IPN starts international projects in vaccine development

Enrique Soto

"The governing institution of scientific and technological education in Mexico has initiated four international projects in vaccine development and disease prevention in collaboration with the United States, the United Kingdom, Spain, and Brazil," stated Arturo Reyes Sandoval, the Director General of the Instituto Politécnico Nacional, during his participation in the Second Session of the IMSS Foundation Council.

The head of the Politécnico detailed that this international collaboration is carried out through the Laboratorio Nacional de Vacunología y Virus Tropicales (LNVVT) and the new graduate program in Vaccines and Biopharmaceuticals - both supported by the National Council of Humanities, Sciences, and Technologies (Conahcyt) - which aim to train the new generation of vaccinologists.

"We will not be able to address future epidemics solely through the development of vaccine after vaccine; we also need to focus on understanding how we are altering the environment of animals and plants," he warned.

Reyes Sandoval commented that one of Mexico's priority tasks is to adopt the approach known as "One Health" to address the challenges that will arise in this field.

He explained that the Politécnico promotes the creation of a Research Network to identify tools and methodologies that impact the human, animal, plant, and environmental interfaces.

He stated that with the strengths achieved in 87 years of institutional existence, the IPN currently offers 78 academic programs in the field of health at the three academic levels: middle school, undergraduate, and graduate.

He emphasized that the Politécnico, since last year, has 1,427 researchers and 10 Emeritus Researchers in the National System of Researchers (SNI) under the responsibility of Conahcyt. He argued that an important aspect of working in the field of health is prevention, and historically, vaccines have been the best method to address this challenge.

The Director General of the IPN highlighted that last year, this educational institution inaugurated a specialized center for biotechnological drugs, which adds to the strength of its 19 research centers.

"At the Politécnico - the hope for a sustainable, healthy, balanced, and just future - this translates into a permanent, planned, and coordinated institutional effort, as established in our motto: ´La Técnica al Servicio de la Patria´”, he concluded.

At the time, Zoé Robledo Aburto, the Director General of the Mexican Social Security Institute, expressed that with its 80 years of existence, IMSS responds to the historical call to contribute to the universality of timely and quality medical care.

In that regard, he recognized Dr. Reyes Sandoval for being a pioneer in the design of adenovirus vaccines, a platform that enabled the development of a vaccine against COVID-19.

Selección Gaceta Politécnica #163. 2023, June 30th. IPN Imagen Institucional: Read the full magazine in spanish here