Former EaD/UFRN Chemistry student makes innovative discovery and does doctoral internship in Spain

25 de January de 2023

The distance learning courses at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN) have contributed to building successful academic careers. We will highlight some recent examples registered in two different Presential Support Centers. The first one comes from Currais Novos/RN, in the Seridó Region of the state. The other successful case is that of two former students from the Nova Cruz/RN hub. In places distant from major urban centers, distance learning allows students to optimize the time available for work and study and, at the same time, awakens in the student a sense of organization of tasks.

At 32 years of age, the former student of EaD Chemistry, from the Currais Novos/RN branch, Renato Dantas de Medeiros, celebrates the results of his doctoral research: “we developed a new gynecological formulation, in the form of hydrogel, for the treatment of vaginal candidiasis”. This type of infection is caused by the Candida fungus, which lodges in the vaginal region, causing itching, secretion and inflammation. Also according to the researcher, “the formulation contains as active pharmaceutical ingredient (API), the extract of the bark of the imburana stem, a tree native to the caatinga biome, concentrated in Northeast Brazil.

The discovery had the patent application filed with the National Institute of Intellectual Property (INPI) and consolidates a trajectory started in the undergraduate course, completed in 2014, at UFRN, with a sandwich period at the University of Coimbra (UC), in Portugal, through the International Graduation Program. Today, Renato Medeiros reaps the fruits of his dedication to the study routine. Currently, he is a doctoral student in the Technological Development and Innovation in Drugs course at UFRN and is doing a doctoral internship at the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM), in Spain.

Expected to return to Brazil in May 2023, Renato highlights the contribution of distance learning to his achievements: “the EaD/UFRN Chemistry course gave me pedagogical support and the necessary infrastructure to enter the initial teacher training, through the monitoring scholarship in the Chemistry laboratory of the Currais Novos/RN pole and, also, in research, through the completion of the sandwich undergraduate course at the University of Coimbra, in Portugal”. Due to his accumulated expertise, he became a reviewer of articles published in the international journal Scientific Reports, from the Nature group.

Silvana Zucolotto, a professor at UFRN’s Pharmacy Department, has been accompanying Renato for a few years and is currently coordinating the research developed by the doctoral student. According to her: “since the selection for the master’s degree, he stood out, he made a great effort to understand the drugs part, and today, I say that he is a chemist that understands a lot about the pharmaceutical area, he is independent, he has ideas and scientific maturity”.

In our next report we will tell the story of two former Chemistry students from the Nova Cruz/RN campus who were part of the first class of the course and who met again to develop applied research.

Bruno Cássio – Communication Advisor of SEDIS/UFRN.

Category: distance education, News, special, UFRN