Manuel Elkin Patarroyo

Manuel Elkin Patarroyo
Born	Manuel Elkin Patarroyo March 11, 1946 (1946-03-11) (age 65) Ataco, Tolima, Colombia
Education	National University of Colombia (MD Rockefeller University (Ph.D)
Known for	Malaria license
Profession	Doctor
Institutions	Hospital San Juan de Dios, National University of Colombia
Specialism	Pathologist
Research	Immunology
Notable prizes	Prince of Asturias Awards (1994)

Manuel Elkin Patarroyo (born November 3, 1946) ^[1] is a Colombian pathologist who made the world's first attempt of synthetic vaccine for malaria,^[2] a disease transmitted by mosquitoes that affects millions of people in tropical and subtropical regions, including parts of the Americas, Asia, and Africa. The vaccine candidate, first developed in 1987, was evaluated in clinical trials carried out by the WHO in Gambia, Tanzania and Thailand, and had mixed results.^[3] In 2009, a comprehensive Cochrane review assessed the SPf66 as being not efficacious in Africa and Asia, and as having a low but statistically significant efficacy of 28% in South America.^[4] Today, after more than 33 years of research, the SPf66 malaria vaccine is not recommended for prophylaxis of malaria and is listed as "inactive" by the WHO.^[5]

Biography

Patarroyo studied medicine at the National University of Colombia, received a scholarship to Yale University, and subsequently received his PhD from Rockefeller University in New York.

He was working on improving the vaccine at the Instituto Nacional de Inmunología based in the Hospital San Juan de Dios in Bogotá, Colombia. Unfortunately, lack of government funding and mismanagement led to the bankruptcy of the Hospital San Juan de Dios and therefore to the relocation of his lab. After having worked for more than two decades at the Hospital San Juan de Dios, Dr. Patarroyo could not deter the demise of this very important Colombian teaching hospital.

Dr. Patarroyo has been criticized by the scientific community in Colombia for being the recipient of a disproportionate share of the scarce funds that the government allocates for scientific research.

Notes

1. ^ Fundación Príncipe de Asturias. Manuel Elkin Patarroyo (Spanish). Premiados, Investigación Científica y Técnica, 1994.
2. ^ Holloway, M. (1996) Profile: Manuel Elkin Patarroyo – The Man Who Would Conquer Malaria, Scientific American 275(6), 52-56.
3. ^ - Susan Aldridge, Magic Molecules: How Drugs Work (Cambridge University Press, 1998), p. 89
4. ^ - Graves, P. M. and Gelband, H. (2009) Vaccines for preventing malaria (SPf66) (Review), The Cochrane Library 2009, (2), pp.1-38.
5. ^ - WHO (2010) Tables of Malaria Vaccine Projects Globally (Updated December 2010), Initiative for Vaccine Research.

See also

• Malaria vaccine

External links

• Structural and Immunological Principles Leading to Chemically Synthesized, Multiantigenic, Multistage, Minimal Subunit-Based Vaccine Development, abstract of article in Chemical Reviews, from de American Chemical Society.
• Emerging Rules for Subunit-Based, Multiantigenic, Multistage Chemically Synthesized Vaccines, abstract of article in Accounts of Chemical Research, from the American Chemical Society.
• Toward A New Generation Of Vaccines For Malaria And Other Diseases in 'Science Daily'.
• Race for Malaria Money
• Scientists Herald Malaria Breakthrough
• Heroes: Manuel Patarroyo
• Guardian Unlimited: Scientist whose dream of beating disease came true
• Tables of Malaria Vaccine Projects

Persondata
Name	Patarroyo Murillo, Manuel Elkin
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	March 11, 1946
Place of birth	Ataco, Tolima, Colombia
Date of death
Place of death