Six to ten years would take the Chagas disease vaccine that Mexican and American scientists are developing, projected the Carlos Slim Health Institute Director of Global Solutions Dr. Miguel Betancourt Cravioto.
For three years, he said “specialists from institutions like the Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, USA; the Center for Research and Advanced Studies of the National Polytechnic Institute (CINVESTAV) and the Autonomous University of Yucatan, are collaborating in a first phase [of this vaccine], with an investment of little over a million dollars.”
In the XIII International Congress of Parasitology (ICOPA) framework, Dr. Betancourt predicted that in three years field tests will be conducted, after developing the industrial process with the required safety rules and efficiency.
For three years, he said “specialists from institutions like the Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, USA; the Center for Research and Advanced Studies of the National Polytechnic Institute (CINVESTAV) and the Autonomous University of Yucatan, are collaborating in a first phase [of this vaccine], with an investment of little over a million dollars.”
He also said that researchers from the University of Yucatán found the TC24 and TSA-1 antigens, which would lead eventually to the vaccine. While in the CINVESTAV is being performed the biotechnological process, i.e. the development of the system to produce the proteins that will be a vaccine’s part.
Dr. Betancourt specified that the Carlos Slim Foundation provides support to improve the detection of Chagas disease in blood banks in the country.
ICOPA is the largest International Parasitology Congress in the world and Mexico got this year to host the event for its advances in research. The Carlos Slim Foundation was one of the most important contributors of technology in this event, with the construction and operation of 9 ‘electronic trees’ where nearly 900 research papers are being showed. The installed capacity is 36 simultaneous banners changing every hour for 7 hours a day, during the 5 days the conference will last. Telmex provided the Internet broadband connection, Infinitum Technology, for the 11 halls and the exhibition area in facilities Camino Real Mexico City.
