Seville, 2/6/2010. Miguel Ángel de la Rosa, Director of the Centro de Investigaciones Científicas Isla de la Cartuja, participated today in the program ‘El Meridiano’, broadcasted by Canal Sur Televisión. In this talk show and interviews, the Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology answered questions on current scientific issues, such as, for example, the budget cuts that are affecting research projects in 2010. Regarding this issue, De la Rosa commented that “the way out of the crisis is through determined support for research and the change towards a new economic model”, based on “training, competitiveness and scientific progress”, and he regretted that “in lean times” investment in science is not at least maintained.

In this sense, the director of cicCartuja has defended the model of commitment proposed in the State Pact for Science and has referred to the new Science Act, which is in parliamentary proceedings. On the other hand, De la Rosa assessed the situation of research in Andalusia, pointing out that it has a “considerable level, with an important critical mass and leading groups”. However, he objected that both in Spain and in Andalusia, despite the efforts made in recent decades, the scientific “environment” and public and private support are insufficient: “The level of public investment in Spain is still lower than the European average. But, again, the great deficit of investment in Spain comes from private enterprise. I believe that we have to convince businessmen of the long-term profitability of investing in research”.

Lastly, Miguel Ángel de la Rosa has positively estimated the advances being made in biomedicine in recent years, as one of the most important fields in which biochemistry and molecular biology are working, apart from others such as agriculture.In this aspect, he highlighted the progress of pharmaco-genomics and personalized treatments to fight against diseases such as cancer, Alzheimer’s disease or Parkinson’s disease.Finally, the interview ended with an allusion to the genetic project led by Craig Venter, whose results “open up a whole field in which there is a great future and where scientists have a lot to say”.However, he pointed out that with this research “a synthetic cell has not been created out of nothing.What has been done is simply a transgenesis”.