Instituto Butantan

Instituto Butantan (in modern Portuguese, Instituto Butantã) is a Brazilian biologic research center affiliated to the São Paulo State Secretary of Health. Considered one of the major scientific centers in the world,Butantan is the largest immunobiologicals and biopharmaceuticals producer in Latin America (and one of the largest of the world). It is world-renowned for its collection of poisonous snakes, including as well venomous lizards, spiders, insects and scorpions. By extracting the reptiles and insects' poisons, the Institute develops vaccines against many diseases, which include tuberculosis, rabies, tetanus and diphtheria. The center also produces antidotes to the bites of poisonous animals.

The Institute was founded by the Brazilian physician and biomedical scientist Vital Brazil in 1901, according to Pasteur Institute paradigm, i.e., by combining in the same institution medical research, the transfer of the results to society as health products, and self-financing through this later activity. Its foundation was a reaction to the outbreak of bubonic plague in the city of Santos. It is internationally renowned for its research on venomous animals; it was visited by Theodore Roosevelt in 1912. It is also a state-supported producer of vaccines against many infectious diseases, such as rabies, hepatitis, botulism, tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis and tuberculosis, as well as polyvalent and monovalent antivenoms against the bites of snakes, lizards, bees, scorpions and spiders (which, historically were first developed in the beginning of the 20th century by Dr. Vital Brazil and his coworkers). Among the distinguished scientists at the institute were biochemists Karl Slotta and Heinz Fraenkel-Conrat, pioneers in the study of progesterone, estriol, and medical use of venom, from 1935 to 1948.

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