Raul Pereira Valdés
Raul Agustín Pereira Valdés, Cuban pediatrician and radiologist (La Habana 05 May 1904 – United States August 1994) Authored about 100 papers Created intravenous angiocardiography or radio opaque angiography (1937) With A. Castellanos & A. Garcia López. La angio-cardiografia radio-opaca. Arch. Soc. Est. Clin. 523:31, 1937 Performed the first retrograde dye injection into aorta (chest retrograde aortography) and developed an automatic apparatus for rapid injection of the dye With A.W. Castellanos & A. Garcia López. L’angiocardiographie chez l’enfant. Presse Med. 46:1474, 1938 With A. Castellanos developed lower and upper cavographies Described a new radiological sign for diagnosing aorta coarctation With A.W. Castellanos. Un nuevo signo radiológico indirecto en el diagnostico de la coarctación de la aorta por la arteriografia retrograda superior (1946) With A. Castellanos introduced new technical terms With A. Castellanos & A.V. Pausa. On a special automatic device for angiocardiography. Bol. Soc. Cuban. Pediatr. 10:209, 1938 HONORS Medicine & Physiology Nobel Prize nominee (1956, 1959 & 1960)
Raghavan Sridharan Pillai
Raghavan Sridharan Pillai, Indian zoologist (1932 – DESCRIBED VALID TAXA Amphibia Genus Bufoides 1973 with Yazdani Species Bufoides meghalayanus 1973 with Yazdani Duttaphrynus silentvalleyensis 1981 Gegeneophis krishni 1999 with Ravichandran Ghatophryne rubigina 1981 with Pattabiraman Ichthyophis garoensis 1999 with Ravichandran Ichthyophis husaini 1999 with Ravichandran Ichthtyophis longicephalus 1986 Micrixalus gadgili 1990 with Pattabiraman Micrixalus nudis 1978 Micrixalus thampii 1981 Microhyla chakrapani 1977 Odorrana mawphlangensis 1977 with Chanda Raorchestes shillongensis 1973 with Chanda Uraeotyphlus interruptus 1999 with Ravichandran Zakerana murthii 1979 Pisces Species Lepidocephalichthys goalparensis 1976 with Yazdani HONORS (Pisces) Pillaia Yazdani 1972 Pillaibrachia Britz 2016 (Pisces)
Rafael Palacios
Rafael Palacios de la Lama, Mexican molecular biologist (Ciudad de Mexico 27 March 1944 – Recognized as one of the world’s experts on the genetics of Rhizobium and genome dynamics Defined the notion of amplicon With M. Flores, S. Brom, T. Stepkowski, M.L. Girard & G. Davila. Gene amplification in Rhizobium: identification and in vivo cloning of discrete amplifiable DNA regions (amplicons) from Rhizobium leguminosarum bv. Phaseoli. Proceed. Nat. Acad. Sciences USA 90: 4932-6, 1993 Demonstrated the genome of genus Rhizobium sp. as a dynamic and complex structure with a number of repeating sequences Proposed a general scheme for designing and obtaining alternative genomic structures based on nucleotide-sequence analysis of a genome Discovered that the human genome presents variations between cell populations of the same organism Recurrent DNA inversions in the human genome. Proceed. Nat. Acad. Sciences (2007) With Jaime Mora Celis studied glutamine synthetase, obtained its purification and characterization, determination of its synthesis and degradation, characterization of its mRNA and defining its regulation at transcriptional level With Julio Collado, G. Davila & J. Mora sequenced the genome of Rhizobium etli (2005) With R. T. Schminke developed a general methodology using immunological isolation of specific polyssomes that permits the analysis of many genes at molecular level OTHER CONTRIBUTIONS With X. Guo, M. Flores, P. Mavingui, S.I. Fuentes, G. Hernandez & G. Davila. Natural genomic design in Sinorhizobium milloti: novel genomic architectures. Genome Research 13:1810-7, 2003 With M. Flores, P. Mavingui, X. Perret, W.J. Broughton, D. Romero, G. Hernandez & G. Davila. Prediction, identification and artificial selection of DNA rearrangements in Rhizobium: towards a natural genomic design. Proceed. Nat. Acad. Sciences USA 97: 9138-43, 2000 With C. Quinto, H. de la Vega, M. Flores, J. Leemans, M.A. Cevallos, M.A. Pardo, R. Azpiroz, M.L. Girard & E. Calva. Nitrogenase reductase: a functional multigene family in Rhizobium phaseoli. Proceed. Nat. Acad. Sciences USA 82:1170-4, 1985 With C. Quinto, H. de la Vega, M. Flores, L. Fernandez, T. Ballado & G. Soberón. Reiteration of nitrogen fixation gene sequences in Rhizobium phaseoli. Nature 299:724-6, 1982
