Eugenia del Pino facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Eugenia del Pino
Born	Eugenia María del Pino Veintimilla (1945-04-19) April 19, 1945 (age 80) Quito, Ecuador
Alma mater	Emory University (PhD) Vassar College (MS) Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador (Licenciatura).
Known for	Embryonic development of the marsupial frogs Hemiphractidae and poison arrow frogs Dendrobatidae in comparison with other tropical frogs.
Awards	L'Oréal-UNESCO Awards for Women in Science "Premio Nacional Eugenio Espejo" awarded by the Government of Ecuador. The 2019 Prize of the Latin American Society for Developmental Biology. The 2022 Developmental Biology-Society for Developmental Biology Lifetime Achievement Award
Scientific career
Fields	Developmental Biology, Cell biology.
Institutions	Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador (Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador), Quito.
Doctoral advisor	Asa A. Humphries Jr.

Eugenia María del Pino Veintimilla (born April 19, 1945, in Quito, Ecuador) is a famous scientist who studies how living things grow and develop. She works at the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador in Quito. In 2006, she became the first person from Ecuador to be chosen for the United States National Academy of Sciences.

In 2019, she received a special award from the Latin American Society for Developmental Biology. This award recognized her amazing research in Ecuador. It also celebrated her efforts to encourage the study of developmental biology across Latin America.

About Eugenia del Pino

Eugenia del Pino was born and grew up in Quito, Ecuador. She earned her first degree from the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador (PUCE) in 1967. After that, she traveled to the United States of America to continue her studies.

She received a Master of Science degree from Vassar College in 1969. Then, in 1972, she earned her Ph.D. from Emory University. After finishing her studies, she returned to Ecuador. She joined the faculty at the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador in Quito.

She was a biology professor there from 1972 to 2013. Since 2013, she has been a professor emerita at PUCE. This means she is retired but still involved in her scientific work. She continues to study the early development of frogs. From 1973 to 1975, she was also the Head of Biological Sciences.

She received a fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. This allowed her to do research in Germany from 1984 to 1985. She also worked as a Fulbright fellow in the United States in 1990. The Latin American Society for Developmental Biology sees Eugenia del Pino as the top developmental biologist in Latin America.

Her Amazing Research

Eugenia del Pino's journey in science shows great determination. She took every chance she was given to learn and grow. She first trained to be a high school teacher at PUCE. At that time, a program called the Alliance for Progress helped Latin American countries. This program sent equipment and professors to Ecuador.

One of her professors encouraged her to apply for a scholarship. This scholarship would allow her to study in the United States. Eugenia received scholarships from two different programs. She earned her Master's degree from Vassar College. Then, she went to Emory University in Atlanta for her Ph.D. Her mentor, Asa Alan Humphries, Jr., was a great guide.

Her Ph.D. research looked at how the egg-jelly helps in the fertilization of a frog called Xenopus laevis. In 1972, she returned to Ecuador. She became a biology professor at PUCE, her old university. There, she built her scientific career.

Discovering Marsupial Frogs

Because of Eugenia del Pino, the study of how living things develop (developmental biology) grew in Ecuador. She didn't have money to buy Xenopus laevis for her research. Instead, she found a special frog, Gastrotheca riobambae, right in her university's gardens!

This frog became a key animal for studying how development changes over time. Gastrotheca is a marsupial frog. This means the female carries her eggs in a pouch on her back. The male helps push the eggs into the pouch. This way of reproducing on land is only found in certain Latin American frogs. There are over 90 species of these frogs. In these species, the female keeps her embryos inside her body. This is similar to how mammals reproduce.

How Marsupial Frogs Develop

Marsupial frog embryos grow in salty conditions, like inside a body. This is different from many other frogs, like Xenopus, which develop in water. Traditional frogs and marsupial frogs also get rid of waste differently. Tadpoles that swim freely excrete ammonia. Ammonia would be harmful if it built up in a small space.

Eugenia del Pino found that marsupial frog embryos excrete urea instead of ammonia. She discovered that adding urea, which is found in high levels in the pouch, allowed eggs to develop outside the mother. Urea is a waste product that helps marsupial frog embryos hold onto water. This is important because the mother's pouch can be a dry place.

The eggs of these frogs are very large, from 3 to 10 millimeters wide. They contain all the food needed for the embryo to grow until it changes into an adult frog. Eugenia found that Gastrotheca embryos develop much like a chick embryo. They grow on the surface of the yolk.

