Perú

Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia (UPCH)

Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia (UPCH) is the premier biomedical sciences university and research center in Peru and a recognized leader in Latin America, leading all but one of the 28 currently active NIH grants in Peru according to the NIH Reporter. UPCH world-class global health research generates unique mentored research training opportunities for prospective fellows on emerging, infectious, tropical and non-communicable diseases, maternal and child health, sexual and reproductive health, mental health, substance use/abuse, climate change and one health.

UPCH has had decades of productive research collaborations with multiple UC campuses such as with UCLA/UCSF on HIV/AIDS/STDs (Coates, Kegeles, Clark & Konda), malaria with UCSD (Winzeler & Vinetz) and One Health and emerging diseases with UC Davis (Foley), among many others. NIH research grants support most of this work, and efforts are complemented with multiple D43 training grants on both non-communicable and HIV/non-HIV infectious diseases, and also fellowship grants.

UPCH has field, clinical, laboratory, computational and animal experimentation facilities spread across Peru’s mega-diverse ecological regions: the Amazon Basin, highlands up to 22,000 feet and 2400 kilometers of Pacific coast. Additional world-class resources and assets are brought by a broad network of Peruvian and foreign partners including among many others the US Naval Medical Research Unit No. 6 (NAMRU-6), Asociación Civil Vía Libre and Universidad Nacional de la Amazonía.

UPCH fellows can attend on-site or virtual coursework on research methods, biostatistics, epidemiology, bioethics and responsible conduct of research, in addition to Epidemiology master’s and doctorates, programs mostly developed by a longstanding NIH D43 training grant. Highly-capable institutional and GloCal-dedicated research administration teams support our activities. All research follows rigorous, Peruvian Ministry of Health-approved COVID-19 biosafety protocols.

Site contact: Dr. Andrés G. (Willy) Lescano

Universidad Católica San Pablo: Neuroscience Lab

Universidad Católica San Pablo (UCSP) is an academic community located in Arequipa, Peru. It is inspired by the orientations and life of the Catholic Church, which seeks the truth and promotes the formation of the whole person through activities such as research, teaching and extension.

In research, UCSP has financed more than 40 projects and more than 45 have been also financed by other institutions and programs such as CONCYTEC (National Council of Science and Technology), “Innóvate Perú” and the Erasmus+ Program of the European Union. As a result of the research work, approximately 300 research papers have been published.

Currently, researchers at UCSP’s Neuroscience in collaboration with researchers from University of California of San Francisco (UCSF), are working to validate the Tablet-based Cognitive Assessment Tool (TabCat) in preclinical dementia phases in older people with low educational levels. Researchers Drs. Marcio Soto and Nilton Custodio are the project’s mentors and Dr. Serggio Lanata from UCSF is the project’s coordinator.

UCSP Neuroscience Lab offers research opportunities in: 1) validating brief cognitive tests in preclinical and clinical phases of dementia in people with low educational level or illiterates; 2) neurophysiological biomarkers in pre-clinical phases of dementia with EEG; 3) genetic and environmental risk factors for dementia and 4) machine learning approach to characterize and predict neurodegenerative diseases with multimodal data (clinical, behavioral, neuroimaging and socio-economic factors). Study sites include several cities in southern Peru and rural areas of Arequipa.

Facilities include space for doctoral and postdoctoral students and state-of-the-art technological equipment to formulate experiments, analyze data, and prepare manuscripts for publication. Furthermore, the lab has a Gesell camera and behavioral evaluating rooms for clinical and research purpose and an exclusive room for neurophysiological recordings with an EEG of 64 active electrodes channels.

UCSP Neuroscience Lab’s vision is to promote an interdisciplinary approach to cognitive, behavioral and emotional well-being in southern Peru, through mentoring and research training programs. Its purpose is to actively develop world-class research projects with the purpose of solving scientific and societal problems that affect us all, especially the elderly in Peru and Latin America.

Site Contact: Dr. Marcio Soto