memoranda: history of the teaching of biochemistry in mexico
TRANSCRIPT
Feature
Memoranda: History of the Teaching of Biochemistry in Mexico
Federico Martinez and Enrique PinaDepartamento de Bioquımica, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Mexico City, Mexico
Abbreviations BEB, Bulletin of Biochemical Education; CINVES-
TAV, Center for Research and Higher Studies; CON-
ACYT, National Council of Science and Technology;
ENCB, National School of Biological Sciences; FM,
Faculty of Medicine; IFC, Institute of Cell Physiol-
ogy; IPN, National Polytechnic Institute; REB, Jour-
nal of Biochemical Education; SMB, Mexican Soci-
ety of Biochemistry; UNAM, National Autonomous
University of Mexico.
INTRODUCTION
The history of the teaching of Biochemistry exacts formal
research conducted by specialized personnel and is beyond the
scope of this piece. A formal study could provide the basis for
reproducing the route taken for the successful development, and
within a half century, a young branch of science, such as that
of Biochemistry, with a marked impact on life and daily well-
being and with vigorous and exponential growth in a country
like Mexico. In this article, we present data on what occurred in
Mexico City, and the city privileged with witnessing many of
the happenings that took place at the School of Medicine’s
Department of Biochemistry of the National Autonomous Uni-
versity of Mexico (UNAM) through the role that it played in
the development of Biochemistry. Because it is impossible to
separate teaching from research in the history of any university,
we will escort you on a brief stroll through the history of how
the development of Biochemistry came into being at the
UNAM’s Faculty of Medicine (FM). The title of the work sum-
marizes its intent: memoranda on the history of the teaching of
Biochemistry in Mexico.
The text has been divided into four stages, each stage cover-
ing from 5 to 200 years, with flexible time limits. The first
comprises the antecedents and ranges in time from the mid-
XVIII century, when the first courses in the chemical sciences
were instituted for Physicians in the New Spain, to the mid-XX
century, when the then-School of Medicine of the UNAM
moved to its new home in the south of the metropolis, Univer-
sity City. This first stage is characterized by the imparting of
conventional classes by isolated distinguished persons where
research occurs only occasionally. The following stage is the
lift-off stage, that encompasses from 1956 to 1961 and is
related with the implantation of the first group of Biochemists
with sufficient critical mass, adequate external support, and the
decided conviction to integrate a Department of Biochemistry
with the capacity of imparting undergraduate and postgraduate
Biochemistry classes, performing original research, and main-
taining a social presence. In contemporaneous fashion, the inte-
gration is initiated of similar groups at other university
branches, other universities, and technological institutes. The
third stage, consolidation and dissemination, took place the fol-
lowing 12 years and is characterized by the recognition of a for-
mal site at the Department of Biochemistry of the School of
Medicine for the teaching of Biochemistry (at undergraduate
and postgraduate levels) and for conducting research. At the
end of this stage, several staff members are displaced to another
branch within the UNAM. Other groups grow and consolidate
and pseudopods emerge. The fourth and last stage correspond to
that of stabilization, extends from 1973 to the beginning of the
XXI century, and is associated with a renovation and improve-
ment of the Department. The groups and sites where Biochem-
istry is conducted improve in size and quality: there is greater
proliferation of new habitats for Biochemists at universities,
technological institutes, and health institutes, both in the capital
of the Republic as well as in the states. This work ends with
the inclusion of certain data on the productivity of the Depart-
ment and on the contribution of Biochemists in the social life
of the country.
ANTECEDENTS
The social and economic importance of mining in the New
Spain gave rise to, in the second half of the XVIII century, the
establishment of the Royal College of Mining (1, 2). This,
together with the Royal Botanical Gardens (1788) are the insti-
tutions at which scholars of the chemical sciences, including
Address correspondence to: Enrique Pina; Departamento de Bioqui-
mica, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mex-
ico, PO Box 70-159, Coyoacan 04510, Mexico City, Mexico. Tel: 101
55 56232168. Fax: 101 55 56162419.
