̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - Peru

Young leaders from UK and Latin America tackle future at Shaping Horizons

plc32 — Wed, 11 Sep 2019 12:18:09 +0000

They will explore how emerging technologies like those underpinning genomics, artificial intelligence, clean energy, and smart cities can be used and regulated to create a more equitable and sustainable global community as well as how to encourage sustainable leadership across disciplines and move beyond traditional diplomacy to address global challenges like climate change and social inequalities.

Shaping Horizons 2019 is a Summit and Action Programme rooted in science, policy, and innovation and will strengthen ties and build relationships between young Future Leaders and Senior Leaders from the UK and Latin America. ̽��ֱ��delegates have been selected from across academia, industry, and government.

Professor David Cardwell, FREng, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Strategy and Planning at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, welcomed delegates at the start of the Summit on behalf of the ̽��ֱ��.

“On every front, the ̽��ֱ�� has been and continues to be engaged with Latin America, including the pleasure of hosting this fantastic summit, Shaping Horizons, where the mission is to empower and promote youth, create networks and to drive change,” Cardwell said.

̽��ֱ��week will culminate with the Future Leaders pitching for prize money to support their own innovative social impact projects they have developed through mentorship and learning during the Summit.

Winners will be supported in further developing and launching their projects through the Action Programme which will follow on from the Summit.

Nigel Baker, OBE MVO, Head of the Latin America Department at the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office told delegates that all their ideas would help shape the future.

“Shaping Horizons is absolutely driven by the sense of entrepreneurship, innovation, and ideas of the young people involved. It is going to be fascinating to see the proposals that are coming out,” Baker said.

“There are 24 different teams and there are going to be some spectacular proposals and ideas. Some will win prizes, some will not, but I suspect that all of those ideas are going to be applicable in the future.”

Shaping Horizons is a non-profit initiative organised at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge with the support of the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs, and the Cambridge Hub of Global Shapers Community, which is an initiative of the World Economic Forum.

Shaping Horizons was founded by Dr Matias Acosta, a UK-Canada Fellow at the Centre for Science and Policy, and Theo Lundberg, a NanoDTC PhD Student in the Department of Physics.

“Shaping Horizons was founded to promote sustainability using global, cross-disciplinary cooperation as our driving force,” Acosta said.

“We are a team of 40 undergraduates and academics from across more than 20 departments from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge bringing this initiative forward. Our goal is to build a shared and sustainable future between Latin America and the UK.

"We will be providing more than £30,000 in support for cooperative bilateral projects and also have designed a continuous mentorship programme to maximize the chance of success of each of the ideas.”

More than 100 future leaders from the UK and Latin America have gathered at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge to discuss the future of work and education in an increasingly global digital era at this year’s Shaping Horizons summit.

Shaping Horizons was founded to promote sustainability using global, cross-disciplinary cooperation as our driving force.

Shaping Horizons founder Dr Matias Acosta

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Rainforest remedy could spell end of dental pain

sjr81 — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 14:40:18 +0000

̽��ֱ��remedy, made from an Amazonian plant species from varieties of Acmella Oleracea and turned into a gel for medical use, has proved hugely successful during the first two phases of clinical trials and may hasten the end of current reliance on local anaesthetics in dental use and Non-Steroid Anti-Inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs) in specific applications.

Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� anthropologist Dr Françoise Barbira Freedman, the first westerner to be invited to live with the Keshwa Lamas in Amazonian Peru, is leading efforts to bring this wholly natural painkiller to the global marketplace as an organic alternative to synthetic painkillers.

In doing so, the company she founded, Ampika Ltd (a spin-out from Cambridge Enterprise, the ̽��ֱ��’s commercialisation arm) will be run according to strict ethical guidelines, and will be able to channel a percentage of any future profits back to the Keshwa Lamas community who agreed to share their expertise with her.

With no known side-effects during the past five years of Phase I and II trials, Dr Freedman, who has continued to visit and live among the Keshwa Lamas over the past 30 years, is confident the stringent Phase III trials (multi-location trials across a diverse population mix) will be the final hurdle to clear. If successful, Ampika’s plan is to bring the product to market in 2014/15.

She said: “ ̽��ֱ��story began in 1975 when I first went to live among the indigenous people of Peru. We were trekking through the rainforest and I was having terrible trouble with my wisdom teeth. One of the men with me noticed and prepared a little wad of plants to bite onto. ̽��ֱ��pain went away. When it came back a few hours later, he had foreseen the need and kept plant material in his hunters’ bag for me.

“I forgot all about the wisdom teeth problem for many years until Cambridge-based neuroscientist Dr Mark Treherne asked me to bring some medicinal plant samples back in order to test them for neurological research. Almost as an afterthought I remembered to include the one I’d used on my teeth. It was added to the bottom of the list, but somehow the list got reversed and it was the first one tested back in the UK. It was immediately successful and we’ve never looked back.

“During the time I have spent with the Keshwa Lamas I’ve learnt all about the different plants and leaves they use for everyday illnesses and ailments. I first went to Peru as a young researcher hoping to learn more about what was a secretive community who were experts in shamanism. Along the way I’ve learnt a great deal about natural medicines and remedies; everything from toothache to childbirth.”

“This treatment for toothache means we could be looking at the end of some injections in the dentist’s surgery. We’ve had really clear result from the tests so far, particularly for peridodontological procedures such as root scaling and planing, and there are many other potential applications. ̽��ֱ��native forest people described to me exactly how the medicine could and should work and they were absolutely right. There are a range of mucous tissue applications it could benefit, and may even help bowel complaints such as IBS (irritable bowel syndrome).”