Rafael Pacheco Luna
Rafael Pacheco Luna, Guatemalan ophthalmologist (Guatemala 1882 – Guatemala 16 March 1968) Brother of naturalist Juan José Rodríguez Luna and grandson of physician and surgeon José Luna Arbizu (1805-1888) Proposed Onchocerca volvulus as a causative agent of Robles disease (1918) First to study and classify the ocular lesions of the Robles disease (his description remained classical) Disturbances of vision in patients harboring certain filarial tumors. Am. J. Ophthalm. (1918) Una nueva etiologia de las cataratas congenitas (1944) SOME BIBLIOGRAPHY Notes on onchocercosis in Guatemala. Brit. J. Ophthalm. 30:234-7, 1946 El tracoma en Guatemala. Arch. Asoc. Evit. Ceguera Mexico 2:241-4, 1944 Two cases of onchocercosis studied twenty four years later. Guat. Med. (1940) Manifestaciones clinicas de la oncocercosis. Guat. Med. (1936) With A.S. Green. The Barraquer intracapsular cataract operation. Amer. J. Ophthalm. 4:595, 1921 Study upon onchocerciasis. Am. J. Ophthalm. (1921) Contribución al estudio de la oncocercosis. Rev. Cub. Oftalm. (1920) Uber die wichtige Rolle der Lause in der Atiologie der Phlyctane. Rev. Cub. Oftalm. 2:225, 1920 Notas preliminares sobre los trastornos de la vista observados em Guatemala en enfermos com tumores filariosos. Arch. Oft. Hisp. Amer. (1918)
Pontis Videla Family
Horacio Guillermo Pontis Videla, Argentine plant biochemist (Mendoza 24 March 1928 – Mar del Plata 05 August 2019) First to report fructose-containing nucleotides in fungi (with James & Baddiley; 1960) and plants (with Gonzalez; 1963) With N. Gonzalez. Uridine diphosphate fructose and uridine diphosphate acetylgalactosamine from Dahlia tubers. Biochim. Biophys. Acta 69:179-81, 1963 Synthesized the fructose 2-phosphate, the first ketose in literature or the first sugar phosphate with P group linked to hemiacetal-hydroxyl group With C.L. Fischer. Synthesis of D-fructopyranose 2 phosphate and D-fructofuranose 2-phosphate. Biochem. J. 89:452, 1963 Demonstrated that the metabolism of fructans was regulated by hormone action (1965) Separation of fructosans by gel filtration. Anal. Biochim. 23:331-67, 1968 Proposed the role of fructans in tolerance to freezing temperatures (1985) and as osmotic regulator (1971) Fructans and cold stress. J. Plant Physiol. 134:148-50, 1989 With R. Durán demonstrated the existence of sucrose enzymes in unicellular eukaryotic organisms in Mol. Cell. Biochem. 16:149-52, 1977 Proposed the role of sucrose as a signaling molecule in plants On the scent of the riddle of sucrose. Trends Biochem. Sci. 3:137-9, 1978 Described sucroglucans, members of a new series of non-reducing sucrose derivatives With W.A. Vargas & G.L. Salerno. Structural characterization of the members of a polymer series compatible solutes in Anabaena cells exposed to salt stress. Plant Science 172(1):29-35, 2007 First to demonstrate an invertase activity in a organelle With W.A. Vargas & G.L. Salerno. New insights on sucrose metabolism: evidence for an active A/N Inv in chloroplasts uncovers a novel component of the intracellular carbon trafficking. Planta 227:795-807, 2008 METHODS With E. Cabib & L.F. Leloir. An improved method for the isolation of some nucleoside diphosphate sugar from yeast. Biochem. Biophys. (1957) With N.L. Blumson. A method for separation of nucleotides by concave gradient elution (1958) With G.L. Salerno. Sucrose phosphate synthetase. Planta 142(1):41-8, 1978 With A.F. Puebla, M.E. Battaglia & G.L. Salerno. Sucrose-sucrose fructosyl transferase activity. A direct and rapid colorimetric procedure for the assay of plant extracts. Plant Physiol. Biochem. 