CEBIM developed a seminar to present the advances in research about cancer treatment, led by Dr. Paulo Pardi, Dr. Cristian Paz and Dr. Iván González.

The Centre for Biomedical and Morpho-Functional Sciences (CEBIM) of Universidad de La Frontera (UFRO) had some months of intense work. Apart from several seminars for scientific dissemination, which have already led to promising partnerships and collaborations with peers from national and foreign universities in the field of cancer treatment with ancestral medicinal plants, they are preparing a Master’s Degree Programme in Science with Specialisation in Phytomedicine.

In this context, CEBIM held its third seminar on collaboration and dissemination of science, called ‘Interdisciplinary Studies on Cancer Treatment’, where Cristian Paez of Universidad de La Frontera (Chile), Paulo Pardi from University Centre Eniac in São Paulo (Brazil), and Ivan Gonzalez of Universidad de Concepción (Chile) shared the results of their studies carried out in this field of knowledge.

The director of CEBIM, Cristian Paz, pointed out: “We held this seminar with the invited speakers in order to present the main achievements we obtained, our high impact publications, as well as studies on bioactive principles in ancestral medicinal plants that are used in Mapuche medicine and have anticancer properties. We have investigated two of them in particular, since they have a marked anticancer activity – we were able to isolate two active molecules that show very strong activity against prostate cancer”.

The plants they study with a focus on their positive effects on humans are “Podanthus mitiqui” (Mitique or Palo Negro) and “Drimys Winteri” (Winter’s Bark or Canelo). “Our goal is to obtain natural compounds and to carry out a validation of these products to develop new formulations of natural origin that could be used in different treatments. Therefore, we still need to carry out more scientific and pharmacological studies with regard to these plants,” explained Cristian Paz.

“We organised several meetings on cancer treatment in collaboration with professor Pardi and with academics from Brazil, for the validation of Palo Negro-compounds and the progress in animals, to get to the next stage of its application in humans afterwards. In addition, we have active compounds, extracted from a plant, that have a significant effect on parasites, with a very powerful pharmacological effect,” he added.

CEBIM

CEBIM started a year and a half ago and consists of ten academics, who, in this time, carried out several academic activities and collaborated with other centres, considering the possibility to create a new Master’s Degree Programme in Sciences with Specialisation in Phytomedicine. The first call for this programme is projected for the year 2024.

“The dissemination seminars allow us to present and make known CEBIM and the work of the Faculty of Medicine, as well as to find and strengthen our national and international partnerships for collaborations. Those are also visible through the 12 articles we published over the last year and a half, as well as the three seminars we carried out,” concluded Dr. Paz.