Country Profile

Brazil

SYNBIO MAP

SynBio Map identifies and locates companies, universities, research institutions, laboratories and other centers across the globe that are active in the synthetic biology research ("Synthetic biology project"). It is a good tool to compare the development of synthetic biology all around the world. This map was created by the Synthetic Biology Project at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

In Brazil there are three organizations registered on Synbio Map, all located in São Paulo. Two of them at the University of São Paulo (USP), and the third one is on a company.

Source

PARTICIPATION IN THE iGEM COMPETITION

Universities in Brazil has attracted increasingly to participate in iGEM competition. The first team to participate in the competition was the State University of Campinas, in 2009, and by 2012 there were only a Brazilian representative per year. However, this year we already have the presence of four teams in Brazil.

The four Brazilian teams that participate in the competition in 2014 are the University of São Paulo (USP) together with the Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP) and Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar); the second team belongs to the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG); the third to the Federal University of Amazonas; and the latest belongs to the Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE). The University of Pernambuco is the newest member in the group of Brazilian universities, participating for the first time in 2014, while UFAM and UFMG participate for the second time and USP goes to 3rd participation.

BIOTECHNOLOGY INDUSTRY AND FUNDS

The industries of Biotechnology in Brazil are in the growth stage, and the capacity and infrastructure in this area vary from sector to sector. According to a survey conducted in 2011, Biominas identified 143 biotechnology companies (Biominas, 2011). By contrast, the work of BrBiotec (2011) estimates that there are 237 biotech companies, a significantly higher number. Bianchi (2013), in a new survey, divided biotech companies in Brazil in three categories and found 92 companies that are solely engaged in biotechnology, as shown in the figure below: