At the celebration of the 60 years of the Institute of Tropical Medicine (IMT) of USP, held at the FMUSP Theater on December 10th, the renowned scientist Carlos da Silva Lacaz (1915-2002), Luís Rey (1918-2016) and Thales de Brito were some of the honored for their role in the history of the institute and for being in the vanguard of interdisciplinary research in tropical medicine. The celebration happened in a moment when IMT and FMUSP reorganize their structures for the creation of Integrated Centers of Academic Activities. It’s a unique space which should integrate the new internal regiment of FMUSP, which is in its constructing phase.
“The IMT has in its essence the integrated interdisciplinary education in all fronts, we have projected and settled into the Institutional Strategic Plan. It naturally can feature the achievement of the goals of the new Regiment, inscribed in the new organized figure of the Integrated Centers of Academic Activities”, said Prof. Aluísio Segurado, of the Infectious Diseases Department and President of the International Relations Committee (CRInt) of FMUSP.
According to Prof. Segurado, the research groups will be strengthened and new ones will be created according to their identities and similitudes and depending on emerging new priorities of interdisciplinary teaching and research. The structures will be submitted to the analyzes of the Congregation, allowing its action in different disciplines, departments and Unities of USP, through the constitution of an interdisciplinary Board and an executive directory, based on their own Statute. For this challenge, Segurado calls the community for the construction of this model, which will depend on the “creativity, commitment and boldness of all”.
The FMUSP vice-director, Prof. Roger Chammas, remembered the pioneer creation of the Medical Investigation Laboratories (LIMs) allowed for the reorganization of the medical school as an institution of science and technology. “In 2019, FMUSP is receiving back the IMT, in a movement of reorganization of work and research, piloted, among others, by professors Guido Cerri and Marcos Boulos. Beyond celebrating those 60 years, we must think about teaching, research and extension propositions we want for the next 60 years”, said Chammas.
The USP Dean, Prof. Vahan Agopyan, has highlighted the excellency work of the institute and reinforced the need for intensifying partnerships through interdisciplinary centers created in the scope of the Pro-rectory of Research of USP. “The IMT reflects well the role of the University in service rendering, besides the production of cutting-edge knowledge which substantiates the combat of epidemics and tropical diseases”, said the Dean.
Prof. Ester Sabino, current director of IMT, recalled the fact she is the first female in the position and highlighted the need to change. “This is the moment to think about how the University, especially how IMT and FMUSP, can relate more with other health institutes of the State Secretary of São Paulo and also with other instances. We need to boost and diverse partnerships and to produce larger impact research. The crises must be exploited for us to rethink the structures. If there is something to be highlighted here is that the institute and its research have a greater impact abroad, even more so than here in Brazil”, she says.
The editor in chief of the Institute of Tropical Medicine Journal, Prof. Thelma Suely Okay, has shown the high points in the history of the journal and its current search for intensifying partnerships in an international scope. The publication, which receives approximately 170 submissions of articles per year, can be accessed through the Scielo database or through the link:
The celebration of the 60 years of IMT counted on the presence of several Brazilian and foreigner scientists, amongst of whom were Professors Andrew Rambaut and Nicholas J. Loman, of the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom; Prof. Maria Anice Sallum, from the Public Health School of USP; Prof. Valeria Aoki ad Prof. Esper Kallás, of FMUSP; Prof. Selma Maria Bezerra Jeronimo, director of the IMT-RN, Prof. Leila Maria Lopes Bezerra, from the Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Technology Center (CIETEC) of USP, among others.
60 years of history
Originally linked with the medical school of USP, the Tropical Medicine Institute was created in 1959, with the goal of developing research related to tropical disease and global health, contributing to the creation of new diagnostic methods, medication or vaccines, as well as the reformulation of public policies aimed at those diseases.
In 2000, the institute gained administrative autonomy and became a specialized unit of USP, remaining so for two decades. In July 2019, the University Board approved the transformation of IMT into a specialized center connected to FMUSP once again.
