Pew Fellows Awarded Matching Funds to Support Research in Argentina

The title of this analysis piece was updated on Dec. 7, 2015 to more accurately represent the use of grant funds provided by the Fundación Bunge y Born.

Two Pew Latin American fellows in the biomedical sciences have been awarded grants by the Bunge and Born Foundation to help them establish laboratories in their native Argentina. Marina Muzzio (class of 2011) and Leonardo Boechi (class of 2012) recently returned to the country after completing postdoctoral studies in the United States. Each scientist received repatriation funding from Pew to set up labs, which was matched by the Bunge and Born Foundation (Fundación Bunge y Born) of Buenos Aires.

Under the guidance of Dr. Eimear E. Kenny at Mount Sinai Hospital’s Icahn School of Medicine, Muzzio’s postdoctoral research focused on mapping the genetic history of Latin American populations—tracing genetic variations that originate from Native American, European, and African ancestors. Muzzio will continue this work as an assistant researcher at the Multidisciplinary Institute of Cellular Biology in Buenos Aires.

Boechi studied under Dr. J. Andrew McCammon at the University of California, San Diego, where he examined the structure of a protein implicated in Chagas disease to better understand how to design drugs that may combat the disease. Boechi is currently a research associate at the University of Buenos Aires.

Since 2011, the Bunge and Born Foundation has partnered with Pew to provide crucial financial support to fellows returning to Argentina to carry out innovative research. This year, the foundation increased the number of matching grants to two per year. These generous grants help outstanding scientific minds launch projects that will invigorate Argentina’s biomedical research community for years to come.

Read more about the Pew Latin American Fellows Program in the Biomedical Sciences here.