Two CGNA professionals obtained scholarships from CONICYT's postgraduate programs. Two professionals from CGNA obtained postgraduate scholarships from the CONICYT program; both biochemists, Lorena Parra and Humberto Gajardo, who will respectively carry out doctoral and masters studies.

In the framework of the Formation of Advanced Human Capital Program and Scholarships Chile, 191 applicants were selected for postgraduate scholarships, for medical sub-specialty studies, doctoral stays and doctoral overseas co-tutorials. Lorena Parra was awarded the latter by Scholarship Chile 2012, which funds overseas postgraduate studies. Lorena will carry out her postgraduate studies at the University of California at Davis, USA, in the specialty of "Plant Pathology"  (phytopathology) beginning in January 2013.

The realization of this doctoral program will allow for studying molecular interactions between plant and pathogen and the genetic determinants that cause tolerance or susceptibility to diseases caused by specific pathogens. 

"This specialization in plant pathology has allowed me to contribute to the genomic and improvement platform already established in CGNA, incorporating factors of tolerance to diseases in crop improvement. This allows for creating varieties with higher levels of tolerance to pathogens, which is positive both for the competitiveness of the cultivar and for the environment", indicated Lorena Parra.

It should be noted that University of California at Davis is very prestigious at the world level and is among the 20 best universities in the world in agricultural sciences.

In the framework of the 2012 Scholarship Program for Masters Studies in Chile, CONICYT selected 323 individuals from among 2,000 original applicants, which represents an award rate of 18%. Among those who were selected is Humberto Gajardo, who is doing his postgraduate studies in the Program at the Universidad Austral for a Masters degree in Plant Sciences with a major in Plant Improvement.

Humberto will do his thesis in the framework of the FONDECYT project of Dr. Federico Iñiguez of CGNA "Genomic Enrichment Using Micro-Arrays of Sequence Capture of Brassica napus L.: A new focus for the discovery of polymorphism of simple nucleotides (SNP) in regions of the genome that explain characters of agricultural and nutritional importance ".

CGNA's R&D Director, Dr. Haroldo Salvo, together with congratulating the young professionals, indicated "these initiatives for postgraduate studies approved by CONICYT will allow that the innovation that CGNA is developing has continuity over time and that its researchers acquire new tools to respond to agro-food challenges".

The Agriaquaculture Nutritional Genomic Center, CGNA, congratulates Lorena and Humberto for the important accomplishment of being awarded these scholarships that will make their postgraduate studies possible, which will contribute to the development of new knowledge and applications in the Araucania Region.