E-mail: [email protected]
Received 30 May 2011; accepted 30 May 2011
ISSN 1521-6543 print/ISSN 1521-6551 online
DOI: 10.1002/iub.523
IUBMB Life, 63(10): 797–802, October 2011
students aspiring to be surgeons, physicians, and pharmacists,
were required to attend to have the right to take the examina-
tion overseen by the Royal Medical Examining Tribunal.
Years later, in the Independent Mexico, the College of Medi-
cal Sciences was formed in 1837, driven by President Valentın
Gomez-Farıas, and later, in 1843, the Supreme Government of
the nation disposed the creation of the subject denominated
Medical Chemistry, which was given by Dr. Leopoldo Rıo de
la Loza. The reorganization of education by Gabino Barreda in
1867 lead to the adjustment of this professorship, which was
named Analytical Chemistry and which was placed at the pre-
paratory-school level. In 1868, the course entitled Chemical
Analyses with Rıo de la Loza was included as a subject for
the study of Medicine, and by 1898, with the Medical Chemis-
try professorship was again created (1, 2, 3). The first interna-
tional Journal, entitled Bioquımica, the Biochemical Journal,
was published in 1906 in England. Deriving from this era is
the creation of the National Medical Institute that, by 1915,
becomes the General Biology and Medical Institute. In 1914,
with the Mexican Revolution at full peak, the term Biochemis-
try appears in the Pharmacy major, due to the conjunction of
the teaching of the Medical Chemistry and Pharmacy courses.
The drive of Biochemistry throughout the twenties and thirties
was furnished by Dr. Fernando Ocaranza with ‘‘the establish-
ment of physiological thought’’ and by Dr. Ignacio Chavez
with the creation of research and teaching laboratories. The
biochemical ambit was represented by Juan Roca-Olive, a
Spaniard who was named Head of Practices in 1922, who
worked in the laboratories established by Chavez in 1933, and
who was named as Head of the Department of Medical Chem-
istry in 1939 by the University Council, a position that he held
until 1956 (4, 5, 6). Dr. Jose Joaquın Izquierdo y Raudon was
an eminent scholar whose work favored the development of
Biochemistry at the UNAM’s School of Medicine. A physician
and physiologist, he attended the laboratory of Dr. Walter B.
Cannon at Harvard University and returned to Mexico in the
thirties to promote the development of the Physiological Sci-
ences. Izquierdo y Raudon was the Head of the School of
Medicine’s Department of Physiology at the UNAM and at the
Military Medical School for several decades. He penned an
excellent volume with numerous exercises for developing the
student’s critical capacity, and he oriented a good part of his
work towards knowing and evaluating the scientific activity of
the great physiologists such as Harvey and Bernard, among
others. One of his greatest merits was to establish and organize
the best Library of Physiology in the Mexican Republic, which
made it an indispensable resource at a time when the facilities
of the Internet had not even yet been dreamed of and where it
astonished those of us, with dictionary in hand, who were just
beginning then (at the end of the fifties) with its unknown and
fascinating literature. This library significantly fortified van-
guard teaching in Biochemistry. Finally, the Palace of the In-
quisition, which housed the School of Medicine in Mexico
City for a little more than 100 years closed its doors and the
formation of physicians moved to the recently constructed
University City.
LIFT-OFF
In the second half of the fifties, different factors contributed
to the taking off of the teaching of Biochemistry in Mexico of,
but not exclusively, the academic installation mentioned in the
previous paragraph. Some of these made their presence known
immediately. The acute and chaotic post-War phase had given
way to a stage of social progress and scientific advancement.
Mexico was experiencing one of its best stages of economic de-
velopment and the UNAM moved to a new and enormous cam-
pus in the south of the capital city with new buildings, more gov-
ernmental support, and renewed spirits. The outstanding social
prestige of physicians was unequaled by any other academic or
professional activity. The ordered, critical, and integrated
thought of Biochemistry conferred upon it great sustenance in
the study of disease and the formation of a novel type of physi-
cian. This was the time during which broad scientific bases were
established that allowed for the exponential development of Bio-
chemistry in upcoming years (4, 5, 6). Finally, of the 15 found-
ing members of the Mexican Society of Biochemistry (1957),
eight were physicians, 10 were professors at the UNAM School
of Medicine’s Department of Biochemistry, and an additional
three, at other schools of medicine in the country (7).
