Facultad de Química y Biología

The Chilean aquaculture industry faces ongoing productivity challenges, including emerging viral diseases that severely impact fish health and cause significant production losses.

To provide innovative solutions, the University of Santiago de Chile (Usach) executed the Fondef IT project: “Validation of a Prototype Vaccine Against Piscine Reovirus 1 (PRV-1)", demonstrating a pilot recombinant vaccine's protective potential in Atlantic salmon. The study was led by researchers Dr. Marcelo Cortez (Faculty of Chemistry and Biology) and Dr. Yesseny Vásquez (Faculty of Medical Sciences).

Plastic has become an omnipresent material in daily life—found in food packaging, water bottles, and utensils—yet scientific researchers warn that toxic chemical components in these plastics pose significant long-term health risks.

A primary example is bisphenol A (BPA), a toxic chemical compound linked to severe disruptions in immune, neurological, and endocrine systems. Due to these health risks, BPA regulations and usage restrictions have been implemented internationally, including in Chile.

The University of Santiago de Chile (USACH) has officially inaugurated a state-of-the-art Liquid Nitrogen Plant at its Faculty of Chemistry and Biology. Attended by university leadership, the ceremony marked the launch of a cryogenic facility that stands as a unique technological milestone in Latin America.

This modern plant will supply the essential cryogenic resources needed to support safe scientific research, advanced experimentation, and high-precision sample preservation across the entire institution.

Extremophiles from Antarctica and the Atacama Desert will travel to the International Space Station (ISS) on April 8 to study their biological adaptation to microgravity and high-radiation conditions inside the station.

A severe ISAV outbreak plunged the Chilean salmon industry into crisis in 2007. With mortality rates up to 90% across hundreds of farms, 60% of operations halted production. This led to widespread layoffs and losses, directly and indirectly affecting more than 100,000 people.

Since mid-April, Danilo Átila, a master’s student in Food Science and Technology at the Federal University of Goiás (Brazil), has been doing a research internship at the Polymer Laboratory of the Faculty of Chemistry and Biology, under the guidance of Dr. Paula Zapata, thanks to full funding from his university.

As a guest student until September, his time at Usach is part of his master’s program in Chemistry. He chose Usach due to the prestige and proven track record of both the university and the academic overseeing his work in Chile.

A group of students and academics from Arturo Prat University conducted a research stay as part of the FOVI 240220 project, “Applications of Advanced Materials in Sustainable Renewable Energy and Innovations in Water Treatment: a collaboration between Arturo Prat University (UNAP), the University of Santiago de Chile (Usach), and the University of Saskatchewan (Canada).

To advance scientific collaboration between Brazil and Chile, Dr. Robinson Cruz, Research Manager at Brazil’s Hercílio Randon Institute (IHR), visited the Electroceramic Materials Laboratory at the Faculty of Chemistry and Biology, led by Dr. Domingo Ruiz.

For over a century, optical microscopy was bound by a seemingly unbreakable law: Ernst Abbe’s diffraction limit. Formulated in 1873, this principle dictated that no microscope could resolve details smaller than half the wavelength of light—roughly 200 nanometers. This "physical barrier" effectively veiled the finest inner workings of the cell from human sight.

The Second International AlQui (Alginate-Chitosan) Workshop, held at the Faculty of Chemistry and Biology during the last week of May, brought together the public sector and scientific researchers currently working in the field.