Directors of the Faculties of Chemistry of the Autonomous University of Yucatán (UADY) and the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), signed a collaboration agreement.
The objective of this agreement is to create a research unit at the facilities of the Faculty of Chemistry of the UADY, for the genomic study of diabetes, obesity and mental health in the Mayan and mestizo indigenous population of the Yucatan Peninsula.
Marta Menjivar Iraheta, coordinator of the Postgraduate Biochemistry of the UNAM, explained that in the research unit the communities of this region will be evaluated with the purpose of finding the genetic background that makes them susceptible to diabetes and obesity, that is, knowledgeof their inheritance and the roots of the Mayan peoples that lead them to be vulnerable to these diseases.
He stressed that this agreement is the result of the link and coordinated work between both institutions of higher education, and added that the modern facilities of the Faculty of Chemistry are suitable for the installation of the research unit.
He said that a MAYANA mestizo, or a person in the city, has half of his Mayan genetics and the other mestizo half, in that sense, everything that is investigated in the Mayan communities explains 50% of the genes that people haveof this region.
The specialist announced that she has initiated an investigation with 660 Yucatecan children, whose purpose is the analysis and evaluation of the microbiota that seeks to explain why the children are overweight in this region.
Julio Lara Riegos, a research professor at the UADY, revealed that a first study on the association of 10 genes related to diabetes in 26 communities of the Yucatan Peninsula has been done.