Empreendedorismo high-tech no Brasil: condicionantes econômicos, políticos e culturais

O artigo aborda o fenômeno do empreendedorismo tecnológico, em crescimento no Brasil, estimulado sobretudo pelo avanço das tecnologias de informação e comunicação e por ações governamentais como a Política de Desenvolvimento Produtivo, de maio de 2008, que propõe aumento de 10% no número de micro e pequenas exportadoras, até 2010. O estudo baseia-se em uma abordagem multidimensional que destaca a importância de aspectos econômicos, institucionais, culturais e cognitivos e que supõe uma articulação entre fatores objetivos e subjetivos, entre níveis micro e macro. Os dados empíricos foram coletados através de entrevistas realizadas com empreendedores cujas empresas encontram-se em incubadoras tecnológicas, localizadas em três campi de universidades, no estado do Rio Grande do Sul. As evidências encontradas reforçam a hipótese de que estaria ocorrendo o que se poderia chamar de "mudança cultural", no sentido de que profissionais com alta qualificação, demandados pelo mercado de trabalho, apresentam comportamentos, valores e objetivos, distintos dos esperados - obter um emprego bem remunerado em uma grande empresa, pública ou privada; ênfase nos valores econômicos; individualismo; exercício de poder.The article is concerned with discussing high tech entrepreneurship, which has grown in Brazil, fostered by the advancement of the information and communication technologies and by government actions, as illustrated by the Productive Development Policy, from May, 2008, which sets a target of 10 percent growth, for exporting micro and small enterprises, until 2010. The study was based on a multi-dimensional approach underlying the importance of the economic, institutional, cultural and cognitive factors and the interrelationship between the objective and subjective, the macro and micro levels. The empirical data were obtained through interviews with entrepreneurs whose firms are part of technological incubators, located within three university campi, in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The findings tend to support the hypothesis that a "cultural change "may be taking place among high tech professionals whose skills are highly demanded by the labor market, considering that their behavior, values and objectives differ from what would be expected - to get a stable, well paid job in a large corporation, private or state owned, as well as to embrace economic, individualistic values, as the exercise of power

Organoid cultures derived from patients with advanced prostate cancer

The lack of in vitro prostate cancer models that recapitulate the diversity of human prostate cancer has hampered progress in understanding disease pathogenesis and therapy response. Using a 3D organoid system, we report success in long-term culture of prostate cancer from biopsy specimens and circulating tumor cells. The first seven fully characterized organoid lines recapitulate the molecular diversity of prostate cancer subtypes, including TMPRSS2-ERG fusion, SPOP mutation, SPINK1 overexpression, and CHD1 loss. Whole-exome sequencing shows a low mutational burden, consistent with genomics studies, but with mutations in FOXA1 and PIK3R1, as well as in DNA repair and chromatin modifier pathways that have been reported in advanced disease. Loss of p53 and RB tumor suppressor pathway function are the most common feature shared across the organoid lines. The methodology described here should enable the generation of a large repertoire of patient-derived prostate cancer lines amenable to genetic and pharmacologic studies