Medical technologists reward thesis work done by students of the U. Mayor

10-10-19

The College highlighted projects in the areas of Ophthalmology and Bioanalysis. The latter had the collaboration of researchers from the Center for Integrative Biology (CIB). The achievement is the result of interdiscipline and represents another step in the involvement of the centers in the undergraduate.

For the first time, the College of Medical Technologists of Chile gave recognition to the thesis work of students in five mentions. Thus, the Universidad Mayor obtained awards in two of them, corresponding to the areas of Ophthalmology and Bioanalysis.

Esteban Leyton and Diego Matus, who were guided by researchers from the Center for Integrative Biology (CIB), Melissa Calegaro and Carol San Martín, were distinguished in this last work.

The thesis arose from the Fondecyt Initiation projects of both professionals, which seek to study the differential expression of genes related to autophagy in lymphocytes of patients with mild cognitive impairment type Alzheimer and mild Alzheimer's disease, one of the most prevalent diseases in the country.

“They measured the gene expression of a large part of the autophagic pathway genes and we saw that some genes changed their expression specifically in the early stages of the disease. When they went to see the protein expression they saw that it was increased. There was a quite new result and it will open the doors of new collaborations, ”explained Dr. San Martín,

Both tutors highlighted the motivation of the students to carry out the thesis in a short term. “We had thought about making only one approach and they took the initiative to do another technique. He left them, resulting in a good job, very beautiful, with statistics. I am super proud of them, ”said Dr. Calegaro, who is also the director of the Doctorate Program in Neurobiology at the institution. "They themselves sought to continue advancing in their study without anyone asking, they were very applied," added San Martin.

For Esteban Leyton, it is "a prize for effort and perseverance, not only of us, but of our families, friends, teachers and colleagues, fundamental pillars in our professional training."

Regarding his teacher guides, the young man stressed that “they encouraged us to learn and develop in the field of Neuroscience and Alzheimer's, giving us the cognitive and practical tools to carry out each phase of the process, without forgetting what was there behind each sample that we processed: a person, a family that altruistically donated their blood, knowing that, although we would not be able to solve their condition, we could contribute a small grain of sand to the understanding of part of the mechanisms that cause it ”.

On the other hand, Diego Matus said that the exemplary thesis prize “was totally unexpected, but very satisfactory, in the sense that all the efforts we made with Esteban together with our tutors paid off and strengthened our desire to continue studying and researching”.

The student highlighted the availability of the researchers “to listen to both our questions and our ideas and give us the possibility of having a critical vision of our work. It has certainly been one of the best experiences in my entire university life and it is without a doubt, thanks to them. Carol and Melissa are the clear example that women should be head in science! ”

Undergraduate Quality

Both the CIB researchers and the director of the degree, Víctor Silva, expressed their opinion that this recognition is the result of interdisciplinarity and the move to a complex university with the involvement of the Technology and Research Centers in the undergraduate.

“As a Center we started to make this link with undergraduate since last year. This link only improves the quality, because the boys are subject to a discussion in the lab meetings, for example, that in their daily lives as an undergraduate they did not have it, ”said Dr. Calegaro.

Dr. San Martín commented that “this award demonstrates that in the CIB we are making a great effort for the thesisists to have good jobs. That is very important, because the Office of the Vice President for Research (VRI) has put emphasis on hiring researchers for all the centers and that these centers pay tribute to the schools and help them develop theses of better quality. We do undergraduate teaching showing not only what goes out in the books, but our experience, so the link between the VRI and the VRA is already being noticed. ”

The director of Medical Technology said that “it is a great recognition of the work we do, mainly in the area of ​​Research, since it is in line with our institution, which has been mutating to university complexation. We can show that from undergraduate we carry out quality research, which has been recognized by external peers, which for us is a very important result ”.

Leyton - who also won first place in the 2019 Scientific Days with Matus - valued the development that the University in Research has had and called the authorities of the race “to continue empowering their students to participate and discover this world, and to be able to invest more resources in their constant development of this area within the Medical Technology, even helping with this to stop being the invisible actors within the health team, promoting an active participation within congresses, research days and outreach activities to the community, so that they know us and know the important work that we carry out within the area of ​​health ”.

Source:

https://www.diariomayor.cl/investigacion/1485-tecnologos-medicos-premian-a-tesistas-u-mayor