37(9):699-702, 1999 HONOURS Correspondent Member, American Society of Plant Biologists His brother, Rafael Edmundo Pontis Videla, Argentine plant pathologist (Mendoza 11 January 1911 – Mendoza 15 April 1997) DESCRIBED DISEASES La virosis de la lechosa (Carica papaya) en Venezuela. I. Transmission del mosaico. Agr. Trop. Maracay 2:241-51, 1953 Una podredumbre del cuello de la piña (Ananas comosus L. Merr.) en Venezuela causada por Phytophthora parasitica Dastur. Acta Cient. Venez. 3(2):63, 1952 Una podredumbre de la caraota (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) en Venezuela, causada por Pythium aphanidermatum. Agr. Trop. Maracay 2(3):207-9, 1952 A canker disease of the coffee tree in Colombia and Venezuela. Phytopathology 41(2):178-84, 1951 (by Ceratostomella fimbriata) Una podredumbre del tallo de maiz (Zea mays L.) en Venezuela causada por Pythium aphanidermatum. Agr. Trop. 1(1):13-28, 1951 El mal del tinta del nogal en la Republica Argentina. Rev. Mens. S.A. P. 27:31, 1943 (brown rot of walnut by Phytophthora citrophthora) OTHERS With A.E. Klinger & N.J. Palleroni. Isolation of Pseudomonas syringae from lesions on Vitis vinifera. Phytopath. Zeitschr. 86:107-116, 1976 (first report of Phytomonas syringae on grapevines) With J.M. Feldman. A common weed, Physalis viscosa, new host for potato virus Y. Plant Disease Reporter 47:22, 1963 With J.M. Feldman. A new host of Sclerotinia sclerotiorum in Argentina. Plant Dis. Report 43:421, 1959
Poey family
Felipe Poey y Aloy, Cuban naturalist and geographer (La Habana 26 May 1799 – La Habana 28 January 1891) From French father and Spanish mother His study about respiration and circulation of aligators had great repercussion With C. Finlay concluded that female mosquitoes transmitted the yellow fever Showed that many fish characters vary with age such as the size and relative position of eyes and mouth DESCRIBED TAXA Pisces Genera Epinnula 1854 Erotelis 1860 Gambusia 1854 Girardinus 1854 Gramma 1868 Grammicolepis 1873 Halieutichthys 1863 Hollardia 1861 Joturus 1860 Limia 1854 Lucifuga 1858 Microgobius 1876 Pontinus 1860 Pythonichthys 1868 Rivulus 1860 Verilus 1860 Valid Species About 120 Lepidoptera (1832) Genera Acrolophus Amphonyx Erithales Mastigophorus Syllepis Mollusca Genus Pineria 1854 Species 65 valid species of land mollusks Coleoptera Genus Telacis 1853 Diptera Subgenus Oecacta 1851 HONORS Poeycoptis Jaume & de la Torre 1972 (Mollusca) His son, Andrés Poey y Aguirre, meteorologist and geographer (La Habana 15 November 1825 – Paris, France 04 January 1919) CONTRIBUTIONS Developed Poey classification of clouds Instructions et considerations synthetiques sur la nature, la constitution et la forme des nuages (1865) New Classifications of Clouds. Ann. Rep. Smithsonian Inst. (1871) Nouvelle classification des nuages suivis d’instructions pour servir a l’observation des nuages et des courants atmospheriques (1873) First to study in the world the high clouds in a systematic manner Sur deux nouveau types de nuages observés La Havane denominés Pallium (Pallio cirrus) 1863 Invented the Electrochemical Bath (1852) Description de un ozonographe et d’un actinographe destines a enregistrer de demi-heure en demi-heure l’ozone atmosphérique et l’action chimique de la lumiere ambiante (1865) Loi de la coloration et de la décoloration des etoiles, du soleil et des planetes (1860) Authored Table chronologique de quatre cents cyclones qui ont sévi dans les Indes Occidentales et dans l’ócean Atlantique nord: pendant un intervalle de 362 années (depuis 1493 jusqu’en 1855) edited in Journal Royal Geogr. Soc. London (1855) with great repercussion Proposed a method for extraction of metallic compounds from human body Aplicación de la electroquimica para la extracción de partes metálicas en el cuerpo humano MEMBERSHIP Member, Royal Academie des Sciences de Paris