year, researchers at the two laboratories at the Jardim Botânico are currently involved in both plant conservation and development of plant-based medicines and treatments1.

The success of Brazil's health biotechnology sector

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Figure 1: Brazilian publications and USPTO patents in health biotechnology (1991–2002).

Illustration by R. Henretta

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Acknowledgements

Publication of this supplement was supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (Seattle, WA), Genome Canada (Ottawa, ON, Canada), McLaughlin Centre for Molecular Medicine (Toronto, Canada) and the Rockefeller Foundation (New York, NY). We want to thank Natalia Ramos Miranda for her cooperation and help with bibliographic searches and analysis of background documents. Thanks to Archana Bhatt, Zoe Costa-von Aesch and James Renihan for patent analysis, Éric Archambault, Frédéric Bertrand and Grégoire Côté at Science-Metrix (Montréal, Canada) for analysis of publication data and also to Carlos More and Fabio Salamanca-Buentello for their valuable input, as well as the Brazilian experts who kindly agreed to be interviewed, thereby making it possible to carry out this study. The Canadian Program on Genomics and Global Health is primarily supported by Genome Canada through the Ontario Genomics Institute and by the Ontario Research and Development Challenge Fund. Matching funders are listed at http://www.geneticsethics.net. P.A.S. is supported by a Canadian Institutes of Health Research Distinguished Investigator award. A.S.D. is supported by the McLaughlin Centre for Molecular Medicine, University of Toronto.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Assistant Professor, Department of Public Policies, Institute for Public Affairs, University of Chile Diagonal Paraguay 265, Piso 13, Santiago, Chile

    Marcela Ferrer

  2. Assistant Professor, Canadian Program on Genomics and Global Health, University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics and Department of Public Health Sciences, 88 College Street, Toronto, Ontario, M5G 1L4, Canada

    Halla Thorsteinsdóttir

  3. Research Assistant, Canadian Program on Genomics and Global Health, University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics, 88 College Street, Toronto, M5G 1L4, Ontario, Canada

    Uyen Quach

  4. Sun Life Financial Chair and Director, University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics,

    Peter A Singer

  5. Professor of Medicine, University of Toronto,

    Peter A Singer

  6. Co-director Canadian Program on Genomics and Global Health, 88 College Street, Toronto, Ontario, M5G 1L4, Canada

    Peter A Singer

  7. Director of Ethics and Policy, McLaughlin Centre for Molecular Medicine,

    Abdallah S Daar

  8. Professor of Public Health Sciences and of Surgery, University of Toronto,

    Abdallah S Daar

  9. Co-director Canadian Program on Genomics and Global Health, University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics, 88 College Street, Toronto, Ontario, M5G 1L4, Canada

    Abdallah S Daar

Authors
  1. Marcela Ferrer
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  2. Halla Thorsteinsdóttir
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  3. Uyen Quach
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  4. Peter A Singer
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  5. Abdallah S Daar
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Correspondence to Halla Thorsteinsdóttir.

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Ferrer, M., Thorsteinsdóttir, H., Quach, U. et al. The scientific muscle of Brazil's health biotechnology. Nat Biotechnol 22 (Suppl 12), DC8–DC12 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt1204supp-DC8

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