Biotechnology in Brazil

Why would someone want to study biotechnology in Brazil? Does science change when conducted in another country? Do the techniques used in a lab differ in South America? Or is science simply science anywhere in the world? Join our podcast to learn what our students learned during Santa Fe's biotechnology internship in Brazil.

Transcript

Vilma:

Welcome to Santa Fe College. My name is Vilma Fuentes, and this is our podcast, Developing Global Citizens. Today I've invited three special guests to talk to us about some work that they've been doing with Brazilian partners in order to learn more about biotechnology in Brazil. And I'm going to begin by introducing Dr. Alejandra Maruniak, the leader of this project. Hello, Alejandra. Thanks for joining us.

Alejandra:

Thank you, Vilma. Good morning. Thank you for inviting us.

Vilma:

Sure. My pleasure. So first, let's break this apart. So biotechnology in Brazil. Why Brazil? Why not, I don't know, Japan, India, Germany.

Alejandra:

I studied in Brazil and I learned a whole bunch in Brazil. And Brazil is very good in their biotechnology. So for me it's personal, taking them back to the country where I had all my studies, undergrad, master's, and PhD. And not only is the biotechnology, but it's also the people, their culture, their food, their music, and it's a very welcoming set of people that I want my students to be able to enjoy. And it's a huge country, similar to United States, that there's so much that you can learn, not only in biotechnology, but in all other type of situations.

Vilma:

Brazil is almost like its own continent, right? Almost. Are you Brazilian?

Alejandra:

I am not. I was born in Venezuela, grew up in Bolivia, but did all of my studies in Brazil.

Vilma:

So you speak Portuguese?

Alejandra:

I do.

Vilma:

Do you speak Spanish?

Alejandra:

I do.

Vilma:

And you speak English.

Alejandra:

Actually, I don't speak correctly any of the three, but I can understand. Yes.

Vilma:

You do a wonderful job. You're trilingual. Let's just tell the truth. And then biotechnology. Well, so you are a professor in Santa Fe College's biotechnology program, specifically the bachelor's in industrial biotechnology. What brought you to Santa Fe? Talk to us a little bit about your background. How did you stumble, if you will, or maybe not stumble, but how did you find yourself teaching and doing research on biotechnology?

Alejandra:

So my master's and PhD is in genetics. So I always work with molecular biology. Before coming to Santa Fe, I had worked at UF doing research. And what really brought me to Santa Fe is the fact that we have this open lab, and what we teach our students is a lot of hands-on. They're doing experiments all the time. It's not the theory. The theory has to be there, of course. But these students come out from their bachelor's with the experience that some other students will learn only in the master's degree because it's only then when they are in the lab all the time. I used to work in a lab that had open doors for students from any other laboratory that wanted to do their molecular work. And this is exactly the same model that we do with undergrad students. So I loved it.

Vilma:

So when you have worked at the University of Florida, or in private industry, or even when you've been working with industry partners at either Sid Martin Biotech Incubator or Progress Park in Alachua, have you found that it's a very international group of scientists?

Alejandra:

It is international. The scientists that are in the different industries come from different locations and they are very good collaborators with us. We send our students to do their internships. And so they work side by side with these scientists doing whatever research they are doing in the different companies. So our students get to work with them side by side. And, again, there are a lot of people from different countries. That's something that is seen in Gainesville because the graduate programs at University of Florida or the industry has a lot of people from different countries. So we are living in a city, Gainesville, where we have the opportunity to interact with international people, go to markets from different countries.

Vilma:

So a few years ago, maybe five, six years ago, could be longer, you came to me and you said that you were interested in starting a biotechnology internship program in Brazil. Why not just leave our students right here with completing internships with the current industry partners here in Alachua County?

Alejandra:

Some of them still do the internship, but those that can have the experience of getting out of the country, going to a different country, realize that the techniques that they are learning in the lab can be applied all over the world with so many different applications. We can go from studying cancer to plants, to insects. I mean, anything that has DNA, RNA, or protein, the techniques that are used are similar. So the idea of getting the students that have been in our lab learning all these techniques and realizing once you know them, you can apply them anywhere in the world. And Brazil, because that's where I studied, and I know this great laboratory that is in Botucatu.

