Genetics and genomic medicine in colombia

De Castro, Mauricio; Restrepo Fernández, Carlos Martín

doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/mgg3.139

Ítem

Acceso Abierto

Genetics and genomic medicine in colombia

https://repository.urosario.edu.co/handle/10336/24763
https://doi.org/10.1002/mgg3.139

Autores

De Castro, Mauricio

Restrepo Fernández, Carlos Martín

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Fecha

2015

Editor

Wiley-Blackwell

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Abstract

Colombia is a country located in the northwest corner ofSouth America (Fig. 1). Initially founded in 1717 as theViceroyalty of New Grenada, it underwent many transitionsin its government and territory after winning its indepen-dence from Spain in 1819, ?nally becoming the Republic ofColombia in 1886 (CIA, World Fact Book: https://www.cia.-gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/co.html ).Known of?cially as the Republic of Colombia, it sharesborders with Venezuela and Brazil to the east; with Peruand Ecuador to the south; and with Panama to theNorthwest; it also shares maritime borders with Nicara-gua, Honduras, Jamaica, Dominican Republic, Haiti, andCosta Rica. Colombia is in a unique position in SouthAmerica, possessing coasts on both Oceans; it borders theCaribbean Sea between Venezuela and Panama and thePaci?c Ocean between Ecuador and Panama (CIA, WorldFact Book).It has a total land area of 1,138,910 square km, whichmakes it slightly less than twice the size of Texas. Its grossdomestic product (GDP) was 378.4 billion in 2013.Colombia’s growth was 4.7% in 2013, which was abovethe regional average of 3.7%. The World Bank considersColombia a middle power and is part of the CIVETsgroup of six leading emergent markets (Schulz 2010).Colombia is also one of 17 megadiverse countries in theworld. It is considered the most biodiverse by square kilo-meter (Declaraci?on de Canc?un: http://www.inecc.gob.mx/descargas/ai/con199328.pdf) and has the largest numberof endemisms (species not found anywhere else) (Con-vention on Biological Diversity: http://www.cbd.int/countries/?country=co). Colombia hosts 10% of all spe-cies in the world, including 10% of all mammals, 14% ofamphibian species, and 20% of birds; it has 32 terrestrialbiomes and 314 types of ecosystems (SIB Colombia:http://www.sibcolombia.net/web/sib/cifras).