Esper Georges Kallás | Director
Instituto Butantan

Graduated from the Itajubá Medical School in 1989, Esper Georges Kallás completed his medical residency in Infectious Diseases at the São Paulo Municipal Civil Servant Hospital and a master's degree at the Federal University of São Paulo (Unifesp). Defended in 1996, his dissertation analyzed the risk factors for HIV infection in the São Paulo House of Detention. In 1999, he completed his doctorate at Unifesp, with co- tutorship at the University of Rochester, in the United States, researching the antigen- specific production of cytokines by T lymphocytes after infection and vaccination. Full Professor at the Department of Infectious and Parasitic Diseases at the School of Medicine of the University of São Paulo (FMUSP), where he has been a faculty member since 2009. During the Covid-19 pandemic, he worked on the front lines of clinical care and as a member of the São Paulo State Contingency Center, an organization that monitored and coordinated actions against the spread of SARS-CoV-2. He was the principal investigator of several clinical trials, such as for the dengue vaccine and CoronaVac phase 3. Among his research areas are treatment of HIV infection, vaccines, the effects of the cell cycle on the genetic variation of HIV-1, immunology of infectious diseases, host-parasite relationship and clinical immunology.