Instead of a primitive streak, they have a circular opening called a blastopore. This opening is surrounded by an embryonic disc. She found that important movements in development happen after the blastopore closes. This showed that these movements can be separate from the early stage of gastrulation. Her studies revealed how flexible the development process is in amphibians. These features are linked to how they reproduce and adapt to their environment.

The flat embryos of Gastrotheca have special structures called neural crest cell-streams and branchial arches. Part of the neural crest forms "bell gills." These gills create a network of tiny blood vessels around the embryo in the pouch. They help the embryo exchange gases with the mother's blood. This is like an amphibian version of a placenta, but without a uterus.

Eugenia del Pino also studied other marsupial frogs. She found a Venezuelan frog called Flectonotus pygmaeus. This frog has adapted to its large eggs in a unique way. Its early egg cells can have up to 3000 nuclei (the control centers of cells) in one cell. Over time, most of these nuclei disappear. Only one remains in the mature egg. Eugenia's discoveries about these amazing frogs led to a famous article in Scientific American in 1989.

Her work led to her being chosen for several important science academies. In 2006, she became the first person from Ecuador to join the National Academy of Sciences of the USA. She also received the L’Oreal-Unesco Prize for Women in Science for Latin America. Eugenia's life shows that great science can happen anywhere. It just needs interesting problems and creative thinking.

Eugenia del Pino created a whole new way of studying biology in Ecuador. Her work focused on how animals adapt and develop over time.

Teaching and Helping Society

Eugenia del Pino brought the study of developmental biology to Ecuador. For a long time, her university (PUCE) was the only one in Ecuador that offered a course on this topic. Her lab was also the only one doing a lot of research in developmental biology. Her research projects were mostly done with undergraduate students. This was because there were no graduate programs in Ecuador at the time.

Working with other scientists was one of her strengths. She partnered with researchers from the USA, Japan, the UK, and Germany. She did this informally or through programs like the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and Fulbright fellowships. Her successful scientific career helped train many scientists in Latin America. Her success comes from her dedication to teaching undergraduates how to do research. Many of her published papers list her undergraduate students as co-authors. Eugenia del Pino taught and trained over 300 students.

Ecuador was one of the few countries in Latin America without a national science academy. So, Eugenia invited several colleagues to talk about starting the National Academy of Sciences of Ecuador (ACE). She and her colleagues wrote the rules and got legal approval from the government. In 2013, the Secretariat of Science and Technology of Ecuador recognized ACE. The six colleagues became the founding members of ACE. She was the Vice President of ACE from 2013 to 2016. ACE has grown and now has more than 50 members. ACE recognizes scientists, helps them communicate, and connects with other groups.

For about 25 years, Eugenia del Pino also helped with education to protect the Galápagos Islands. She helped the Charles Darwin Foundation for the Galápagos Islands create a scholarship program. This program was for Ecuadorian students in the Galápagos. She was also the Vice President of the Charles Darwin Foundation for several years in the 1990s. Later, she had to step back from these activities due to time limits.

Her work has made her a very important figure in science in Ecuador and Latin America.

Awards and Honors

Eugenia del Pino has received many awards for her important work:

• Diploma for Education and Conservation Efforts in the Galapagos Islands, The World Wildlife Fund, Switzerland, 1986.
• Medal from the Charles Darwin Foundation for the Galápagos Islands, 1999.
• Founding Member of the Ecuadorian Society of Biology.
• Honorary Foreign Member of the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists, 1996.
• Member of the Latin American Academy of Sciences (ACAL), 1987.
• Fellow of the World Academy of Sciences for the Advancement of Science in Developing Countries, 1989.
• L’OREAL-UNESCO Award for Women in Science for Latin America, 2000.
• Sheth Distinguished International Emory Alumni Award, 2003.
• “Pluma de la Dignidad” Award from the National Association of Journalists of Ecuador, 2003.
• World Academy of Sciences for the Advancement of Science in Developing Countries Medal Lecture, 2005.
• Eugenio Espejo Medal on the Sciences from the Council and Mayor of Quito, 2005.
• Honorary Foreign Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2006.
• International Member of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2006.
• National Eugenio Espejo Prize (Premio Nacional Eugenio Espejo) from the Government of Ecuador, Quito, 2012.
• Eugenio Espejo Medal on the Sciences from the Chamber of Commerce of Quito, 2012.
• Founding Member of the Academy of Sciences of Ecuador, 2013.
• Latin American Society of Developmental Biology Prize, 2019.
• The Developmental Biology-Society for Developmental Biology Lifetime Achievement Award, 2022.
• The Journal Revista Hogar (Ecuador) Recognition as Woman of the Year in the Sciences, 2022.

See also

In Spanish: Eugenia del Pino para niños