BIG declares Dr. María Elena Bottazzi person of the year for her outstanding medical career, her contributions to the fight against COVID-19 and for placing the name of Honduras at the top of world science.
Honduras is an internationally recognized vaccinist and global health advocate for neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) and emerging and re-emerging diseases of pandemic and biodefense significance.
She is currently a vaccinist, teacher, researcher and resides in the United States. She is an associate dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine, a professor of pediatrics, and co-director of the Texas Children’s Hospital Vaccine Development Center at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, where she co-directs the development of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Thanks to her research during the COVID-19 pandemic, she was nominated together with Dr. Peter Hotez for the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize, for developing the Corbevax vaccine against COVID-19.
This is the first vaccine that does not require a patent, is low cost and can be distributed in large quantities; which represents the hope of stopping the pandemic in poor countries.
PROUD OF HIS ROOTS
Born in Genoa, Italy while her father, Luis Bottazzi, performed diplomatic duties for the government of Honduras. When her period ended, María Elena returned with her Italian father and mother to Honduras and grew up between Tegucigalpa and Olancho because her father had a farm in Juticalpa.
She completed her primary education at the Elvel School and graduated as a microbiologist at the National Autonomous University of Honduras (UNAH) in 1989. Subsequently, she obtained a PhD in Molecular Immunology and Experimental Pathology at the University of Florida and completed postdoctoral training in Cell Biology at the University of Miami and Pennsylvania.
She has the memory of this student phase that has always been considered a nerd for being very dedicated to studying. “Our Nobel”, one of her Italian uncles always called him. There was always time to escape with her mates carefully and she had a few boyfriends. She married one of them, but it didn’t work out and then she gave birth to the white gabacha. You always maintain contact with the Honduran Alma Mater, supporting various projects. “I’m proudly a cougar,” she declares.
In his career, more than two decades of experience stand out, applying innovative management models for the development of new technologies, developed programs to increase human capacity in biotechnology in a sustainable way, and successfully transitioned several vaccines for tropical diseases ( such as being nematodes) and emerging (such as SARS, MERS and COVID-19) from laboratory to clinical trials.
In his interviews, he always highlights his childhood in Olancho, where he was able to see how people suffered from not having good medical services. Experiencing these difficulties has aroused her interest not only in understanding what diseases are, but also the pathologies that cause them and how to find adequate solutions for these populations in poor countries.
CORBEVAX, HOPE FOR THE POOR
Bottazzi said that to arrive at the technology that Corbevax eventually created, they focused on simple models, using conventional technologies, such as recombinant proteins that are produced in yeast through a somewhat vegan, let’s say, synthetic production, a method that had already been used for other vaccines, such as aptite B. This allowed us to make the processes widely known to other manufacturers and to transfer knowledge and technology quickly. Subsequently, the Baylor College Hospital, where he works, formed an alliance with the Biological E laboratory in India, managing to obtain the prescriptions of the vaccine with which they currently produce 140 million doses per month. This model has multiplied like a snowball in Indonesia, Africa and Latin America.
WORLD REFERENCE
As a world leader, he has received prestigious national and international awards, published more than 150 scientific articles and participated in more than 200 conferences worldwide. He is currently an emerging leader in health and medicine studies at the US National Academy of Medicine. In Honduras, Dr. Bottazzi is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, of the José Cecilio del Valle National Prize of Sciences and of the Grand Cross Prize of the National Congress. In addition, he is an adjunct member of the Microbiology Research Institute of the School of Microbiology of the National Autonomous University of Honduras. She was recently awarded the Research Award by the Carlos Slim Foundation and in August of this year Forbes LATAM selected her as one of the 100 most powerful women in Central America. In July of this year, she was selected by The New York Times and the Carnegie Corporation as one of the 32 Greatest Immigrants and Americans of 2022. “It is time to celebrate immigrants for the many ways they enrich and strengthen our culture, democracy and society through their life, their work and their example”, underlined the organization precisely on Independence Day in the USA. (FOR INSTANCE)
