Maria Elena Bottazzi
Bottazzi interviewed in 2020
Born1966 Edit this on Wikidata

Maria Elena Bottazzi (born 1966 in Genoa) is an American[1] microbiologist, currently Associate Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, as well as Distinguished Professor of Biology at Baylor University, Waco, Texas. She is editor-in-chief of Springer's Current Tropical Medicine Reports. She and Peter Hotez led the team that designed COVID-19 vaccine Corbevax.

Early life and education

The daughter of a Honduran diplomat, Bottazzi was born in Italy; she moved to Honduras when she was eight.[2][3][4] She studied microbiology and clinical chemistry as an undergraduate at the National Autonomous University of Honduras (1989), then earned a doctorate in molecular immunology and experimental pathology from the University of Florida in 1995.[5] She completed post-doctoral work in cellular biology at the University of Miami (1998) and the University of Pennsylvania (2001).[5]

Career

Bottazzi is Associate Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, and Distinguished Professor of Biology at Baylor University, Waco, Texas.[5]

Along with Peter Hotez, Bottazzi runs the Texas Children's Hospital Center for Vaccine Development.[6] The center develops vaccines for neglected tropical diseases and other emerging and infectious diseases. One of these vaccines was a SARS-CoV vaccine that was ready for human trials in 2016, but at the time the team could find no one interested in funding it.[7] With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Bottazzi and Hotez secured funding to develop Corbevax, a COVID-19 vaccine their group offered without taking a licensing fee for the intellectual property, in hopes of lowering costs of vaccination.[8] It also employs recombinant protein technology, used in vaccines since the 1980s (like the Hepatitis B vaccine),[9] with hopes this would be easier for manufacturers to produce than the newer mRNA technology.[8] In December 2021, Corbevax received emergency use authorization from India, which preordered 300 million doses.[8]

In 2017 Bottazzi received the Orden Gran Cruz Placa de Oro.[10]

She is editor in chief of Springer's Current Tropical Medicine Reports.[2]

References

  1. ↑ "Maria Elena Bottazzi: "Il nostro nuovo vaccino è un regalo al mondo. Adesso potremo sconfiggere la pandemia"". Il Secolo XIX. 2022-01-08. Retrieved 2022-02-03.
  2. 1 2 "La científica hondureña en la carrera por crear una vacuna contra el coronavirus en Estados Unidos". BBC News Mundo (in Spanish). Retrieved 2021-12-31.
  3. ↑ "Maria Elena Bottazzi | Infectious Diseases Data Observatory". www.iddo.org. Archived from the original on 2021-01-22. Retrieved 2021-01-28.
  4. ↑ "Dra. Maria Elena Bottazzi". iddo.org. infectious diseases data observatory. Archived from the original on 22 January 2021. Retrieved 9 April 2021.
  5. 1 2 3 "Maria Elena Bottazzi, Ph.D." Baylor College of Medicine. Archived from the original on 26 April 2021. Retrieved 9 April 2021.
  6. ↑ "Disease Targets | Texas Children's Hospital". www.texaschildrens.org. Archived from the original on 2021-02-07. Retrieved 2021-04-09.
  7. ↑ "Scientists were close to a coronavirus vaccine years ago. Then the money dried up". NBC News. Retrieved 2021-12-31.
  8. 1 2 3 Taylor, Adam (December 30, 2021). "A new coronavirus vaccine heading to India was developed by a small team in Texas. It expects nothing in return". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on December 30, 2021. Retrieved December 30, 2021.
  9. ↑ "Low-cost and easy-to-make Covid-19 vaccine invented by Texas hospital team wins authorization in India". CNN. 2021-12-28. Retrieved 2021-12-30.
  10. ↑ "Congreso otorga su máxima presea a Amado Núñez y María Elena Bottazzi". September 21, 2017. Archived from the original on February 2, 2021. Retrieved January 26, 2021.
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