The Mexican Society of Biochemistry

(a short historical summary)

In the summer of 1956, several mexican biochemists were carrying out research at the University of Wisconsin in order to obtain their Ph.D. degrees: Guillermo Soberón, Edmundo Calva, Jesús Kumate, Graciela Delhumeau, Carlos Gitler, and Mario García-Hernández. When their return to Mexico was approaching, Guillermo Soberón realized it was important to get the few mexican biochemists together, in order to discuss and to exchange ideas and resources. Several other researchers were already working in Mexico, including Barbarín Arreguín and Carlos del Río (at the pharmaceutical company Syntex), Guillermo Massieu and Raúl Ondarza (at the Institute of Biology at UNAM), José Laguna (at the School of Medicine at UNAM), Guillermo Carvajal (at the National Polythecnic Institute), and Edmundo Téllez-Girón (at the State University of San Luis Potosí). Once back in Mexico, Dr. Soberón organized a course of Biochemistry for the medical doctors that were working at the Hospital of Nutrition-related Maladies. Contacts were established between the mexican biochemists, and on July 1st, 1957, in the same hospital, the Mexican Society of Biochemistry was officially founded. Joaquín Cravioto, Jesús Guzmán, Silvestre Frenk, and Efraín Pardo, in addition to the above-mentioned researchers, were also founding members of the society. In less than 50 years, from its fifteen original members, the society has increased its membership to more than 550 members, reflecting the parallel growth of scientific institutions in Mexico which are dedicated to research. Almost 50 years later, the Mexican Society of Biochemistry is an active association, which attracts new members every year, specially several graduate students and young researchers who come back to their country after their postdoctoral training periods. In November 2006 the Society celebrated its XXVI Biochemistry Congress at Guanajuato-Guanajuato, in the center of Mexico. A total of 872 scientific papers were delivered, including four plenary lectures, 23 lectures in plenary symposia, 90 presentations in simultaneous symposia, and 800 posters. More than 1200 students and researchers attended this meeting. The next Congress will take place on November, 2008.

Researchers from abroad that have been invited to deliver a plenary lecture at a National Congress of Biochemistry (1963-2004):

Stephen Cederbaum - David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA, USA (2004)

Tamas Balla - NICHD, National Institutes of Health, USA (2004)

Ethel Cesarman - Weill Medical College of Cornell University, USA (2004)

David Valle - The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA (2002)

Adrián Ferré-d'Amaré - Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, USA (2002)

Thomas D. Fox - Cornell University, USA (2002)

Carlos Gitler - Weizmann Institute of Sciences, Israel (2002)

Gerald H. Pollack - University of Washington, USA (2002)

Mauricio Montal - University of California at San Diego, CA, USA (2000)

Enrique Brandan - Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile (2000)

Enrique Rodríguez Boulan - Cornell University Medical College, NY, USA (1994)

Hagai Rottenberg - Hahnemann University, Philadelphia, Pa, USA (1994)

William L. Crosby - Plant Biotechnol Inst (NRC), Saskatoon, Canada (1994)

Joan Massagué - Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, NY, USA (1992)

Margarita Salas - Centro de Biología Molecular, Univ Autónoma de Madrid, Spain (1992)

Carlos López Otin - Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Oviedo, Spain (1992)

Francisco García Olmedo - ETS Ing Agrónomos-UPM, Madrid, Spain (1992)

David D. Sabatini - New York University School of Medicine, NY, USA (1992)

Lutz Birnbaumer - Baylor College of Medicine, TX, USA (1992)

Michael P. Walsh - Dep of Medical Biochem, Univ of Calgari, Canada (1992)

Alec J. Jeffreys - Department of Genetics, University of Leicester, UK (1992)

Leopoldo de Meis - Universidade Federal do Río de Janeiro, Brazil (1992)

Richard R. Burgess - Univ of Wisconsin Biotechnol Center, Madison, USA (1990)

Gary Schoolnik - Dept of Microbiol and Immunol, Stanford Univ, CA, USA (1990)

Philip Cohen - Dept of Biochem, University of Dundee, Scotland, UK (1990)

Margarita Salas - Centro de Biología Molecular, Univ Autónoma de Madrid, Spain (1990)

Mark W. Bitensky - Los Alamos National Laboratory, USA (1990)

Ronald Davis - Department of Biochemistry, Stanford University, CA, USA (1988)

R. Oelmüller - Carnegie Institution of Washington, Stanford, CA, USA (1988)

Jean Montreuil - Lab de Chimie Biologique, Université des Sciences et Techniques de Lille Flandres-Artois, Villeneuve d'Ascq, France (1988)

Finn Wold - The University of Texas Medical School, Houston, TX, USA (1988)

Robert K. Poole - Dept of Microbiology, King´s College, London, UK (1986)

Alton Meister - Cornell University Medical College, New York, USA (1986)

Geoffrey M. Cooper - Dept of Pathol, Harvard Med School, Boston, USA (1986)

Louis Sokoloff - Lab of Cerebral Metabolism, NIH, Bethesda, MD, USA (1986)

Joan Massagué - Univ of Massachussets Medical School, Worcester, USA (1986)

Michael G. Rossman - Dept of Biological Sciences, Purdue University, IN, USA (1986)

Mauricio Montal - Dept of Biol and Biophys, Univ of California at San Diego, CA, USA (1984)

Clinton Ballou - Dept of Biochem, University of California at Berkeley, CA, USA (1984)

Jaime Pallau - President of Spanish Society of Biochemistry (1984)

Anthony Cerami - Rockefeller University, NY, USA (1982)

Leopoldo de Meis - Universidade Federal do Río de Janeiro, Río de Janeiro, Brazil (1982)

Julius Axelrod - National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, MD, USA (1982)

J.R. Warner - Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY, USA (1982)

M. Sherman - Department of Cell Biology, Roche Institute of Molecular Biology, Nutley, New Jersey, USA (1980)

Philip P. Cohen - Department of Physiological Chemistry, University of Wisconsin, Wisconsin, USA (1963)

J.E. Sokal - Department of Medicine, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, USA (1963)

For further information, please contact us at: infosmb@ifc.unam.mx