CONTENTS - L'Oréal

LATIN AMERICA &
THE CARRIBEAN
Argentina
Environmental Biology
María Valeria LARA, 30, PhD in Biological Sciences,
is a post-doctoral researcher and lecturer in plant
biochemistry at the National University of Rosario in
Argentina. Her research focuses on the effect of
environmental and climatic stress on the process of
photosynthesis and in particular on the development of
crops that can use water more efficiently under drought
conditions.
The safeguard of the world’s water resources is
dependent on research in this area: currently some 40%
of the world’s food crops are grown under artificial
irrigation and 70% of the water drawn by humans from
freshwater sources is used for agriculture. Plants
control water-loss and CO2 intake from their leaf
surface through the action of leaf guard cells. These
cells have the capacity to open and close the leaf
stomata (pores) by changing shape in response to
environmental conditions such as light and water
stress. A specific enzyme (NADP-malic enzyme) is
supposed to be involved in this process.
During her fellowship, Dr Lara plans to transfer the
maize gene – this species use a photosynthetic pathway
known as C4 – which codes for this enzyme into tobacco
plants, which use a different photosynthetic pathway
(C3), to see if this specific enzyme could be used as a
mechanism to make other C3 plants, including
important food crops such as wheat, more resistant to
water stress.
On her return to Argentina, Dr Lara will test her results
on other plants, under differing environmental
conditions, with the aim of developing drought-resistant
crop plants with increased yield.
Host institution: School of Biological Sciences,
Washington State University, USA. �
FELLOWS UNESCO-L’ORÉAL 2005
Brazil
Medical Science
Michelle Lucinda DE OLIVEIRA, 33, a medical
doctor, is currently working as an attending surgeon at
department of Gastrointestinal Surgery at the Federal
University of São Paulo, where she is doing postgraduate
research in surgical hepatopancreaticobiliary field. Her
research focus is on liver cancer and novel strategies to
treat this disease.
Cancer arising in the liver (primary liver cancer) is one of
the commonest cancers in the world, with approximately
one million new cases reported every year. The liver is
also one of the main sites of secondary tumors
originating from metastatic cancer cells. The liver is the
only solid organ, which can regenerate and grow back to
its normal size. Up to 70% of the liver can be safely
removed, and it will fully regenerate within a few weeks.
For this reason surgery remains the first line of
treatment in many cases and the only chance of cure for
patients with primary or secondary liver tumors. A
frequently alternative strategy used prior to surgery is to
occlude one major vein supplying blood to a large part of
the liver (portal vein embolization) selectively causing
liver atrophy and concomitant major regeneration in the
part with intact blood supply. This strategy is very useful
to enable safe resection of large liver volume (> 70% of
the liver mass) containing cancer. However, how
regeneration influences tumor growth in the remaining
tissue and whether liver resection or portal vein
embolization have similar effects is unknown.
Dr de Oliveira wants to find out how liver resection and
portal vein embolization influence tumor growth, and
which growth factors produced by the liver are involved.
The long-term goal is to enable safe resection of large
liver volume while minimizing the risk of tumor
recurrence after surgery.