Scientist from Acayucan is one of the ten young scientists in Latin America

Doctor Noe Baruch Torres, a native of southern Veracruz and a graduate of the Higher Technological Institute of Acayucan (ES UNA), has been awarded the Pew Latin American Fellow in Biomedical Sciences 2022 by The Pew Charitable Trusts, an independent non-governmental non-profit organization founded in 1948 in the United States, with more than 6 billion dollars in assets and with the stated mission to serve the public interest by “improving public policy, informing the public, and invigorating civic life.”

Noe Baruch Torres studied biochemical engineering at the ES UNAand is part of the interest group of the same career within the Acayucan campus of the National Technological Institute of Mexico.

The Pew Charitable Trusts officially approved the 10 best young scientists from Latin America who will do postdoctoral studies in leading laboratories in the United States.

In order to win this important recognition, Noe had to write a scientific research proposal together with the documents that support his awards, distinctions and scientific studies that he has and thus submit it for evaluation before the regional committee in Mexico. After an exhaustive evaluation, Noe was invited to an interview along with other candidates, where he presented the research proposal to the evaluation committee as part of stage 2. After a difficult decision, Noe obtained the pass to the grand final along with the other finalists from the Americas.

In the final round, the top 10 candidates from Latin America were selected by a US-based advisory committee made up of world-renowned scientists, including award spokesperson Professor Eva Nogales of the University of California UC Berkeley and Professor Edward De Robertis of the University of California at Los Angeles.

The Pew Latin American Fellows program enables these early-career Latin American scientists to train in the best laboratories in the United States and develop skills and connections that will help them become scientific leaders in their home countries. While in the United States, they receive all the support and infrastructure they will need during their two years of postdoctoral training and earn an additional award if they return to their home countries at the end of their stay. More than 70 percent of fellows have used this incentive to establish their own laboratories in Latin America.

While at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas, Noe is doing research in Professor MD’s lab. PhD. Yuhui Whitney Yin, a renowned scientist in the field of DNA replication, who worked with 2009 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry Thomas Steitz.

Noe’s research focuses on biochemically and structurally studying the proteins responsible for synthesizing new copies of DNA in the mitochondria and thus being able to understand the molecular causes of human diseases such as cardiomyopathy, cellular aging, muscular dystrophies, among others.

The Pew Latin American Fellows program began in 1991 and operates in conjunction with the Pew Scholars Program in Biomedical Sciences, which has fostered innovation in scientific careers since 1985. The Fellows program has invested in more than 200 young scientists from across the region, including postdoctoral researchers from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela.