SPH Scientists Help Design AIDS Lab in Mexico

By William J. Cromie

Gazette Staff

The most advanced AIDS virus laboratory in Latin America has been built in Mexico with aid from the faculty and staff of the Harvard School of Public Health.

Located at the University of Nuevo León in Monterrey, the facility is designed for research on high concentrations of dangerous viruses that include those that cause hepatitis and Venezuelan encephalitis. Some of these pathogens, including new strains of the AIDS virus spreading to North American from Africa and Asia, threaten to invade the United States and Mexico.

"The laboratory will allow Mexican researchers to safely study viruses at concentrations needed to develop vaccines and to identify the genes of different strains," says Roberto Trujillo, an instructor at the School of Public Health (SPH). He initiated the idea of the laboratory and approached Harvard for help in making it a reality.

Trujillo enlisted the support of Max Essex, chair of the Harvard AIDS Institute (HAI), and Mary McLane, lab manager for the HAI. The design of the Monterrey lab is based partly on Harvard's facility. Both labs are tightly sealed and the flow of fresh and contaminated air is strictly controlled.

"Work on high concentrations of viruses, such as are needed for diagnoses and testing, used to be done in the United States," Trujillo notes. "That was very expensive for Mexican researchers. Also, Mexican Ph.D.s trained in virology in the U.S. had nowhere to work if they returned to their country.

"Before the new lab was built, there were a lot of young scientists in Mexico who did good work with surrogate viruses," notes Essex. "You can address some of the questions about the AIDS virus that way, but obviously you can't do it very completely or directly."

Trujillo has dual citizenship and holds the title of "extraordinary professor" at the University of Nuevo León. "'Extraordinary' means 'without pay,' so I have asked if I can be an ordinary professor," he quips.

Trujillo, who received his Ph.D. from SPH in 1995, arranged a visit to Harvard in February 1997 for Reyes Taméz Guerra, president and head of immunology of the University of Nuevo León. He was accompanied by his wife, Cristina Rodríguez Padilla, who is now head of the new lab. She received two months training at SPH in safety and other procedures.

The lab was finished and dedicated with a ceremony and symposium last February. The President of Mexico, Ernesto Zedillo, attended the ceremonies and presented Max Essex with an award recognizing his support of science in Mexico, particularly at the University of Nuevo León. Essex is also Lasker Professor of Health Science at SPH. Joseph Brain, Drinker Professor of Environmental Physiology, with whom Trujillo works on AIDS problems, also attended, as did eminent AIDS researchers from the U.S. and other countries.