Just north of central Rio de Janeiro, perched on a hilltop overlooking a busy road, is an ornate castle that seems out of place among the chaotic traffic and modest houses of the Manguinhos district. But this building (pictured above) and its surrounding 800,000-square-metre campus has had a key role in Brazil's growing science enterprise.

Credit: BIO-MANGUINHOS COMMUNICATION ADVISORY

The Alhambra-inspired pavilion, built between 1905 and 1918, is the headquarters of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, commonly known as Fiocruz. Spearheaded by the Pasteur Institute-trained bacteriologist after whom it is named, the foundation helped develop vaccines to treat devastating outbreaks of bubonic plague, smallpox and yellow fever in Brazil. Cruz wanted a temple for science, an emblem people would recognize and respect. Funded by the federal government, Fiocruz is now not only central to Brazilian public health, it is also a major employer and trainer, with nearly 6,000 researchers in Rio and several other satellite campuses around the country.

Scientists and policy-makers hope that modern Brazil's temples of science will be its universities, government institutes and perhaps even its biotechnology companies.

At times, Brazilian science has been hampered by a brain drain and modest private-sector endeavours — largely the result of limited venture capital and a culture that tends not to encourage entrepreneurs. But it could become a major player in international research if it can capitalize on its vast natural resources and booming economy.

That promise comes in part from growing government support. A decade ago, science funding was erratic, says Luiz Antônio Barreto de Castro, the secretary of R&D Policies and Programmes at Brazil's Ministry of Science and Technology. “We didn't know what the budget was going to be the next year,” he says. But by 2000, the congress had approved funds for future budgets, making it possible for science-funding agencies to plan long-term projects. Taxes on oil companies and other industries provided a steady source of support. Oil giant Petrobras, for example, must by law devote 1% of its revenue towards research and development. Although the situation is greatly improved, Barreto de Castro notes that federal R&D spending is still only slightly above 1% of the country's gross domestic product. A government plan to increase that to 1.5% by 2010 is off track because of to the recent financial downturn, he says.

State support

Fortunately for scientists, government money comes from the states as well. The São Paulo state government is by far the biggest contributor, sending 1% of all its tax revenue to science research — some US$400 million each year. This investment has helped the state economy to thrive, says Barreto de Castro. Some of the other 25 states are now attempting to follow suit.

Still, for some, salaries and benefits are a concern. Hugo Armelin, a cell-signalling specialist at the state-funded Butantan Institute in São Paulo, laments the plight of his postdocs, saying that they tend to receive moderate pay but no benefits. “In Brazil, it's easy to get fellowships for several years,” he says, “but without any benefits.” Postdocs, depending on their funding source, typically earn $24,000–30,000 per year. But staff scientists at Butantan Institute, which, like Fiocruz, focuses on vaccines and anti-venoms, earn only $20,500 per year when they start.

That can contribute to brain drain. Some fledgling Brazilian researchers who go abroad to do research or a postdoc choose to stay away because of more lucrative pay packages or more abundant opportunities. Fiocruz, for example, employs thousands of scientists, but often has 10 or 20 times more applications than it has vacancies.

For years the Brazilian government has attempted a difficult balancing act: educating scientists and forging ties at more developed research institutions abroad, while trying to ensure that the bulk of the country's science talent does not leave Brazil for good. Traditionally, the government has provided ample support for graduate study abroad. But today, such scholarships are more selective and generally target top universities, according to Barreto de Castro.

Gerardo Mendoza: bureaucracy is hampering progress.

To make domestic graduate education alternatives more attractive, especially in less developed regions, Brazil's Ministry of Science and Technology has started a 'northeastern biotechnology network' programme meant to attract expertise to 30 institutions and ensure that São Paulo, the country's richest state, is not the only destination for science talent. Most of Brazil's academic and private-sector life sciences research is concentrated in the richer areas such as São Paulo (see map).

Started in 2004, the programme has received $15 million in the past five years. It allows students to earn their degree after stints at multiple institutions. Four hundred students receive needs-based funding and scholarships from federal and state governments. Each student's thesis draws on the research of multiple groups. In principle, the poorest states benefit most as they often don't have the money to fund biotechnology PhD programmes. The government continues to evaluate the programmme's effectiveness says Barreto de Castro.

Happy returns

Many scientists who have returned to Brazil after an education or postdoc abroad have thrived. Armelin spent three years as a postdoc at the University of California, San Diego, before attending Harvard Medical School on a Guggenheim fellowship in 1982. But he decided to come back. “I realized I could be a nobody there or a somebody here,” he says, laughing.

Mayana Zatz, now director of the human genome research centre at the University of São Paulo, did a postdoc at the University of California, Los Angeles. “I could have stayed,” she says. “I'm glad I didn't.” Zatz has had a hand in building a thriving human genetics community at São Paulo, and has probably had a much greater impact than she would have had in the United States. However, she says, there were drawbacks. Although funding has not been a problem, reagents, for example, are costly and slow to arrive, a challenge for a fast-moving, competitive field such as genetics.

The Brazilian government is also attempting to help spark private-sector science, although with mixed success. One federally funded programme offers money directly to fledgling businesses, including biotech firms. So far, the government has put up $200 million per year since 2006. Gerardo Mendoza, head of Bionext, a small biotech firm in São Paulo, says that this money, so far approximately $5.9 million for his firm, has been key to keeping his business afloat. Bionext develops biocellulose for potential use in surgical repair of the brain and heart. Most of Brazil's life-science companies focus on human health and agriculture (see graphic). Money might be available, says Mendoza, but the real problem is navigating the government bureaucracy to get approval for clinical trials. “It takes a very long time,” he says — often more than a year in his experience.

Yet another challenge across all life-science fields is moving university research into biotech spin-offs. “There are still some wrong views about venture capital and scientists and making money,” says Dario Grattapaglia, a forestry researcher at the Brazilian agricultural research corporation Embrapa, the science arm of Brazil's Ministry of Agriculture. Grattapaglia, who develops molecular breeding techniques to speed tree growth and select for different wood characteristics, says that Embrapa works with companies more often than does the typical university. He often collaborates with former students who now work at forest product companies.

Credit: SOURCE: FUNDAÇÁO BIOMINAS (2009)

At Fiocruz, a centre for developing health technology has been established, with a new building slated for completion in 2011 or 2012. “We're looking to establish something like incubators,” says Claude Pirmez, Fiocruz's vice-president for research and reference laboratories. She anticipates that this will mean new products or perhaps research leading to clinical trials. But bureaucracies persist, and negotiating intellectual-property transfer can be difficult even at Embrapa. Grattapaglia fondly recalls his days at North Carolina State University where he completed his PhD, acquiring two patents based on his thesis paper alone.

Nonetheless, university research can lead to promising biotech ventures. Alellyx Applied Genomics, for example, is a growing biotech born of successful genomics work in 2002. Alellyx co-founder Paulo Arruda had been a plant molecular biologist at São Paulo's University of Campinas for 30 years. His foray into biotech began in 2000 after co-authoring a paper on the first geonome sequence of a plant pathogen — which was also the first sequencing project led by Brazilian scientists (A. J. G. Simpson et al. Nature 406, 151–157; 2000). A network of 25 labs sequenced the bacterium Xylella fastidiosa, which attacks citrus trees. Located in the suburb of Campinas outside São Paulo, Alellyx initially sprang up to find applications for the sequence. But, says Arruda, plans shifted in 2003 with the growing recognition of the opportunity presented by the rapidly expanding sugarcane-ethanol fuel industry. This, they calculated, was their route to profitability. Alellyx is hunting for genes to improve growth of different sugarcane varieties, and its next-door sister company, CanaVialis, breeds and markets different varieties. The two companies showed enough promise to catch the eye of US agribiotech giant Monsanto, which bought them in 2008 for $290 million. But Alellyx is a relatively rare case. “The problem is we don't have an entrepreneurship culture in students,” says Arruda, who suggests that universities should offer more business courses for science students and more internships at companies.

But neither increasing the number of research opportunities nor boosting the role of the private sector seems an insurmountable obstacle for a country that just secured South America's first-ever Olympic Games. If the industry–academia stigma recedes and salaries ascend, and native talent returns home, Brazilian life sciences will have plenty of promise — and probably plenty more temples of science.