For the second year in a row, ACCDIS meets its collaborators in virtuality

Principal investigators, collaborators, students and administrative staff of the Advanced Center for Chronic Diseases (ACCDIS) met on December 15 in their usual "Annual Meeting 2021". This time and for the first time, the event was held in a blended manner.

For the event, each line of research met blended with its scientists and in parallel they connected virtually with the rest of the team.

The welcome of the meeting was in charge of Dr. Sergio Lavandero, director of ACCDIS and principal investigator of the Center; then a small tribute was made to Dr.. Iva Polakovicova, who worked as a researcher in Dr's group. Alejandro Corvalán and unfortunately left physically last year. In addition, five exhibitions were held directed by Vinicius Maracaja, Andrea Huidobro, Francisco Morales, Alejandra Sandoval and Pablo Toro.

During the meeting, Dr. Sergio Lavandero announced the incorporation of a new line of scientific research in ACCDIS, directed by Dra. Marcela Hermoso which will study the intervention of inflammation for the resolution of chronic diseases "This new line of research is a multidisciplinary project that requires experience in mucosal immunology, signal transduction, Bioinformatics, clinical area (gastroenterology, coloproctology among others) and nanotechnology. To do this, will work in collaboration with the laboratories of the Faculty of Medicine and Sciences, Chemistry and Pharmaceuticals of the University of Chile and Faculty of Medicine and Sciences of the Catholic University, he will also work with the departments of Gastroenterology and Coloproctology of the Clinical Hospital of the University of Chile and the Clinic of the University of the Andes", Dr.. Sergio.

To finish, a space for reflection was organized on the challenges that science has and each line and research of the Center to be faced with the problems of the future. Then, some conclusions:

Them line 1 researchers, led by Dr. Sergio Lavandero, proposed to incorporate new collaborators who contribute to the strengthening of the studies and allow interaction between the other lines of research, harnessing the potential of bioinformatics or relationships between clinical and basic science.

Since the research line 2 directed by Dr. Pablo Castro, highlighted the need to create strategic areas focused on "Immunology: inflammation is a biological process that crosses cancer and heart failure, axes of our center, so a specialized branch that can contribute to respond with an immune look would grant specialized interconnection, and we could eventually address questions such as: Why there is an increase in cancer in heart failure?, or if the inflammation is a cause or consequence?" explained the researchers.

And another area they propose to study is the "Aging: a group that can address either geriatrics and/or molecular senescence aging. Both heart failure and cancer, are diseases that increase their incidence over the years, so a focus on ageing would give dynamism to individual approaches and could certainly build bridges between groups.".

On the other hand, The line 6 researchers led by Dr. Marcelo Kogan proposed: "Moving towards translation: application of ACCDiS research results in the clinical area. Continue with the studies of personalized medicine and work on the development of personalized drugs" Adding that, regarding the detection area that is currently focused on biomarkers, it is necessary to expand the study towards small molecules, for example, environmental contaminants and developing point-of-care detection devices.

Winners of the "Contest": Postgraduate students”

From the beginning of the convening of the meeting, the researchers of the Center were invited to participate in the "Contest": Postgraduate students”. Participants only had to submit a video presenting their research, focused on any line of study of the center and later a scientific committee made up of ACCDIS researchers would evaluate them. To this assessment was also incorporated the vote by the peers of the Center, allowing the internal community to choose the best research. The following students were winners:

• Winner for Scientific Evaluation: Mayarling Troncoso – Role of VCAM-1 in Diabetic Cardiomyopathy Induced by Obesity
• Winner for Scientific Evaluation: Pedro Novoa – Improvement of affinity of scFv-αST2 and ST2 protein through an affinity maturationprocess
• Ganador evaluación de pares ACCDIS: Sebastián Salazar Sandoval – Cyclodextrin Nanosponges Inclusion Compounds Associated with Plasmonic and Magnetic Nanoparticles for Potential Application in the Controlled Release of Antitumor Drugs

Felicitamos a los y la ganadora del concurso e invitamos a los demás estudiantes a participar en futuros concursos y actividades de divulgación científica.