In 1956, UNAM School of Medicine staff began its labors at
their new installations in University City, which is at present a
World Patrimony site. In that year, the School’s director, Dr.
Raoul Fournier-Villada, named Dr. Jose Laguna-Garcıa as Head
of the Department of Biochemistry (8). Fournier invites some
professional leaders to join the School, including, among others,
Antonio Villasana in Histology, Efraın Pardo-Codina in
Pharmacology, Ruy Perez-Tamayo in Pathology, Luis Bojalil in
Microbiology, Francisco Biagi-Filisola in Parasitology, and
Dr. Ramon de la Fuente in Psychiatry.
Dr. Laguna returned to Mexico after his postgraduate studies
at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, and worked from 1951
to 1954 as Head of the Laboratory of Biochemistry and Meta-
bolic Studies of the Hospital of Nutritional Diseases. From
1952 to 1960, he was Head of the National Chemical-Pharma-
ceutical Industry’s Biochemistry Laboratory of the Division of
Biological Research; thus, the experience acquired at these pla-
ces permitted him to design, with strategy and decisiveness, a
modern Department of Biochemistry that was to be devoted to
formal teaching, to research, and to the diffusion of the bio-
chemical culture (2, 8).
Laguna invited different professionals whose research work
was performed at different sites to participate in teaching at the
UNAM School of Medicine’s Department of Biochemistry. He
convinced National Institute of Nutrition student Guillermo
Soberon-Acevedo, the recent recipient of a doctoral degree in
Biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin in the U.S., to
come aboard and in addition, enticed to the Department Guil-
798 MARTINEZ AND PINA
lermo Massieu-Helguera, the precursor of research in Biochem-
istry of the nervous system in Mexico from the Institute of
Biology, Guillermo Carvajal-Sandoval from the National School
of Biological Sciences (ENCB) of the National Polytechnic
Institute (IPN), where he was a great impetus for Biochemistry,
and Jorge Cerbon-Solorzano, later the mainstay of the IPN’s
Center for Research and Higher Studies (CINVESTAV) (9).
Another of Laguna’s important successes included inviting
professional academic figures with previous stays in other coun-
tries and with an interest in teaching and research to work at
the Department of Biochemistry as full-time professor-research-
ers, obtaining for them the corresponding appointments. Thus,
the following scholars were incorporated into the Department of
Biochemistry: Dr. Jesus Guzman-Garcıa; Dr. Raul Ondarza-
Vidaurreta, Dr. Carlos del Rıo-Estrada, and Dr. Felix Cordoba-
Alba. Guzman’s collaboration on the teaching staff was out-
standing. Laguna knew that the integration of already formed
researchers was not the entire solution to the problem of bio-
medical research, but that it also was necessary to incorporate
young students who would learn at the side of the ‘‘masters’’,
and would, in this manner, configure what, with the passing of
time, would come to be the academic strength of the Depart-
ment. With this strategy, Dr. Laguna exerted an impact on and
convinced a group of young medical students to join the
Department. From 1957, the following medical students entered
the Department of Biochemistry: Armando Gomez-Puyou,
Jaime Mora-Celis, and Enrique Pina-Garza. At that time, the
Department’s laboratories were nearly empty and there was
very little infrastructure for conducting research (9).
From that time to the present, the policy of the Department of
Biochemistry has had an open-door policy for any student with
an interest in Biochemistry and the desire to work in research. In
turn, a similar policy was instituted by other research laborato-
ries, such as, that executed by Soberon at the National Institute
of Nutrition, to which he had emigrated. The hiring of new per-
sonnel and the incorporation of students was continuously pro-
moted by Laguna and supported by the Director of the School,
Dr. Fournier, as well as by the Secretary General of the UNAM,
physician and physiologist Dr. Efren C. del Pozo (8).
At that time, Victoria Chagoya-Hazas was contracted as
Adjunct Professor and Gabriela Delhumeau-Arcillas, as Labora-
tory Supervisor and Assistant Professor. Dr. Carlos Gitler-
Rechman participated in 1959 as Interim Professor, Marieta
Tuena-Sangri, as Assistant Researcher, and later, Antonio Pena-
Dıaz, Sergio Estrada-Orihuela, and Alberto Hamabata-Nishi-
muta were incorporated.
