March 5 , 2010. Updated March 12; April 21.
We regret to inform that several of the labs belonging to the CGC have
been severely damaged by the high magnitude earthquake that affected
central and southern Chile last Saturday, Feb, 27th. Specifically, the
labs of CGC Director Miguel Allende and Investigators Verónica
Palma and Alvaro Glavic, whose labs are located at the Facultad de
Ciencias, Universidad de Chile, suffered significant damage and loss of
equipment and materials (see photos here).
Besides the physical impact caused by falling, there was flooding due
to a broken water main which further increased the damage. Losses are
estimated in the hundreds of thousands of dollars and work will likely
be interrupted for weeks or perhaps longer. More seriously,
irreplaceable reagents, stocks, samples and experiments were lost.
We are not the only developmental biology labs affected by this catastrophe. Our colleagues in Concepción (e.g., Sylvain Marcellini, Marcela Torrejón, Juan Olate) and others in Santiago (Alexander Vargas, Ariel Reyes) were similarly affected and have also sustained significant losses (see this document describing the damage in Sylvain Marcellini's lab at the Universidad de Concepción). Developmental biology in Chile is a growing and vibrant discipline; over the past few years, they have become one of the most significant and productive groups in this area within the Latin American region.A large investment in these groups had been made both with the support of Chilean government funds and international grants. We express our solidarity with these investigators and we call on the international community of developmental biologists to come to the aid of these labs. Several Societies (SDB, ISDB, LASDB) have already taken action.
HOW TO HELP
A large number of colleagues around the world have offered to help with
the replacement of lost equipment and by hosting CGC students in their
labs until the situation is normalized. We sincerely thank all of these
generous offers for assistance in these difficult times. Anyone wishing
to collaborate should coordinate with the Vice-rector for Research at
the Universidad de Chile, Dr. Daniel Wolff. We know that efforts are
being made in Europe, the US, Japan and Australia already, so it would
be ideal to coordinate among the different donating institutions or
individuals. We are exploring ways in which to finance transport of such materials and therefore, this should not be a concern to donor institutions or individuals. Please contact Miguel
Allende regarding these matters.
To provide an idea of the type of equipment that needs to be replaced,
we have compiled a list of the principal items that were lost or
seriously damaged (for many, we still don’t know the cost of
repairing them to determine whether it is worthwhile to do so):
Fluorescence Dissecting scope, (Olympus MVX10 with 4 filter sets, 1X
and 2X objectives)
Digital camera for microscopy (Leica DFC300FX)
Zeiss Fluorescence microscope
Laminar flow hood for cell culture
Cell culture CO2 incubator
Inverted microscope for cell culture use
Dissecting scope with teaching oculars (Leica)
3 dissecting scopes for microinjection of embryos
Light sources for dissection microscopes
Tabletop refrigerated centrifuge, rotors OK (Beckman)
Eppendorf Centrifuge
Analytical balance and pH meter
Gel documentation system with digital camera
3 pressure microinjectors (2 MMPI, 1 Narshige) with micromanipulators
Culture flask shaker
PCR machine (Perkin Elmer)
Capillary glass puller (Narshige)
Power supply and gel chambers (agarose and acrylamide)
There is a large number of miscellaneous smaller items that are typical
of developmental biology labs, but that are more likely to be replaced
locally.
We will try to expand this list to include the needs of the other Chilean developmental biologists that were similarly affected. We are also trying to establish a monetary fund to receive cash donations and we will try to make this information available as soon as possible. For now, it is possible to make cash donations in the U. S. through the Society for Developmental Biology (SDB); contact is Ida Chow. In Europe, coordination is being carried out by Roberto Mayor at UCL, London.
We thank all of our friends around the world for their words of
encouragement and material support.
Miguel Allende
CGC Director
UPDATE APRIL 21.
The CGC Director has met with officials at the NIH in Bethesda, MD and the State Department in Washington DC. In both instances, pledges for assistance to Chilean scientists in need were generoulsy offered.The initiative of Chilean postdocs at NIH has also made possible the donation of surplus equipment. For more information, write the Director.