Participant 3 Butantan Institute (BR) Luciana Leite
WP-1 Leader

Institution and Expertise:
Instituto Butantan is a State Government institution under the Secretary of Health, dedicated to the research, development and production of venom and anti-venom serum, and vaccines. The Institute currently produces BCG, DPT and Recombinant Hepatitis B vaccines for the Federal Government Health Ministry. The Center of Biotechnology develops immunobiologicals and biopharmaceutical products and processes, which are transferred to the Production Division. Besides the Hepatitis B vaccine, an acellular pertussis vaccine and a Meningitis B/C vaccines were developed at the Center and are currently being transferred to the Production Division.

Personnel involved
Luciana Leite has considerable experience in vaccine development. She has worked for several years on cell biology, biochemistry and has coordinated the development of the Meningitis B/C vaccine at Butantan.
Waldely O. Dias, with large experience in immunology, who coordinated the development of the acellular pertussis vaccine, now going into production.
Post-doctoral scientist to be appointed.

Ongoing projects and previous collaboration
Dr. Leite has been working with recombinant BCG since, she was a post-doc in Dr. Brigitte Gicquel's/Nathalie Winter's (Partner No 6) in 1996. In 1997, a rBCG laboratory was established at Instituto Butantan, working initially on rBCG-DPT (diphteria, pertussis and tetanus) vaccines, which latter expanded to include a pneumococcal rBCG vaccine, in collaboration with Institut Pasteur. Dr. Leite has also been working in collaboration with Dr. Dellagostin (Partner No 2) in the development of alternative expression systems in mycobacteria. The Center of Biotechnology of Instituto Butantan has also been working with Dr.Tendler's laboratoy (Partner No 8) to develope a recombinant schistosoma vaccine produced in E.coli.
Relevant Publications
1. Frasch, C.E., Sacchi, C.T., Brandiolone, M.C.C., Vieira, V.S.D and Leite, L.C.C., Development of a Second Generation Group B Meningococcal Vaccine", Natl. Inst.Public Health Annals, 14(2), 225-230 (1991).
2. Tanizaki, M.M., Garcia, L.R., Ramos, J.B., Leite, L.C.C., Hiss, H., Furuta, J.A., Cabrera-Crespo, J., Raw, I. « Purification of meningococcal group C polisacharide by a procedure suitable for scale-up. J. Microbiol. Methods, 27, 19-23 (1996).
3. Gamberini, M and Leite, L.C.C., "Proliferation of Mouse fibroblasts Induced by 1,2-dimethylhydrazine Auto-oxidation: Role of Iron and Free Radicals", Biochem.Biophys.Res.Commun. 234: 44-47 (1997).
4. Gamberini, M., Cidade, M.R., Valotta, L.A., Armelin, M.C.S. e Leite, L.C.C., " Contribution of Hydrazines-Derived Alkyl Radicals to Cytotoxicity and Transformation induced in Normal c-myc Overexpressing Mouse Fibroblasts", Carcinogenesis 19 (1), 147-155 (1998).
5. Gonçalves, V.M., Leite, L.C.C., Raw, I., Cabrera-Crespo, J., "Purification of Catalase from Human Placenta" Biotechnology and Applied Biochemistry, 29, 73-77 (1999).