Developmental Biology Takes on a Latin American Rhythm

Latin America, the vast geopolitical region from Mexico to Cape Horn at the tip of South America, evokes images of the rain forests of the Amazon and snowcapped peaks of the Andes, ancient Incan and Mayan civilizations, Spanish and Portuguese colonialism, and iconic cities like Rio de Janeiro. Biological research in Latin America has traditionally focused on disciplines such as physiology, pharmacology, biochemistry, genetics, immunology, and parasitology as well as on agricultural and ecological sciences. However, an energetic group of developmental biologists has recently emerged from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela. In 2003, this group, composed of senior scientists and young Latin American developmental biologists who recently returned to their home countries after training in America and Europe, founded the Latin American Society of Developmental Biology (LASDB). Led by their current president Roberto Mayor (University of Chile, Santiago/University College London), the LASDB (http://www.lasdb. org) is promoting developmental biology research in Latin America. The second International Meeting of the LASDB, organized by Ricardo Ramos (University of São PauloRibeirão Preto, Brazil) and José Xavier-Neto (Heart Institute, InCor, University of São Paulo, Brazil), was held in May in Guarujá, Brazil, located on the coast just east of São Paulo. LASDB together with the Society for Developmental Biology (SDB) also offered a pre-meeting Short Course on primary model organisms in developmental biology (see Acknowledgments) to provide intensive training and facilitate interactions among graduate students and postdoctoral fellows from Latin and North America. The LASDB conference opened with a keynote address by Eric Wieschaus (Princeton University, New Jersey) followed by 33 speakers from Latin America, North America, and Europe. Wieschaus reported results from a global examination of the genes required at the mid-blastula transition in the fruit fly Drosophila.