The history of the Oswaldo Cruz Institute (IOC/Fiocruz) began on May 25, 1900, with the creation of the Federal Serum Therapy Institute to combat the plague. Led by Oswaldo Cruz and a small team of young scientists, the institution, founded to produce serum and vaccine, was transformed into a center of experimental medicine unprecedented in Brazil.

In the first report of the special series Timeline: IOC 125 years, discover some milestones from the early years of IOC, which include scientific discoveries, pioneering work in teaching, expeditions to the interior of the country and the construction of a castle for science, among other facts. 

In October 1899, a plague epidemic was diagnosed in Santos. The disease had been feared for centuries, but the recent creation of serum and vaccines against the disease allowed for a new approach through science. To produce antidotes, the city government of Rio de Janeiro decided to create the Serum Therapy Institute. The surgeon Baron Pedro Affonso, owner of the Vaccine Institute, which produced smallpox vaccines, was appointed general director of the organization and invited Oswaldo Cruz to be the technical director. The young doctor had recently returned from a long internship at the Pasteur Institute in France and had worked on diagnosing the plague in Santos.

The institution's headquarters were established at the Manguinhos Farm, a former sugar mill, and the first laboratories were set up in two houses on the property. Transferred to federal management, the Federal Serum Therapy Institute began operations on May 25, 1900. In just six months, the production of serum and vaccine against the plague was established. Prepared by a small team using methods improved by Oswaldo Cruz, the immunobiologicals were internationally recognized as excellent. 

 

In 1902, at age 30, Oswaldo Cruz He assumed the general management of the Serum Therapy Institute after the resignation of Baron Pedro Affonso. The following year, he became the general director of Public Health in Brazil. While accumulating these functions, he simultaneously led the actions to control yellow fever, smallpox and plague in the federal capital and the transformation of the Serum Therapy Institute into a center of experimental medicine that was unprecedented in Brazil, integrating teaching, research and production.

Amid the intense activity of the health campaigns, Oswaldo went to Manguinhos three times a week to supervise the activities. He was the author of the first scientific articles published and the advisor of the first theses produced there. In official reports, he defended the importance of generating original knowledge to solve Brazil's public health problems.

The scientist remained at the head of the Institution until 1917, leading the creation of the scientific journal 'Memories of the Oswaldo Cruz Institute' and 'Application Course'. He retired from his role due to kidney disease, which caused his premature death at the age of 44. In addition to his personal scientific contributions, he left behind a legacy of an institution recognized both within and outside the country and a generation of disciples who became leading figures in science. 

Built between 1905 and 1918, the Moorish Pavilion, also known as Manguinhos Castle, was conceived by Oswaldo Cruz and designed by the Portuguese architect Luiz de Moraes Júnior. The Moorish style was chosen by Oswaldo, who drew sketches of the building. Moraes Júnior created an icon of eclectic architecture, modernly equipped, to house laboratories, offices, a library and a museum of biological collections, as well as a photography studio, printing press, workshops and dormitories.

The campus's first architectural complex also includes: Stables, where horses were kept for serum production; Clock Pavilion, called the Plague Pavilion because it hosted activities related to the bubonic plague; Dovecote, which functioned as a vivarium for small animals; Aquarium, connected to the sea for studies of aquatic microorganisms; and Tea House, which served as a cafeteria for scientists.

With the exception of the aquarium, which was demolished in the 1960s after the Manguinhos campus lost its connection to the sea, the buildings are listed by the National Institute of Historic and Artistic Heritage (Iphan) and are open to visitors. The castle currently houses the administration of the IOC, the presidency of the Fiocruz and the headquarters of the Entomological Collection of IOC and the scientific journal 'Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz', among other sectors. 

In 1907, the Serum Therapy Institute won the gold medal at the XIV International Congress of Hygiene and Demography in Berlin. The institution was the only representative from South America among approximately 120 exhibitors from 20 countries. The Manguinhos exhibition included the successful efforts to combat yellow fever in Rio de Janeiro, information about the city and the scientific activities of the Institute, which were considered the highlight of the stand, with lines of people waiting to see the materials on tropical diseases, such as anatomopathological specimens and specimens from the insect collection. The gold medal was presented by the Empress of Germany to Oswaldo Cruz.

The honor was a turning point for recognition in Brazil. The project that transformed the Federal Serum Therapy Institute into the Institute of Experimental Pathology, which had been dormant in parliament for a long time, was quickly voted on and sanctioned, recognizing the institution's teaching, research and production responsibilities. In March 1908, the Ministry of Justice approved the new bylaws for the institution, which was named the Oswaldo Cruz Institute. 

The team appointed to the technical body of the IOC In 1908, it had ten scientists. They were: the director, Oswaldo Cruz; the heads of service, Henrique Figueiredo de Vasconcellos and Henrique da Rocha Lima; and the assistants, Ezequiel Dias, Antonio Cardoso Fontes, Carlos Chagas, Henrique Aragão, Alcides Godoy and Arthur Neiva. José Gomes de Faria held the administrative position of clerk-archivist. In the same year, the team was strengthened with the arrival of Adolpho Lutz.