Vilma:

Wonderful. So I want to talk about our partners down there in Brazil because they're absolutely critical. So several years ago, I want to say 2013, possibly 2014, you went to Brazil to the state of São Paulo on a faculty exchange program. Tell us about that, please.

Alejandra:

That exchange program was with the State University of São Paulo, UNESP, and I was able to visit three campus. UNESP is a state university that has campus all over the big state of São Paulo. And as I said, I was able to go to three of them where biotechnology art is taught. And from the three, I decided to stay in Botucatu because their laboratories and their setting is similar to what we have at the Perry Center in terms of a big laboratory in which all the scientists share the same area. But my experience to find out the similarities in programs, of course, between the Brazilian and the one we have at Santa Fe was pretty amazing.

Vilma:

And my recollection is when you visited, at some point, you visited the campuses of Araraquara and Botucatu. Did you go to Assis as well?

Alejandra:

Yes.

Vilma:

And you were working closely with someone that had come here to Santa Fe on a Fulbright Scholar Exchange Program, Dr. Regiani Zacarias. So she's really the one that opened the door to this partnership among our institutions. And then because you had these great ideas, you led the way and applied to a U.S. Department of State funded program called the Capacity Building Grant, and received some funding so that we could lay the groundwork and strengthen the partnership to then be able to take students. Is that correct?

Alejandra:

That's correct. In 2018, I took my first group of students to Brazil to do this for the first time, this international internship in biotechnology. And it was a great experience. We were able to even go to Foz do Iguaçu. The World Cup was at Brazil, and that was sad. That was not the expected results that we wanted.

Vilma:

They lost. They didn't even make it to the finals, I think, right?

Alejandra:

Yeah.

Vilma:

It's terrible.

Alejandra:

We don't need to remember that. But the experience with that first group made it so great that I wanted to take students every two years. But after 2018, came 2020, and that's where things stopped. So after that, the only second group that I was able to take was this year in the summer in 2023.

Vilma:

Perfect. So I am delighted that Clay Abraham is here, and he is an alumnus of Santa Fe College of our bachelor's in biotechnology. But, Clay, you were part of that first group, right? That went to Brazil 2018?

Clay:

Yes. Well, first thing, so thank you for having me.

Vilma:

My pleasure.

Clay:

And yes, it was a trip of a lifetime. So a little bit about me. Prior to this trip, I have never been out of the country. I had been to maybe five states in the U.S. So I had only seen a very small fraction of the world. And when Ale brought this up to me in class one day, or it was one day after class in the lab, it was like, "We have this internship in Brazil." I was like, "I have to go because this is possibly one or the only times that I might be able to go out into the world and interact with a culture that I had never had experience with." A little bit more background, I was raised in a small town-

Vilma:

In North Central Florida?

Clay:

... in North central Florida, so not too far from Gainesville. So I'm North Central Florida native, if you will. So this area has always been my home, which is great, but I've never saw anything outside of that, truly. And so this internship that was offered gave me an experience not only to further my degree and complete an internship, which was required, but also just to open up so many other possibilities for me going forward.

Vilma:

So if we think about just the science, right? If I'm not mistaken, you were there for three weeks, four weeks, and you were in a lab for about eight hours a day, which on the surface, I would look at it, and that doesn't sound like fun. But what were you learning there both about science and about culture or Brazil or whatever?

Clay:

So the beautiful thing was instead of focusing on one research team's project, which would've given us a really in-depth look into somebody's work, which still would've been beneficial, instead, we basically rotated with three, if I recall, of the major research groups. So we focused on next generation sequencing for biodiversity in the Amazon rainforest, we focused on what are HEK cells, which is basically cancer cells for cell migration assays, and I think it was like GFP, I want to say, which is green fluorescent protein. So these cells that are glowing, and then we basically watched how they migrated across a distance, cells that are alive. And then for the third one, Ally, if-

Alejandra:

The diseases that can be transmitted by mosquitoes.

Clay:

Yes. So we've looked at multiple different aspects of the research that is very local and important to not only Brazil, but just the entire world market as a whole because of how Brazil interacts with the international system.