One area not overlooked by Laguna was that of obtaining don-
ations for the purchase of specialized equipment, indispensable
for carrying out research experiments. In around 1960, Laguna
obtained an important donation from the W.K. Kellogg Founda-
tion, with which the equipping of the Department commenced.
A balance of the state of Biochemistry in Mexico in 1961, a
scarce 5 years after its having initiated activities at the new seat
of the FM, was encouraging. The first Biochemistry teaching
and research work team in the Mexican Republic was estab-
lished, a group with its own identity, defined goals, a spirit of
work, a driver of the formation of similar groups at other quar-
ters, and the initiator of the dissemination of the culture of Bio-
chemistry. The team members organized a theory- and practice-
based teaching program with leading-edge contents and
achieved a work mystique. The team afforded an example of
professionalization in teaching and research in the charge of
full-time, exclusive professors, something not very common in
those days. It established the contents of Biochemistry in nas-
cent postgraduate courses in the clinical area and, by means of
these courses the School of Medicine became a Faculty. It
established the first postgraduate courses and programs in Bio-
chemistry in Mexico in collaboration with the UNAM Faculty
of Chemistry (6). The group’s leader wrote a text on the course
material in Spanish, and the first manuscripts resulting from the
initial researches conducted by Department personnel were sent
for publication. The team participated decisively in the Mexican
Society of Physiological Sciences and above all, in the Mexican
Society of Biochemistry (SMB), as well as in conducting the
1st and 2nd SMB Congresses, both held at the UNAM FM (8).
While it is difficult to evaluate the influence of a group on
the community to which it belongs, there is no doubt that the
example of the Department of Biochemistry that pertains to the
now FM served as a stimulus for other departments in similar
areas in the Faculty itself and for other germinal groups of Bio-
chemistry in different quarters. The Department of Biochemistry
received immediate feedback. The pioneer group comprised Dr.
Soberon at the National Institute of Nutrition, with whom Estela
Sanchez de Jimenez, Jesus Torres-Gallardo, Jaime Mora-Celis,
Jaime Martuscelli, and other researchers collaborated (3). With
regard to postgraduate courses and programs, the CINVESTAV
group of the IPN was the most skillful in their institutionaliza-
tion and the channeling of students towards these with better
terminal-efficiency indices, while Soberon’s group at its later
site at the UNAM Institute of Biomedical Research was the
most ingenious on proposing flexible, innovative, and efficient
postgraduate course and program strategies that were much
more adequate for students leaving undergraduate-study pro-
grams with the characteristics of this level of study in the Mexi-
can Republic. The predominant characteristic of the group of
Dr. Carvajal and collaborators at the IPN’s National School of
Biological Sciences was that of a marked orientation towards
Organic Chemistry, while Dr. Massieu’s group, which incorpo-
rated Ricardo Tapia-Ibarguengoitia and Herminia Pasantes-
Morales, was oriented towards Neurochemistry.
It is noteworthy, that SMB founding members including, for
example, Dr. Jesus Kumate-Rodrıguez and Dr. Edmundo Calva-
Cuadrilla at the Military Medical School and Dr. Barbarın Arre-
guın-Lozano of the UNAM Faculty of Sciences, participated in
the teaching of Biochemistry. The relationship among the
founders of the SMB conformed a network of connections that
permitted them to mobilize their students according to their
potential in such a way that, each is set out on his/her course
799HISTORY OF BIOCHEMISTRY IN MEXICO
sure that the relationship and commitment that they have estab-
lished will lead them to return to research to consolidate it and
to continue with the growth of the University’s biological and
medical sciences, of the health services, and of those of the
country. The founding members of the SMB and its first stu-
dents would perhaps be the group that we could call the first
generation of biochemical scientists of the country, from whom
arose nearly all of the present-day professors and researchers
devoted to this area.
