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So how did an MBLcourse show up more than 5,000 miles from Woods Hole? 

Course director Roberto Mayor was so inspired by his time in the 1988 MBLEmbryology course that he decided to try to replicate the experience for promising students in Latin America. Scientific research has improved in Latin America in recent years and developmental biology is a rapidly growing field, according to Mayor. He wanted to be a part of that. 

“There is growing demand in learning new scientific approaches and techniques in Latin America, and even more importantly, there is an urgent need to facilitate interactions between young Latin American students and world leaders in developmental biology,” said Mayor.

According to faculty member , Quintay is more than a course. “It is a window to a world of science that in many cases has been but a whisper to many students in Latin America.” 

The course has proved popular since it started in 1999 (originally in Santiago, Chile, before it moved permanently to Quintay in 2004). Faculty regularly receive hundreds of applications for the 20 student slots. The students who attend are highly motivated, and frequently describe the course as a “life-changing experience,” said Mayor. 

More than 90 percent of the students that took the course in its early years are now principal investigators in developmental biology in Latin America, the United States and in Europe.

“Personally, Quintay always serves as a reminder that while not everybody can become a scientist, great scientists can come from anywhere,” said Alvarado.