Maria Elena Bottazzi (born 1966 in

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian ce ...

) is a Honduran and Italian-born naturalized

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

microbiologist, currently Associate Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at

Baylor College of Medicine Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) is a medical school and research center in Houston, Texas, within the Texas Medical Center, the world's largest medical center. BCM is composed of four academic components: the School of Medicine, the Graduate Sc ...

, as well as Distinguished Professor of Biology at

Baylor University Baylor University is a private Baptist Christian research university in Waco, Texas. Baylor was chartered in 1845 by the last Congress of the Republic of Texas. Baylor is the oldest continuously operating university in Texas and one of the fir ...

, Waco, Texas. She is editor-in-chief of Springer's '' Current Tropical Medicine Reports''. She and

Peter Hotez Peter Jay Hotez (born May 5, 1958) is an American scientist, pediatrician, and advocate in the fields of global health, vaccinology, and neglected tropical disease control. He serves as founding dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine, P ...

led the team that designed

COVID-19 vaccine A COVID19 vaccine is a vaccine intended to provide acquired immunity against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‑CoV‑2), the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 ( COVID19). Prior to the COVID19 pandemic, an e ...

Corbevax Corbevax is a protein subunit COVID-19 vaccine developed by Texas Children's Hospital Center for Vaccine Development and Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas and Dynavax technologies based in Emeryville, California. It is licensed to ...

Early life and education

The daughter of a Honduran diplomat, Bottazzi was born in Italy; she moved to Honduras when she was eight. She studied microbiology and clinical chemistry as an undergraduate at the

National Autonomous University of Honduras National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...

(1989), then earned a doctorate in molecular immunology and experimental pathology from the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

in 1995. She completed post-doctoral work in

cellular biology Cell biology (also cellular biology or cytology) is a branch of biology that studies the structure, function, and behavior of cells. All living organisms are made of cells. A cell is the basic unit of life that is responsible for the living and ...

at the

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida. , the university enrolled 19,096 students in 12 colleges and schools across nearly 350 academic majors and programs, incl ...

(1998) and the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

(2001).

Career

Bottazzi is Associate Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at

, and Distinguished Professor of Biology at

, Waco, Texas. Along with

, Bottazzi runs the Texas Children's Hospital Center for Vaccine Development. The center develops vaccines for

neglected tropical diseases Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) are a diverse group of tropical disease, tropical infections that are common in low-income populations in Developing country, developing regions of Africa, Asia, and the Americas. They are caused by a variety ...

and other emerging and infectious diseases. One of these vaccines was a

SARS-CoV Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 1 (SARS-CoV-1; or Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus, SARS-CoV) is a strain of coronavirus that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), the respiratory illness responsible for t ...

vaccine that was ready for human trials in 2016, but at the time the team could find no one interested in funding it. With the onset of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, Bottazzi and Hotez secured funding to develop

, a

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

vaccine their group offered without taking a licensing fee for the intellectual property, in hopes of lowering costs of vaccination. It also employs

recombinant protein Recombinant DNA (rDNA) molecules are DNA molecules formed by laboratory methods of genetic recombination (such as molecular cloning) that bring together genetic material from multiple sources, creating sequences that would not otherwise be fou ...

technology, used in vaccines since the 1980s (like the Hepatitis B vaccine), with hopes this would be easier for manufacturers to produce than the newer

mRNA In molecular biology, messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) is a single-stranded molecule of RNA that corresponds to the genetic sequence of a gene, and is read by a ribosome in the process of Protein biosynthesis, synthesizing a protein. mRNA is ...

technology. In December 2021, Corbevax received emergency use authorization from India, which preordered 300 million doses. In 2017 Bottazzi received the Orden Gran Cruz Placa de Oro. She is editor in chief of Springer's '' Current Tropical Medicine Reports''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bottazzi, Maria Elena 21st-century American biologists Women microbiologists Baylor University faculty Living people University of Florida alumni American microbiologists American women biologists Place of birth missing (living people) American women academics Baylor College of Medicine faculty 21st-century American women scientists 1966 births