CONSOLIDATION AND DISPERSION
The groups of Biochemists continued to grow. At the
UNAM FM, students who carried out research were incorpo-
rated into postgraduate studies; these were the first PhDs in Bio-
chemistry graduated in Mexico. They performed postdoctoral
activities at foreign institutions and on their return were
accepted as full-time professors in the Department. During this
period, the numerous and constant incorporation of young peo-
ple, students from different university majors, principally Medi-
cine, was important, and before these students obtained their
undergraduate degree, we incorporated them into teaching and
research work. An unwritten route was established: Laguna and
colleagues organized annual courses to recruit candidates; the
best were accepted and received a scholarship, collaborated
part-time in teaching and/or research, and on obtaining their
professional undergraduate degree, joined in postgraduate activ-
ities, left Mexico for postdoctoral studies in other countries, and
returned to be full-time professors in Mexico. Candidates were
accepted from the Mexican provinces and from South America.
By 1972, the Department of Biochemistry was nearly saturated.
Scientific production improved; Laguna published the 2nd edi-
tion (1966) of his book and elaborated a manual of teaching
objectives that he later edited as a syllabus. Soberon’s group,
now identified as that of the UNAM’s Institute of Biomedical
Research, and that of the IPN’s CINVESTAV also grew impor-
tantly. By 1970, the Mexican Republic had at least three solid
groups that carried out teaching and biochemical research at the
international level (4).
By then, the increase of young people aspiring to do under-
graduate work occasioned the UNAM’s receiving more stu-
dents, especially in Medicine; consequently, more time was
required for the teaching staff and less for research. In 1971,
Laguna was designated Director of the FM; his student, Enrique
Pina, took his place as Head of the Department of Biochemis-
try, where he continued the policies of his predecessor. A little
later, del Rıo left for the UNAM Faculty of Chemistry and
Estrada emigrated to the IPN’s CINVESTAV, Ondarza left for
the recently founded National Council of Science and Technol-
ogy (CONACYT), Cordoba for the Faculty of Medicine’s Divi-
sion of Research, and Guzman was named Director of a new
UNAM school in Cuautitlan, State of Mexico.
Unfortunately, the impossibility of accepting more students
at the UNAM led to a regrettable university conflict that in turn
ushered in the near suppression of research work at the FM. To
avoid future problems in the advancement of research, 8 of the
11 professors promoted a change for the newly constructed
UNAM Institute of Biology, which was more immune to stu-
dent conflicts. Although there was initial reticence on the part
of Laguna and Soberon, the Coordinator of Scientific Research
at the UNAM to which the Institute of Biology was subordinate,
he accepted the move of the professors to the Institute of Biol-
ogy in 1973, these constituting a new group that later made up
the now Institute of Cell Physiology (IFC) of the UNAM. In
the short and medium terms, the adjustment was very favorable
for the subsequent development of Biochemistry at the UNAM.
The Department was left with only three full-time professors
and Enrique Pina was substituted for by his student Jorge Soria.
An analysis of the repercussions of the change with regard to
the teaching of Biochemistry and the preparation of physicians
during those years has not been performed.
With greater foresight and planning and some years after-
ward, the other two large groups of Mexico City-based Bio-
chemists working blossomed forth and a good part of their pro-
fessors migrated to new sites. Professors of the Institute of Bio-
medical Research went to Cuernavaca in the state of Morelos,
where they established over the years, the Center for Research
in Nitrogen Fixation and the Institute of Biotechnology, both of
the UNAM. Those of the IPN’s CINVESTAV organized
research centers in Irapuato and Guanajuato in the state of Gua-
najuato.
From those beginnings in 1970, other, smaller groups splin-
tered off but have demonstrated progressive development, for
example, at the Department of Biochemistry of the UNAM’s
Faculty of Chemistry, the Departments of Biochemistry at the
National Institutes of Nutrition and Cardiology of the Ministry
of Health, and even the large hospitals of the Mexican Institute
of Social Security (IMSS) (3, 9).
STABILIZATION
The growth of Biochemistry in Mexico from the latter 25
years of the XX century to the point at which these memoranda
span possesses particular characteristics in the groups consoli-
dated up to 1975. In these, we are able to appreciate successive
stages of saturation of spaces, construction of new facilities,
and new growth of personnel. In the rest of the country, we
note the gradual but constant proliferation of new sites for con-
ducting biochemical research, thus having increasingly capable
teaching staffs.