Vilma:

So let's see if I can interpret this differently, at least through my lens. I think what you're saying is the science isn't different, right? Science is science, but what the Brazilians were studying was shaped by a different context.

Clay:

Correct. So Professor Marino Celso, who was the head of the Ibitech program at UNESP at the time, I believe he's gotten a promotion since then.

Vilma:

So Dr. Celso Marino who director of the-

Clay:

Yes.

Vilma:

... [foreign language 00:12:56], right?

Clay:

So a lot of his research was on eucalyptus trees, which in Brazil, you think Eucalyptus, you always think Australia. Well, in Australia, they take, I think it was like 20 to 30 years for eucalyptus tree to grow to maturity to then be used for lumber. In Brazil, it's five years. So in five years, you can plant a crop of eucalyptus trees and then have them grow. And then those eucalyptus trees be used for pulp wood, for paper, and pencils, and lumber for building homes, so on and so forth. That is biotech.

Vilma:

Got it.

Clay:

And his research basically improved the local economy there and then how Brazil then interacted with all of its neighbors on an economic level. And so that's kind of the interaction on an international level as well.

Vilma:

So, Rahda Gomez, thanks for being here today with us. I know you were part of the newest team, the one that participated in this biotechnology program in 2023. Did you have a similar experience to Clay's?

Rahda:

I did have a similar experience. One thing in particular that I enjoyed watching was Dr. Marino's work. They were researching the aroeira plant. They wanted to eventually sequence the genome of it because it was going extinct. And there were all these people that would go and cut down this tree and it was illegal, but they would cut it down for the wood because it was very high quality wood. And then they would leave the country, and then when they would come back, they'd say they'd got it from one of the surrounding countries. So what their goal was, was to sequence it and be able to make a test so that they could identify specifically that this was a Brazilian based plant or tree. And what I really enjoyed about that was they wanted to have it so that the police could have these test kits sort of, and they would quickly be able to identify, "Yes, this is this plant from Brazil." And then they were very passionate and they would say, "And then they go to jail." They're like environmental warriors.

Vilma:

That is awesome. So it's interesting, I hadn't thought about this because when I've seen pictures of your work and all, I just think scientists in the lab, but this sounds like very connected to the work that maybe ecologists would be doing or people in wildlife conservation. Yes?

Rahda:

Yes. They wanted to save the environment around Brazil. And every student, they were each working on a specific plant, and they were studying them individually. And all of them were so knowledgeable about their own project because undergrad students, they have projects of their own, which is so cool. And I remember even just they were knowledgeable about environment around them in general. So we were going out and we were going on these trails, and one of the students, his name is Allef, he was so wonderful, and he would just be pointing out different things. And his English was, he was working on it, and he had been really shy at first. But he was just going out very passionately about, "This is what this is, and this is what that is, and this comes from here, and this was why this plant grows in this location because of such and such." And it was very admirable to see how passionate they were about it.

Vilma:

So for the two of you, let's say if you both had the same experience, you weren't then just in the lab for eight hours a day. You did go out, and you were saying you were going on hikes or trails. Is that-

Clay:

That's correct.

Vilma:

... your experience as well?

Clay:

Yeah. I don't know if you went there, Radha, but we went to a seed bank while we were in Brazil. So a similar experience maybe to the hiking. I forget the guy's name who's at the seed bank, but he knew this plot of land like the back of his hand. And so basically, researchers and companies would tell him like, "Hey, we want this tree, and we want it to grow this fast, and it might be dry conditions in this area. What do you have?" And he would go find the seeds from these trees, and they would do growth studies at the seed bank too. So you would actually see how different plants and trees would grow based on how far apart they were spaced.

And so one of these trees that previously thought was basically just a weed because it would grow very shrub, like shrubby, like a bush. But then when you plant them really close together, they grew very tall and long. So it would be perfect for lumber. So just like little tiny things like that and how science really interacts with the local area, which, again, if none of us went to Brazil, we would've never seen.

Vilma:

So, Radha, tell me more.

