# Patricia Sheen

Patricia Sheen Cortavarria (Huanuco, 1971) is a Peruvian biologist, Level 1 researcher of "National Scientific, Technological and Technological Innovation Registry" (Registro Nacional Científico, Tecnológico y de Innovación Tecnológica Renacyt, in spanish). She works as Coordinator of the Infectious Diseases Research Laboratory at Cayetano Heredia University.
She is known for winning the National L'Oréal-Unesco-Concytec Award for Women in Science 2014 with her project "Determination of Pyrazinamide Resistance Using Quantitative Wayne Method in Mycobacterium tuberculosis (TB) Strains.

## Biography

Since school, she has shown interest in studying related to life sciences, but not medicine. Therefore, she studied Biology at Ricardo Palma University with her thesis: Identification of Lactobacillus casei sp strain GG in feces using immunological diseases.

## Career

She went to the United States to study for a doctoral degree in Disease Control at Johns Hopkins University. She also has a master's degree in biochemistry from Cayetano Heredia University in Peru. She has developed projects funded by National Council for Science, Technology and Innovation (Consejo Nacional de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación Concytec in spanish) about the diagnosis of pulmonary and pleural tuberculosis, employing PCR methods and pleural fluid. Additionally, software designed to pinpoint intestinal parasites has been developed, among other projects. In 2021, she leaded a project from Peruvian Cayetano University of making a kit to diagnose tubercolusis rapidly using gas permeable materials to exchange oxygen without risk of contamination.

## Scientific research

Patricia Sheen has more than 70 scientific articles. These are some of the most relevant of her career.
In 1995, she published a short report in The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene with the nameA Placebo-Controlled Study of Lactobacillus GG Colonization in One-to-Three-Year-Old Peruvian Children
In 1998, her first scientific article about Mycobacterium tuberculosis was about its detection in nasopharyngeal aspirate samples in children.
In 2022, she published a scientific article that addresses the evaluation of alternative and economical culture media for the MOCS method in the diagnosis of tuberculosis.
In 2023, she was part of the study "Quantitative 1H Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Assay for the Rapid Detection of Pyrazinamide Resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis from Sputum Samples".

## Awards and recognitions

Patricia Sheen received the National L'Oréal-Unesco-Concytec Award for Women in Science 2014 presenting the "Determination of Pyrazinamide Resistance Using Quantitative Wayne Method in Mycobacterium tuberculosis (TB) Strains.
In 2021, her life and research story has appeared and also other female scientist stories in the Concytec book titled Scientists of Peru: 24 stories to discover (Científicas del Perú: 24 historias por descubrir, in spanish).
In 2023, Sheen obtained a gold medal and a special recognition with PhD Mirko Zimic, for their invention “Automatic equipment for the decontamination, purification and concentration of sputum for a cost-effective diagnosis of tuberculosis and multidrug resistance” in the 16th International Exhibition of Women's Inventions in South Korea, "KIWIE" 2023, took place in Seoul from July 20 to 22.