Between 1977 and 1986, Jorge Soria, Juan Dıaz-Zagoya, and
Enrique Pina, as the successive Department of Biochemistry
Heads, experienced an important challenge: the FM required
full-time professors to occupy the vacancies left by personnel
who emigrated to the IFC, but Biochemists with doctoral
degrees returning to Mexico after their training in foreign coun-
tries preferred to work at the UNAM or at the CINVESTAV
del IPN Institutes, and even in less numerous groups such as
800 MARTINEZ AND PINA
those of the UNAM Faculty of Chemistry and those of the hos-
pitals. The reason was obvious: the FM required more time for
teaching and less for research. Repopulating the Department of
Biochemistry was not easy. However, the Department attracted
a good number of young people who collaborated in teaching
and research activities. In their formation as future researchers,
several of their advisors were professors who had migrated to
the IFC (9, 10).
In these difficult years for the FM, the Department of Bio-
chemistry from the FM received Leonor Fernandez-Rivera Rıo,
from IFC, Federico Fernandez-Gavarron from the Faculty of
Odontology, Mario Calcagno from Uruguay, Lourival Domingos-
Posani from Brazil, and Anthony Andreoli during his sabbatical
year from the University of the State of California in the U.S.
At this time, with the intention of promoting better teaching
of Biochemistry in the Mexican provinces, this during years
without the Internet and with insufficient libraries, the Biochem-
istry Updating Workshop was organized at the Department of
Biochemistry with the collaboration of Yolanda Saldana-Bal-
mori, Guillermo Alvarez-Llera, and Magdalena Carrillo-Santın.
This annual workshop, which is currently in its XXXVIII edi-
tion, consists of a five-day meeting at which a dozen experts
discuss a theme-of-interest in Biochemistry for teachers at state
universities. The meetings have been a success and are attended
by about 80 professors. From the 3rd workshop on, the attend-
ees have been provided with a printed version of the themes
touched upon in a volume entitled ‘‘Biochemical Message’’;
number XXXIV of this publication was edited in 2010. At the
request of the 1982 Workshop attendees, the Bulletin of Bio-
chemical Education (BEB) appeared a quarterly journal that
offers two or three updates of themes prepared by researchers.
The manuscripts are reviewed by the Editorial Committee and
the Journal includes news of interest for professors working out-
side the capital. The publication continues to appear at present
under the Journal of Biochemical Education (REB) on the Inter-
net and the site has had more than 32,000 hits since 2003. In
1981, the 3rd edition of Laguna’s Biochemistry text was pub-
lished with Enrique Pina as coauthor; the 7th edition is in prep-
aration at present, without the participation of Laguna and Pina,
but with the gathering together of a group of collaborators
headed by Federico Martinez, Juan Pablo Pardo-Vazquez, and
Hector Riveros-Rosas.
Likewise, the Department is one of the first to make inroads
into computer-assisted teaching through the Laboratory for the
Development of the Computer-assisted Teaching of Biochemis-
try directed by Dr. Leonor Fernandez, who has developed sev-
eral themes, such as digestion and carbohydrate transport, and
glycolysis and glycogenolysis, among others, which are avail-
able to the general public.
Currently, there are two editions of the Interactive Program
of Medical Integration of which Dr. Federico Martinez is in
charge, and that appears with free access on the Department of
Biochemistry’s Web page (bq.unam.mx). To date, version 1 on
Metabolic Pathways and version 2 on Metabolic Integration
have been developed, and version 3 on Type 2 Diabetes Melli-
tus will soon be available to the public.
Professors of Biochemistry have published at least four addi-
tional books that reflect the activity, concerns, commitment, and
interest of the staff in contributing to the formation of students
in the medical area and other related fields.
The Department has again grown and is once more saturated
and in search of new horizons for budding forth. There are two
emeritus professors, 35 appointed professors, 65 assigned pro-
fessors, 11 assistants, and 21 academic technicians, who attend
to 1300 students per year in the Biochemistry major and 900 in
the Immunology major, as well as, an additional 20 postgradu-
ate students. The research lines cultivated are the following:
chemistry and protein structure; enzymatic kinetics; cell metab-
olism and signaling transduction; Bioenergetics and biomem-
branes; Immunology and vaccines, and the Biochemistry of
Drugs, and this is the FM Department registering the highest
number of international publications (11, 12, 13).