Rahda:

Well, when he mentioned the local area, I remember, so we went with Sid, he's Dr. [inaudible 00:18:19]. I forget his last name, I'm sorry. But his name was Sid. Everyone was so casual, we just called them by their first names. But we went to his lab, and the thing about when they're with their community, I don't know if the word would be postulate, but they had these ideals basically. And one of them was the big one was that they would work with their communities wherever they were. And so when we went with Sid to his microbiology lab, he was telling us about something that made him very proud was that they would get a lot of milk donations for newborn babies at the hospital because some people couldn't produce milk or just the babies needed the extra milk. And he said that it really warms his heart that they're able to conduct these tests to make sure that this milk is good for the children, and then he said that, "This lab has fed so many babies in our community." It's wonderful.

Vilma:

So, Radha, when you think about these topics that these scientists were exploring in Brazil, how different was that or similar to what you had seen here in class at Santa Fe College?

Rahda:

So as a student, like I said, we are learning a lot of techniques, and I am not super aware of the applications. And that was why we went to Brazil so we could learn about the applications for these techniques. And I was actually so nervous because I was worried I wouldn't know what they were talking about. And when I went, it was like you said, science was science everywhere, but I got to see what they were doing with it. And so it was different in that I was learning what you could be doing with this science. And they were just using anything. They were pulling anything. They were like, "I don't know. I want to do this. I want to make this work. I'm going to just use whatever techniques I know and I'm going to learn something new even." Because Bruno, he told me that he's going to France to learn some bioinformatics for their project of sequencing the aroeira. And everyone's learning always. And so they're just getting more techniques, and I didn't feel so bad about it.

Vilma:

So, Clay, you graduated-

Clay:

Yes.

Vilma:

... I think, right after you returned from Brazil. How did this experience impact you? Did it inspire you to study more or to do things that maybe you hadn't thought of before?

Clay:

Well, again, a little bit of backstory. So I was already working at a lab when I went to Brazil.

Vilma:

Which lab?

Clay:

I work at the Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution, or you can shorten it to FfAME, which is a little easier to say. But we actually specialize in artificial nucleotides. So these are artificial pieces of DNA basically. And the chemists make them, and then as a molecular biologist, we basically integrate those into experiments, and then just basically see what happens as the big overview here. And there it is 50/50 so as far as international people. So about 50% of the entire company is from other areas of the globe-

Vilma:

Great.

Clay:

...so India, China, Japan, Switzerland. We had a doctor from Turkey who recently left very international community. I was only working there for maybe about nine months before I went to Brazil. But that was an amazing experience going from there, and then going to Brazil, and then really seeing how another aspect of science integrates in another place. But from there, when I went to Brazil and working at FfAME, I always knew that I wanted to do grad school. So all of these things together and staying at the Republica with a lot of grad students-

Vilma:

Wait a minute. What is that? Republica?

Clay:

So for the English translation, the closest thing is a fraternity.

Vilma:

You stayed at a frat house. You did.

Clay:

But it's not a frat house. It is the best sense of the term, like frat house. So it was like I stayed with maybe... What? 12 other guys that were in the Republica.

Vilma:

In a big house?

Clay:

It was a huge house, but only one washer and dryer.

Vilma:

Important.

Clay:

Yes. But it was an amazing experience because not only I was able to stay with these guys for three weeks, really get to know Brazil and Brazilians as a culture and how they live. Random side note, think of butter in Brazil, that's called [inaudible 00:23:37].

Vilma:

Clay like your name?

Clay:

Yes, and they had it in the fridge. And on the first day, they were like, [inaudible 00:23:44]. And it was like one of those random things where it's like, "This is great." But it was such a good experience because I was able to talk to them and they were very passionate about their research. One of the guys I got pretty close with while I was there, I think he was a mycologist, so he studies fungus for environmental reasons. So I was talking to them, they were like, "You should definitely do grad school," because all these guys were basically like three to five years older than me. But they were in all matters of science ranging from mycology to clinical, to biotech, and everything in between.

Vilma:

So did you pursue a graduate degree afterward?

Clay:

Yes. So as of July of this year, actually, I got my master's degree from the University of Saint Joseph up in Connecticut.

Vilma:

And so what did you study?

Clay:

So I just got it in general biology, but I do have certificates in integrative genomics and environmental science.

