After developing a new diagnostic method using the polymerase chain reaction—a genetic research technique that had never been applied in Chilean aquaculture—Mlynarz and her advisor, Ana María Sandino, decided to try to commercialize their work. They consulted with numerous producers in Chile’s booming salmon farming industry and eventually founded Diagnotec, a company that offered specialized diagnostic kits for detecting pathogens in salmonids. They opened an office in the Chilean capital of Santiago and, after partnering with other investors, added a branch in Puerto Montt, the heart of the country’s aquaculture sector.

In 2001, when an exotic virus began to afflict Chilean hogs, Mlynarz and Sandino determined that their techniques could also be used with these animals, thereby helping to prevent potentially catastrophic losses to local producers of Serrano ham.

Sandino displays markers visible in a sample of DNA sequencing gel used in Diagnotec's laboratory.

With support from a group of private investors, Mlynarz and Sandino decided to apply for a competitive biotechnology research grant offered by Chile’s Agrarian Innovation Fund under Chile Innova, a Technological Development and Innovation program partly financed by the IDB. They won a US$100,000 grant that enabled them to equip a new laboratory and develop a diagnostic kit for hogs that cost less than many alternatives on the market.

Unexpected payoff. Diagnotec is a typical example of the unexpected payoffs Chile is receiving from growing investments in applied biotechnology research. Beyond benefiting its two founders, Diagnotec has helped to strengthen ties between veterinarians and ham producers while helping to generate greater vigilance regarding swine disease. The company’s diagnostic kits enable producers to detect the virus’s transmission vectors and certify that the finished product is not tainted—all without having to resort to foreign firms.

Diagnotec’s success, along with that of some 1,600 research projects and enterprises supported by Chile’s Technological Development and Innovation Program between 2001 and 2005, is the fruit of a fortunate confluence of political interest in applied research, global advances in genomics, and the availability of highly qualified Chilean scientists. “We got on the genomics train at exactly the right moment,” said Jenny Blamey, manager of the Genome Program within Chile’s National Commission on Scientific and Technological research.

Not long after Ricardo Lagos was elected president of Chile in 2000, he made an official visit to Brazil, where local scientists had just received international acclaim for discoveries in genomics and biotechnology. Conscious of the revolution sparked by the mapping of the human genome, Lagos decided that Chile faced a unique opportunity to accelerate applied research in this field.

Today the Chile Innova program, though small compared to programs in other countries (Brazil invests ten times as much in research and development, for example), is already yielding world-class results that are benefiting the country’s industries.

Competitive funds. “Young people tend to think that their discoveries are only significant within the scientific community,” said Jenny Blamey. “I try to help them understand that knowledge is traded in the marketplace and has commercial value, even if they can’t see the immediate application.” Blamey has become known in Chile for promoting intellectual property rights and the patenting scientific discoveries that in many cases have exceeded initial expectations.

Hence the operating structure of the Chile Innova program, which requires applicants for its competitive grants to form consortia with companies willing to patent and market each innovation with the goal of encouraging scientists to see the commercial potential of their work.

The program solicited proposals for research projects in areas that had been identified as strategic for Chile’s future development in a series of prospective studies. The first study is set out to identify the industrial sectors that could achieve the greatest competitive potential by 2010. By including input from a wide range of experts in both the public and private sectors, the study allowed the government to “imagine the future” and develop a strategic plan based on shared priorities.

“Unlike other countries in Latin America, Chile defined science and technology as a political priority at the highest levels of government,” said Blamey. “We had the scientific and technological capability, and with the IDB’s help we moved into biotechnology and genomics at the right moment. Had we waited any longer, it would have been too late.”

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