Although, not all of the academicians mentioned were
strictly formed in the Department of Biochemistry, it is note-
worthy, that a great part of these arose from the first teachers
who were driven by Dr. Laguna and who remained within and
outside of the Department itself. It is thanks to the common
effort of our professors that Biochemistry in Mexico has
grown successfully. And note must be made of that those
young people of 57, today illustrious scientists and professors,
several of them emeritus, have entrusted in all of us who lived
and worked with them a tradition, that is, nothing less than the
love of and surrender to the task of teaching and science. To
all of them, our acknowledgment and our most sincere grati-
tude, with full confidence that they will continue to be the
prime pillar of strength of the advance of biochemical science
in Mexico.
In sum, the teaching of Biochemistry has been enthroned in
Mexico. The challenge is to engage in more and better teaching
and research.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors are grateful to Maggie Brunner, M.A., for the
excellent collaboration to review this manuscript and to Mrs.
Alejandra Palomares for her secretarial contribution.
REFERENCES1. Azuela Bernal, L. F. (1996) Tres Sociedades Cientıficas en el Porfiriato.
Edited by Sociedad Mexicana de la Ciencias y de la Tecnologıa, A.C.ISBN 968-7429-08-9, Mexico.
2. Castaneda Lopez, G. (1996) Inicio de la bioquımica mexicana: del Cole-
gio de Minerıa a la Facultad de Medicina 1797–1956. Profesional Teses.
3. Soberon, G., Kumate, J., and Laguna, J. (1989) La Salud en Mexico,
Testimonios 1988. In Especialidades medicas en Mexico, Tomo IV,
(Soberon, G., Kumate, J., Laguna, J., ed.), pp. 35–58, Biblioteca de la
Salud. ISBN 968-16-2896-9, Mexico.
4. Rodrıguez de Romo, A. C. (1994) Las rupturas epistemologicas que
conformaron la bioquımica y su incidencia en Mexico. Mensaje Bioquı-
mico XVIII, 141–162.
801HISTORY OF BIOCHEMISTRY IN MEXICO
5. Rodrıguez de Romo, A. C. (1995) Departamento de Bioquımica, Facultad de
Medicina, UNAM, antecedentes historicos (1797–1957). Ciencias 46, 15–22.
6. Brena Villasenor, G. (1990) Homenaje al Dr. Juan Roca Olive (1890–
1961). Boletin de Educacion Bioquımica 9, 31–34.7. Pina, E. (1985) Analisis descriptivo de las primera doce reuniones
anuales, bianuales y nacionales de la Sociedad Mexicana de Bioquı-
mica. Boletin de Educacion Bioquimica IV, 67–81.
8. Pina, E. and Gutierrez Avila, J. H. (1996) Contribuciones del Doctor
Jose Laguna a la medicina en Mexco. Boletin de Educacion Bioquimica
15, 42–43.
9. Martinez, F. (1998) El departamento de bioquımica en la ciudad univer-
sitaria. Una mirada a traves de su historia. Mensaje Bioquımico XXII,303–314.
10. Martinez, F. and Espinosa Garcıa, M. T. (2007) La docencia e investi-
gacion en algunas Facultades e Institutos de la UNAM. Revista de la
Facultad de Medicina, UNAM 50, 66–70.
11. Martinez, F., Castillo, A., Rendon Gomez, J. L., and Moreno-Sanchez,
R. (1998) Panorama del desempeno cientıfico de la investigacion bio-
quımica en Mexico. Ciencia 49, 35–45.
12. Martinez, F., Palomares, A., and Pina, E. (2004) De los estandares cien-
tıficos de productividad y la Facultad de Medicina de la UNAM. GacetaMedica de Mexico 140, 599–606.
13. Martınez, F. (2007) Produccion cientıfica de la Facultad de Medicina,
UNAM. III. Evaluacion de la produccion cientıfica de la Facultad de
Medicina comparada con los estandares de productividad. GacetaMedica de Mexico 143, 220–222.
802 MARTINEZ AND PINA