# Selected Dr. Consuelo Macías to join group of academics of sciences of the world

**Date:** 09/06/2020

The Academy of Sciences of Cuba (ACC) is pleased to inform that Doctor of Sciences Consuelo Macías Abrahams has been selected to join the Partnership Group of Science Academies of the World (IAP by its English acronym), to collaborate in the position and drafting of a document on Regenerative Medicine, as specified by the institution in information published on its digital site.

It notes that this is a select group that must contribute scientific knowledge, expertise, as well as ethical issues in the major advances this new discipline is having, which spans from gene therapies, use of stem cells, tissue engineering and others.

It warns that currently there is a gap between scientific results, expectations and the possibility of technology transfers to clinical practice.

It explains that the work of that IAP Group will be organized electronically, the final result will be released by the end of this year and will be directed by the President of IAP himself, Doctor Volker ter Meulen, Director of the Institute of Virology and Immunobiology, at the University of Wuerzburg, Germany.

Macías Abrahams is the current Director of Cuba's National Institute of Hematology and Immunology, of the Ministry of Public Health, and has extraordinary experience in these subjects, especially in the use of stem cells and recently in the use of autoimmune plasma to address the COVID-19 pandemic.

In less than 5 months, the Cuban professional is the eighth that the Inter Academies Panel selects of scientists and Cuban academics directly involved in confronting the new coronavirus, in a decision that provoked a favorable reception in the national scientific community.

Luis Velázquez Pérez, Neuroscientist, and President of the ACC, also congratulated his colleagues for having been chosen to form study teams in medical specialties related to severe acute respiratory syndrome or SARS-CoV-2.

Currently, 140 national and regional Science Academies are members of the IAP and include sciences, engineering and medicine, although the Cuban one has been a member since its foundation in 1993.

Specialists from the ACC reported that the complete list of those selected included Pedro Mas Bermejo, Epidemiologist, Academic of Merit, from the Pedro Kourí Institute of Tropical Medicine (IPK); and Luis Herrera Martínez, Biotechnologist, Academic of Merit and Advisor to the Group of Biotechnological and Pharmaceutical Industries of Cuba (BioCubaFarma).
Luis Carlos Silva Aycaguer, Statistician - Mathematician, Academic of Merit, from the National School of Public Health; Tania Crombet Ramos, Immunologist, Full Academic, from the Molecular Immunology Center; and Guadalupe Guzmán Tirado, Virologist, Academic of Merit, from the IPK.

Also, Rafael Bello Pérez, Computer Science-Artificial Intelligence, from the Central University of Las Villas Martha Abreu; and Jorge Núñez Jover, Social Sciences, from the Chair of Science, Technology and Society, at the University of Havana.

They added that the central objective of this multidisciplinary Panel will be to provide mechanisms to other academies and to national governments of reliable information about COVID-19 and its implications in their own territories.

The Panel of selected experts is made up of a select group of only 20 members of the Academies, from various fields of expertise and from around the world who will be the scientific leaders that will work with three Co-moderators, the Secretariat and a specific Committee of the IAP.