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En este artículo se defiende la necesidad de que el actor de la ciencia, el científico, disponga de suficiente formación filosófica como para analizar críticamente el alcance de su propia actividad especializada, análisis que debiera empezar por entender qué es eso a lo que llamamos ciencia. Se ejemplifica la necesidad de tal formación recurriendo a la biología sintética. Se muestran los peligros que se corren de la derivación hacia campos no científicos si el científico está imbuido de una ciencia fáustica orientada a la obtención del producto –el ente biológico sintético– disminuyendo veladamente el interés por estudiar el mismo desde la óptica de la ciencia prometeica, aquella que se aproxima progresivamente a la comprensión de los entes vivos.

AbstractThe number of forcibly displaced persons has increased substantially since the early 2000s and has more than doubled in the last decade. Responding to the needs of forcibly displaced persons requires comprehensive legal and policy frameworks and evidence-based programmes that promote durable solutions, including sustainable movements out of poverty and their successful integration into hosting communities. In this paper, we review the dynamics of forced displacement in Colombia, the country with the largest number of internally displaced persons worldwide, and the progression of legal and policy frameworks that have been implemented since the late 1990s. We also review over two decades of research on the economic, social, and psychological consequences of forced displacement following an asset-based poverty trap framework that allows us to understand how forced displacement can alter poverty dynamics across time and generations. Throughout the review, we draw lessons for other contexts and countries affected by forced displacement and refugee flows.

BACKGROUND: The repeats in toxin (Rtx) are an important pathogenicity factor involved in host cells invasion of Legionella pneumophila and other pathogenic bacteria. Its role in escaping the host immune system and cytotoxic activity is well known. Its repeated motives and modularity make Rtx a multifunctional factor in pathogenicity. RESULTS: The comparative analysis of rtx gene among 6 strains of L. pneumophila showed modularity in their structures. Among compared genomes, the N-terminal region of the protein presents highly dissimilar repeats with functionally similar domains. On the contrary, the C-terminal region is maintained with a fashionable modular configuration, which gives support to its proposed role in adhesion and pore formation. Despite the variability of rtx among the considered strains, the flanking genes are maintained in synteny and similarity. CONCLUSION: In contrast to the extracellular bacteria Vibrio cholerae, in which the rtx gene is highly conserved and flanking genes have lost synteny and similarity, the gene region coding for the Rtx toxin in the intracellular pathogen L. pneumophila shows a rapid evolution. Changes in the rtx could play a role in pathogenicity. The interplay of the Rtx toxin with host membranes might lead to the evolution of new variants that are able to escape host cell defences. ; This work has been funded by grant BMC2006-06003 from MEC to AL and by contract with Conselleria de Sanidad of Valencian Government to AM. Nuria Jiménez is recipient of a fellowship from Carlos III and Giuseppe D'Auria has a research contract from CIBERESP. Sequencing was carried out using facilities of the SCSIE from University of Valencia. ; Sí

This paper examines the effects of a government regularization program offered to half a million Venezuelan refugees in Colombia. For this purpose, 2,232 surveys of refugee families were collected and used to compare refugees who arrived in Colombia around a specified eligibility date in 2018. We find that program beneficiaries experienced improvements in consumption (60 percent), income (31 percent), physical and mental health (1.8 sd), registration rates in the system that assesses vulnerability and awards public transfers (40 pp), and financial services (64.3 pp), relative to other refugees. The program also induced a change in labor formalization of 10 pp.

Progressive evolution, or the tendency towards increasing complexity, is a controversial issue in biology, which resolution entails a proper measurement of complexity. Genomes are the best entities to address this challenge, as they encode the historical information of a species' biotic and environmental interactions. As a case study, we have measured genome sequence complexity in the ancient phylum Cyanobacteria. To arrive at an appropriate measure of genome sequence complexity, we have chosen metrics that do not decipher biological functionality but that show strong phylogenetic signal. Using a ridge regression of those metrics against root-to-tip distance, we detected positive trends towards higher complexity in three of them. Lastly, we applied three standard tests to detect if progressive evolution is passive or driven—the minimum, ancestor– descendant, and sub-clade tests. These results provide evidence for driven progressive evolution at the genome-level in the phylum Cyanobacteria. ; Generalitat Valenciana Prometeo/2018/A/133 ; European Union (EU) ; Fulbright fellowship (Spanish Minister of Science, Innovation and Universities) ; SAF2015-65878-R ; AGL2017-88702-C2-2-R ; PGC2018-099344-B-I00

An increased risk of developing colorectal cancer (CRC) and other types of tumor is associated to Lynch syndrome (LS), an inherited condition caused by germline mutations in mismatch repair genes. We selected a cohort of LS patients that had developed CRC and had undergone surgical resection. Formalin-fixed paraffin embedded (FFPE) tissue blocks from matched colorectal and normal mucosa were used for genomic DNA extraction with a commercial kit and sequenced by high-throughput sequencing. A metagenomic approach enabled the taxonomic and functional identification of the microbial community and associated genes detected in the specimens. Slightly lower taxonomic diversity was observed in the tumor compared to the non-tumor tissue. Furthermore, the most remarkable differences between tumors and healthy tissue was the significant increase in the genus Fusobacterium in the former, in particular the species F. nucleatum, as well as Camplylobacter or Bacteroides fragilis, in accordance with previous studies of CRC. However, unlike prior studies, the present work is not based on directed detection by qPCR but instead uses a metagenomic approach to retrieve the whole bacterial community, and addresses the additional difficulty of using long-term stored FFPE samples. ; We want to particularly acknowledge the patients and the Biobank IBSP-CV (PT17/0015/0017) integrated in the Spanish National Biobanks Network and in the Valencian Biobanking Network, especially A. Ahicart, D. Molina and J. Martínez, for their collaboration. This research was funded by grants to AM from the Fundación Científica de la Asociación Española contra el Cancer (project AECC 2017-1485), including a post-doctoral contract to VPB first and to SRR later. GD is recipient of a PhD fellowship from the Junta Asociada Provincial de Valencia AECC. Action co-financed by the European Union through the Operational Program of European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) of Valencia Region (Spain) 2014-2020. ; Peer reviewed