Fernando Valiente-Echeverria

Biography

Biochemist (USACH) and Ph.D. in Microbiology (USACH / UCHILE). Currently, I am Assistant Professor at Virology Program of ICBM, University of Chile (www.favelab.cl). Previously I was a postdoctoral researcher at the AIDS Center of Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research at McGill University (www.ladydavis.ca) and I worked at the Laboratory of Molecular Virology, Medical Research Center of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. My work is focused mainly evasion of the host response against infection with HIV-1, in the regulation of translation initiation of messenger full HIV-1, as well as the characterization of emerging pathogens are zoonotic .

In 2008, CONICYT, the main funding agency in Chile, was forced to delay student stipends. Consequently, I co-founded the National Association of Graduate Researchers (www.anip.cl), which was created to safeguard the rights of researchers and work with the government to create public policies that promote science in Chile. In 2011, I was invited to participate in More Science for Chile, an initiative that aimed to start the debate on the urgent need for Chile to have a greater science and technology framework (www.mascienciaparachile.cl). In 2013, I co-founded the Network of Chilean Researchers in Canada (www.redicec.com). Recently, I co-organized the Redes Chilenas (ReCH), a network of more than 14 Chilean Research-based organisations in more than 7 countries around the world (www.redeschilenas.cl).