Courtesy Photo | WRAIR’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and HJF visit the Butantan Institute...... read more read more
The Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) and the Henry Jackson Foundation visited São Paulo’s Butantan Institute, also known as Instituto Butantan in Portuguese, from 17–21 February 2025.
During the visit, representatives from WRAIR’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and the Henry Jackson Foundation met with Dr. Esper Kallás, director of the Butantan Institute, and his team. The Butantan Institute specializes in the production of antitoxins and biopharmaceuticals. Their discussions centered on synergizing surveillance and vaccine development efforts, specifically for dengue fever, chikungunya, bunyavirus, and other emerging threats.
“The Butantan Institute is world-renowned for their antivenoms and is the main producer of the influenza vaccine in Brazil,” said Lt. Col. Farmer, Director of CIDR’s Viral Disease Program. “The Institute has a 15-year partnership with the National Institute of Health to develop vaccines. There’s a lot of overlap with WRAIR that creates great opportunity for us to enhance each other’s capabilities.”
In addition to coordinating vaccine production and preparing for possible clinical trials, both parties see potential in establishing a robust disease surveillance system in Brazil. “Brazil is a hotspot for arthropod-borne viruses like dengue or yellow fever,” explained Farmer. “This partnership could help us expand our ability to surveil for these diseases in places where we currently have blind spots and help us keep our warfighters healthy and prepared.”
WRAIR and the Butantan Institute are currently developing agreements to forge this collaboration. Visits between the involved parties are essential to establish the coordinated partnerships required to protect force health and global health.
| Date Taken: | 04.09.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 04.10.2025 15:14 |
| Story ID: | 494957 |
| Location: | BR |
| Web Views: | 59 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, WRAIR visits the Butantan Institute to advance collaboration on disease surveillance and vaccine production, by Zeke Gonzalez, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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