̽��ֱ��Keshwa Lamas remedy represents the first clinical trial of a natural product in Peru using the International Convention of Clinical Trials, of which Peru is a signatory, the gold-standard for clinical trials that is recognised across the Pacific and Atlantic regions.

Dr Freedman, who will visit the Peruvian community again in the coming weeks, has already been able to channel some early funding to the Keshwa Lama to help in the creation of a medicinal plant garden to conserve plants and plant knowledge related to women’s health and maternity care – with the express aim of preserving wisdom for future generations.

She added: “We think the remedy is better than current treatments because NSAID drugs are systemic and have long-term effects; the plant product is not systemic and does not have any known side-effects. We think people prefer to use natural products and this is particularly the case for baby teething – for which, to my knowledge, there is no clinically tested natural alternative.”

̽��ֱ��dentists who carried out the Phase 2 trial reported a high level of satisfaction among their patients who disliked injections and did not need to use painkillers after the periodontological procedures.

There was also a higher rate of patient return for further appointments than average for the group with which the plant gel was used. ̽��ֱ��gel works by blocking nerve endings (sodium channel pathways).

Ampika has a portfolio of plant-based drug development, particularly related to women’s health conditions and Type 2 diabetes, which it hopes to develop in the coming years.

An ancient Incan toothache remedy – for centuries handed down among an indigenous people in the rainforests of Peru – could be on the cusp of revolutionising worldwide dental practice.

During the time I have spent with the Keshwa Lamas I’ve learnt all about the different plants and leaves they use for everyday illnesses and ailments.

Dr Françoise Barbira Freedman

̽��ֱ��plant used in the rainforest remedy

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'Extreme Sleepover #4’ - religious fervour and fireworks in the Peruvian Andes

bjb42 — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 09:00:49 +0000

I’m on my way to Cocharcas, a town in the southern Peruvian Andes. As I bump along in a crowded minivan, I run through some questions in my head. They relate to my research into local cults and pilgrimage and they explain why I am here. ̽��ֱ��biggest question is: how can we explain the fact that a religion so alien to the Andes as Catholicism became so popular, to the point that today it is held as a marker of the region’s identity?

Legend has it that in the late 16^th century a humble man travelled from his native Cocharcas to the shores of Lake Titicaca, about 500 miles away, to acquire a replica of Our Lady of Copacabana, a famed Marian devotion, and took it back to his hometown. Shortly after arriving in Cocharcas, the icon began to display beneficial powers and soon the locals made it into their patroness. Thus was born Our Lady of Cocharcas. In the 17th century Jesuit missionaries promoted the cult, and encouraged their parishioners to build a magnificent church, so large that it dwarfs the surrounding buildings. For centuries, pilgrims from different corners of Peru have arrived every year to celebrate Our Lady’s birthday on 8 September.

̽��ֱ��road to Cocharcas is dusty and narrow. ̽��ֱ��driver stops at a small restaurant where we have a quick bowl of soup. It is imperative to arrive before nightfall because the vigil held on the eve of the festival is one of the most important parts of the event. Cocharcas has a couple of modest restaurants and no hotel. ̽��ֱ��town is crowded and a banner reminds visitors that drinking is prohibited. Lack of alcohol, in combination with the religious fervor, might explain the peaceful atmosphere. People congregate in the church to see the image of Our Lady; a tiny statue with rosy cheeks and long, curly hair, dressed in richly embroidered clothes and sitting atop a portable altar decorated with dozens of energy-saving light bulbs.

Tomorrow the image will be paraded around the plaza. Today nuns and priests take turns leading the crowd in prayers, intended to have a reciprocal effect: Mother of God, pray for us. A succession of masses in the local language, Quechua, runs until midnight. Outside, brass bands play regional music as troupes of dancers perform in honor of Our Lady. A group of artisans finishes preparing the fireworks: no religious feast in the Andes is conceivable without them; people inspect the tower in the main plaza, trying to figure out what will be on display this year.

Pilgrims visit the small chapels housing miniature replicas of the revered image, and light candles, symbolising their requests to Our Lady: health, money, a job, the ease of pain and suffering. Mother of God, pray for us. Though it’s not late, many people get ready to sleep. I quickly reserve a spot on the grassy and crowded churchyard. I watch the sky as I hold on to the small rucksack containing my few possessions, and try to sleep surrounded by strangers.

I am awoken by what sounds like thunder and lightning, but I soon realise that it’s the sound of fireworks. ̽��ֱ��church bells toll furiously, the bands play, the crowd in the church prays harder, and the multitude in the plaza starts singing...Happy Birthday! It’s midnight. It’s the Nativity of the Virgin all have come to celebrate. ̽��ֱ��sacred, I think, is perhaps at the crossroads of the trivial and this intense, universal excitement. It is manifest in this overwhelming sense of wonder, in this thundering way of expressing hope. I feel closer to understanding why so many people undertake the long, difficult journey to this place: I am so happy to be here.

Dr Gabriela Ramos

Gabriela Ramos is Lecturer in the Faculty of History and a Fellow of Newnham College. Her present research concerns the history of sacred places and ritual in the colonial and modern Andes.

In the fourth of a series of reports contributed by Cambridge researchers, historian Dr Gabriela Ramos travels to a village high in the Andes to taste the heady mix of worship and wonder that surrounds a regional festival honouring the Virgin Mary.

̽��ֱ��church bells toll furiously, the bands play, the crowd in the church prays harder, and the multitude in the plaza starts singing...Happy Birthday! It’s midnight. It’s the Nativity of the Virgin all have come to celebrate.

Dr Gabriela Ramos

Gabriela Ramos

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