UNIVERSIDAD DE CHILE

FACULTAD DE MEDICINA
 
 

BACKGROUND

The University of Chile authorities have felt as a duty to educate individuals and offer the necessary know-how to evaluate environmental impact and to determine levels and parameters of environmental quality. Our University also try to put the issue of protection of natural and cultural resources of Chile at the same priority level as economic development.

In this framework the school of Medicine created by the end of 1996 the Environmental research center (CIMAB) which originally conveyed 22 active research lines from different disciplines: basic, preclinical,clinical and epidemiological sciences. Being part of a Faculty of Medicine, the research was mainly focused on the effects on human health and biological systems of contaminants present in the environment (air, water, soil and foods).

GENERAL OBJECTIVES OF THE CENTER

1.- To generate interdisciplinary research teams for studying the effects of the environment on the human health.

2.- To generate specialists and professionals for studying the relationship environment - human health (graduate and undergraduate programs).

3.- To set up a highly qualified national team with the necessary expertise in order to give adequate guidelines to the Chilean Society in regards to environmental issues perceived as a risk factors for the human health.

RESEARCH AREAS

I. AIR POLLUTION: atmospheric and indoor pollution.

II. ADAPTATION TO EXTREME ENVIRONMENTS: high altitude, antarctic conditions and diving.

III. PLAGUICIDES ANS SOLVENTS: paraquat, malathion, neoprene, DDT, lindane.

IV. UV RADIATION: effects on skin and vision; measurement of UV radiation in Chilean zones

affected by the stratospheric ozone layer thinness.

V. HEAVY METALS: Effects of arsenic and lead on reproductive system. Risk of lung urinary

bladder and kidney cancer in Chilean population exposed to arsenic (Antofagasta). Copper effects

on CNS.

VI. MARINE TOXINS: Cellular physiology in dynoflagelates (cellular cycle,stress adaptation

and ionic channels). Chemistry and biochemistry of ficotoxins.
 

STRUCTURE OF THE CENTER

Director: Manuel Oyarzún, Professor of Pathophysiology and Medicine

(Email: moyarzun@machi.med.uchile.cl).

Council: Professors Claus Behn, Sergio Cabrera, Lionel Gil, Néstor Lagos, Néstor Montesinos, Paulina Pino, Manuel Ruz and Andrei Tchernitchin.

Collaborators: Marta Adonis, Carlos Irarrázabal and Nina Lapin.

The Center is constituited by the faculty members who are participating in the diverse research lines on the effects of environment on human health.
 
 

FACILITIES

The headquarter offices of the center are located at the main Faculty of Medicine building, but its research laboratories and units are spread on the different academic units at the five geographical subdivisions of The Faculty of Medicine.