Scientists with Vision: Dr. Manuel Elkin Patarroyo

Biodata

Born: 1947

Nationality: Colombian

Education: National University of Colombia medical faculty; post-graduate study at Yale, U.S.A.; PhD at Rockefeller University, U.S.A.

Occupation: Professor of the National University of Colombia. Founder and Director of the Colombian Institute of Immunology.

Awards: The Alejandro Angel Escobar National Award for Science (1979, 1981, 1984 and 1986); 1990 Academy of Sciences of the Third World (Venezuela); 1994 Doctor of the Year (France); 1995 WHO Leon Bernard Prize, 2002 Health Personality of the Year (Spain).

This is the second in WIPO Magazine's series of interviews with distinguished scientists and researchers, each of whom embodies the qualities of creativity and innovation which the intellectual property system is designed to stimulate.

Pathologist Manuel Elkin Patarroyo is Colombia's best known and most colorful scientist. Passionately committed to science in the service of humanity, he has dedicated his life's work to the search for vaccines against the "orphan diseases" which claim the lives of millions in developing countries each year. Dr. Patarroyo broke new ground with his first, partially effective, chemical malaria vaccine in 1986, for which he subsequently donated the patent to the World Health Organisation (WHO). Since then he has pursued his goal of producing a 100 percent effective malaria vaccine.

Dr. Patarroyo, can you tell us how you came to devote yourself to medical research?

My vocation came from the dreams which my parents nurtured in me from childhood. They considered that the best thing a person could do was to make himself useful to others; and that the most fascinating thing in life was knowledge. If you put those two things together, essentially you have a scientist working for the well-being of humanity. They gave me comics and children's books to read, including books about Louis Pasteur. I was fascinated by this man who dedicated his whole life to preventing diseases. Pasteur became my idol - and he still is my idol.

What made you choose to focus on vaccines for "orphan" diseases?

When I studied in New York at the Rockefeller University, I observed an enormous imbalance from the point of view of scientific research. It is legitimate for developed countries to work on the main pathology or health problems which affect their own populations. But the diseases in developing countries had been neglected. Coming myself from a developing...