Genomics in Latin America: Reaching the Frontiers

When an undergraduate student in science from Latin America is asked about career goals, the answer will probably invoke dreams of using cutting-edge technologies to investigate the frontiers of science. For these students, the realities of life in their countries almost always reduce their options for achieving this goal to only one: Emigrate to a developed country. Although many of these countries produce numerous international scientific papers relative to their small research budget (Macilwain 1999a), their access to the latest-generation technology is fairly limited. This is particularly true in the field of genomics, in which the need for automated, high-throughput equipment raises the cost even more. However, when done wisely, genomics research and development has proven to be an affordable reality for developing countries.