Instituto Oswaldo Cruz

Instituto Oswaldo Cruz (FIOCRUZ) is a scientific institution for research and development in biomedical sciences located in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, it is considered the world's main public health research institution. It was founded by Dr. Oswaldo Cruz, a noted physician and epidemiologist.

The Federal Serum Therapy Institute was established with the objective of developing serum and vaccines against the bubonic plague. The institute’s activities, however, changed from simple production into research and experimental medicine, especially after Oswaldo Cruz assumed its leadership in 1902. From there on, the institute became the base for memorable sanitation campaigns in an age of outbreaks and epidemics of the bubonic plague, yellow fever, and smallpox. The Institute, however, was not confined to Rio de Janeiro and, on the contrary, collaborated in the occupation of the country’s inlands through scientific expeditions, aiding in the development of the country. When Oswaldo Cruz died, in 1917, the Institute, which by then already bore his name, was nationally consolidated through important scientific achievements, such as Carlos Chagas’ description of the complete cycle of the American trypanosomiasis including the clinical pattern of the disease.On 16 January 2007, the Institute announced that it had developed a gel from algae which it is hoped will reduce HIV transmission to women. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6266527.stm]

The institute through its foundation and the World Community Grid project, is involved in the Fiocruz Genome Comparison Project which is designed to produce a database comparing the genes from many genomes with each other using SSEARCH.

External links

* [http://www.fiocruz.br/ingles/historia/historiaframe.htm History of Manguinhos] from the Oswaldo Cruz Institute.