Vilma:

And if I'm not mistaken, I think you had another international experience, didn't you?

Clay:

Yes. So during all of this, I was crazy enough to also do a thesis project. And during that thesis project, I decided I wanted to study propanol, which for people who aren't nerds like myself, this is a three-carboned alcohol. So when you drink beer, that is a two-carboned alcohol. If you drink the three-carboned alcohol, this is not good for you. But it's a really important chemical.

Vilma:

Why?

Clay:

It's actually used as a solvent for paints and adhesives mostly. And it is one of the few alcohols that is not produced biologically on any scale.

Vilma:

So synthetic.

Clay:

99%, and it's always kind of been a pet project of mine. So while at Santa Fe, I did the undergraduate research-

Vilma:

The research and undergraduate education project?

Clay:

Correct.

Vilma:

On propanol?

Clay:

Yes. I was theorizing how to make propanol in yeast at the time. So I was like, "There's a thesis option with this degree, so why don't I see what I can come up with?" And I came across a researcher's work up in Iceland where he's isolated several different bacteria species that are called thermo Enterobacter. I won't say that 20 times for all the listeners, but basically these bacteria that grow up in the hot springs in Iceland are able to make some propanol. And so basically my thesis work was extracting out the DNA, putting the DNA together with bioinformatics, and then kind of characterizing this pathway.

Vilma:

Excellent. So this sounds like a silly question, but how was Iceland different from Brazil?

Clay:

Completely different. And by the way, how that got set up is I sent him an email in November. He's like, "No, this is great. Do you want to come up in January?"

Vilma:

Great time of the year.

Clay:

So in the matter of two months, I basically planned a unsponsored trip to Iceland to a city and a country that I've never been to.

Vilma:

Adventurous.

Clay:

And I truly believe that because of my trip to Brazil, that gave me the confidence to be like, "This is normal and I can do this." So the one added benefit here is in Iceland they speak English because my Portuguese was never any good. But the Brazilian internship really kind of was a gateway to that.

Vilma:

Of course.

Clay:

So over the matter of that two months, I was able to schedule everything and then flew to Iceland, which is very different, but beautiful in its own way. The landscape was very stark, which gave it its own beauty as opposed to the lush jungles of Brazil.

Vilma:

Sure. Of course.

Clay:

And then the culture is Scandinavian. So things are very different. People leave their babies outside during winter, but it's completely normal. And I was seeing six year old kids get off the public transportation in Iceland-

Vilma:

Alone?

Clay:

No, with a group of other six to seven year olds, and just all get off of the bus, and then go walk to their houses. Now, I wasn't in the major city, which is Reykjavík in Iceland. I was in the second-largest city, which is Akureyri, which I want to say had 30,000 people. I could be wrong on that stat. I would not quote me there.

Vilma:

This isn't a big. It's not real, it's not that. And, Radha, so have you graduated?

Rahda:

I got my AS in last fall, and now I'm working on my BAS in the biotechnology program. And that's what I went for the internship for with Ale in Brazil.

Vilma:

To be able to finish here. Have you started working yet or?

Rahda:

So I work at Hydrosphere, which is now bought by EcoAnalysts, but they're a company that gets water from other companies, like power plants that have this discharge water, and we evaluate it and make sure that it is clear for the environment and that they're keeping up to EPA standards.

Vilma:

Nice. So you're still working there?

Rahda:

Yes, I'm still working. They are so accommodating with my schoolwork and with my work work. So I very much enjoy being there.

Vilma:

So where do you see yourself going in the future? Do you see yourself going on this wild adventure to Iceland or something like that? Or do you think you'll pursue graduate school or?

Rahda:

I will, and I do, and I'd love to-

Vilma:

I want to hear more.

Rahda:

Well, I was looking at... I don't know where I'm going to go, but I have big plans to continue to go out of this country even to learn more science, because I really thought that going to Brazil, it made me see that science, we're all just doing it and we're all learning. And I was inspired by Clay saying he just emailed somebody, and [inaudible 00:30:50], "Now I'm in Iceland."

Clay:

That's basically exactly what happened.

Rahda:

That's so cool.

Clay:

I was like, "Hey, I have this idea," because I just asked him to send the bacteria to me basically.

Vilma:

Who knew you could send these kinds of emails?

Clay:

And he's like, "Well, they're kind of difficult to grow. Just come up here. I'll show you how to grow them."

Rahda:

Quick trip.

Vilma:

Great. So what would you tell a student who maybe is thinking about doing something like this, an internship like that, and says, "But I don't have the money and it's so expensive." I mean, how did you do it? How did you pay for this?

Rahda:

Well, we got the Stuart McRae Scholarship, and people just want to help you go do things. So Ale was the one who brought it up first like, "Yes, there's a scholarship. Do this."

Vilma:

Just apply.

Rahda:

Yeah. And we were like, "Okay." And people want you to go and learn. So there are so many opportunities people don't take, they don't realize someone is willing to help me.

Vilma:

But did you still have to pay out of pocket?

Rahda:

Well, I did save money and I paid whatever the scholarship didn't cover. And then even after coming back from Brazil, we got money back because everything is overestimated a bit. And it's good though.

Vilma:

It's good because we don't want to run out of money.

Rahda:

Right.

Clay:

Yes.

Rahda:

We still got a big chunk of our money back.

Vilma:

Right.

Rahda:

So I didn't really spend a lot for this trip with the scholarship and with my own refund, I guess I would say.

Vilma:

Right. Because we are not a business, Santa Fe College is not trying to make money off the students.

Clay:

Right.

Vilma:

But, Clay, what was your experience?

Clay:

Well, I don't remember if I got a scholarship.

Vilma:

You did.

Clay:

We did? It's been a few years.

Vilma:

Alejandra, maybe you can help out. Do you remember who gave the scholarship? It was an anonymous donor-

Alejandra:

Yeah.

Vilma:

... in the community, wasn't it?

Alejandra:

There was an anonymous-

Clay:

Really?

Alejandra:

... donor from Gainesville that gave money specifically for this program, this biotechnology, and that helped each of the four students with $1,500 that was kind of the plane ticket.

Vilma:

Yep.

Alejandra:

So we got the $6,000 specifically for the biotechnology internship.

Vilma:

And I have a theory, I might be totally wrong, but it may be someone either at Progress Park or someone, I'm thinking, at Oak Hammock perhaps, some of the retirees there. These individuals often come to our research and undergraduate program, they see the posters, and maybe they'll see something about, "Biotechnology research program in Brazil." But an anonymous donor came in, wrote the check, and it was very clear, only for students in the Brazil program.

Rahda:

Amazing.

Clay:

So I had forgotten that, but I had paid for it because there was multiple people, because I was trying to get everybody to go over at the Perry Center, because Ale was trying to recruit students, and just everybody I ran into like, "You got to come." Because when opportunities like this happen, you can't just let them always go by. Same thing with Iceland. I got an in by an email. I sent an email. And if I would've just not responded, been like, "No, it's too much money, too months." Like, "I can't do that."

Vilma:

Not January.

Clay:

"Not January in Iceland," which was actually kind of mild. So it was very nice up there. But I would've never been able to get those kinds of experiences. I would've never finished a thesis project. One thing can always lead to another. You never know what one door is going to open and what doors may be closed. So for people who are like, "It's too much money." It's like, "You only have one life," as far as I'm aware.

Alejandra:

So I always tell my students whenever they do something like this, they're investing in themselves, in their education, is going to pay off later on no matter what. So I want to take this opportunity also to thank the scientists in Brazil that opened their labs-

Clay:

Yes.

Alejandra:

... that take their time, and of all, share their knowledge with us. And only we have talked about two of them, Dr. Sid and Dr. Celso Marino, but there have been other labs. This time our students were able to work with cancer cells from prostate, they were able to work with proteins and doing proteomics, next generation sequencing. So it is a great community of scientists that opened their doors to us, to our internship. So I want to thank all of them.

Vilma:

And also Dr. Regiani Zacarias who's been the strongest friend Santa Fe could ever have on the ground, likes going on adventures, and hiking trips where all sorts of unexpected things happen. But I want to thank all of you for sharing your experiences with us, and it's really inspiring. And thank you, Alejandra, for helping us develop globally competent citizens.