The Development of Molecular Biology in Latin America: The Cases of Argentina, Brazil, Cuba and Mexico

Abstract

There are few studies on how molecular biology was developed in Latin America. The purpose of this research is to present a historical narrative about the expansion of molecular biology in countries where it has had a greater development: Argentina, Brazil, Cuba and Mexico. In these countries, molecular biology initially derived from areas such as biochemistry and cell physiology, but later, with the development of molecular genetics and genetic engineering, it became a consolidated discipline. The main fields of research in molecular biology in Latin America have been: microbial genetics, molecular cell biology, recombinant vaccines, genetic engineering of plants, molecular manipulation of metabolic pathways, generation of modified antibodies against snakes and scorpions poisons (fabotherapics) and, in the last decade, the establishment of genome sequencing projects of bacteria, plants and parasites.