With the exception of Lutz, who arrived as a renowned researcher at the age of 52, all the others joined the Institute in their 20s, in many cases as medical students. It was this young team who established the manufacture of several products for human and veterinary diseases, created new products and led the first original research at Manguinhos, including highly relevant findings, such as the discovery of the evolutionary cycle of the pigeon parasite, made by Henrique Aragão, which had enormous international repercussion and paved the way for the understanding of the development of the malaria parasite. With the prestige, the IOC attracted important foreign scientists, such as the Germans Gustav Giemsa and Stanislas Von Prowazek. 

the creation of 'Application Course' do IOC, in 1908, represented the formalization of teaching at the institution and the first experience of postgraduate studies in Brazil. The Institute had been involved in teaching since the beginning of its activities. The first defenses of theses by medical students produced at the IOC took place in 1901 and the first informal courses were created in 1903. Currently, the IOC accounts for more than 4 thousand masters and doctors graduated in its seven Postgraduate Programs.

The 'Application Course' was conceived by Oswaldo Cruz based on his experience at the Pasteur Institute in France, and also shaped by the influence of researchers from IOC linked to the German and Swiss schools of microbiology. The broad and practical approach, with a high degree of demand, was a hallmark of the training, which received the first women in the 1920s. Most Latin American countries sent students for training in IOC. From 1908 to 1970, the course qualified around 400 professionals, training specialists for the IOC and other research institutions in Brazil and abroad.  

Patented in 1908, the vaccine against lameness, developed by Alcides Godoy, was the first Brazilian veterinary vaccine for infectious diseases. At the time, the disease, also known as symptomatic anthrax, decimated 40 to 80% of calves in South America. The invention was registered with the assignment of rights to IOC, with the researcher receiving a small percentage of the remuneration obtained from the sale of the vaccine. In this way, innovation became a driving force for the Institute, contributing to the cost of several expenses.

Other original approaches were developed by IOC at the time, such as the vaccine against chicken spirillosis, created by Henrique Aragão, and the treatment of leishmaniasis with tartar emetic, proposed by Gaspar Vianna. Currently, the IOC has more than 27 protected technologies, with 66 patents granted, in addition to 47 patent applications in progress. Among the innovations is the first schistosomiasis vaccine, which also represents the world's first vaccine against a worm. In 2023, phase 2 clinical trials were completed, paving the way for phase 3 evaluation, which will seek to confirm its safety and efficacy with a view to prequalification with the WHO. 

The discovery of Chagas disease, in 1909, represented a milestone for the IOC, science and public health. Carlos Chagas was the first researcher to describe the complete cycle of a disease, identifying the parasite, its vector, hosts and the damage it causes. In April, the discovery was announced at the National Academy of Medicine, with a preliminary note in the journal Brazil-Médico. In August, an emblematic article on the complete cycle of the disease was published in the recently launched scientific journal 'Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz'.

More than 115 years after the discovery, it is estimated that there are 7 million people infected by the parasite. trypanosoma cruzi in the world. In 2019, April 14, the date on which Carlos Chagas identified the parasite in the girl Berenice, in Lassance, Minas Gerais, was declared World Chagas Day by the WHO, with the aim of confronting invisibility and neglect. Acting uninterruptedly against the disease, the IOC has launched recent initiatives to improve vector control, diagnosis, treatment and awareness of the disease. 

 

Launched in 1909, the scientific journal 'Memories of the Oswaldo Cruz Institute' has already published more than 7 thousand articles. The journal was created with the aim of disseminating research carried out in IOC and published important studies in its early years, including unprecedented evidence of resistance to Plasmodium vivax, parasite that causes malaria, to the medicine quinine, published by Arthur Neiva in 1910, in addition to the description of the complete cycle of Chagas disease. With high quality, articles in two languages ​​and a wealth of illustrations, 'Memórias' gained prestige both inside and outside Brazil.

The circulation of the magazine was suspended only once: from 1977 to 1979, during the military dictatorship, which dismissed ten researchers from IOC. Publication resumed in 1980, in a new format. As an international scientific journal, the periodical established itself as one of the most relevant in parasitology and tropical medicine. It was also one of the first in the world to have an online version, always remaining a diamond-level open access publication, with no fees charged to readers or authors. 

The scientific expeditions of the IOC expanded knowledge about tropical diseases, biodiversity and living conditions in the interior of Brazil. Some of the largest caravans took place between 1910 and 1913, passing through the North, Northeast and Central-West. In the following years, the delegations extended to the Pantanal and countries in South America. The scientists investigated the population's disease status, carrying out tests in improvised laboratories, and collected insects and plants. They also observed habits, housing conditions, sanitation, work, food and medical care. Documented with many photographs, the reports of these trips attracted attention in the country.

The training of combative sanitarians was a legacy of these initiatives, alongside the scientific discoveries and the collection of biological materials collected. The tradition of field work remained alive in IOC over the years, as evidenced by contemporary expedition initiatives and the 2024 survey that mapped the activities of 45% of the Institute's laboratories in research in the Amazon biome.  

Since the beginning of activities in Manguinhos, the habit of scientists to preserve samples as evidence of research and material for future studies has given rise to a precious heritage: the biological collections do IOC. To this day, the specimen of the insect that transmits malaria anopheles lutzii, described by Oswaldo Cruz, in the first article of the Manguinhos Institute, in 1901, remains in the Entomological Collection, which is the largest in Latin America.

Among the materials that are over a hundred years old in the institution's collections are samples of organs analyzed in autopsies by Henrique da Rocha Lima in 1903, ticks from Henrique Aragão's collection from 1909, maruins collected by Adolpho Lutz in 1912, worms identified by José Gomes de Faria and Lauro Travassos in 1913 and fungi brought from the United States by Olympio da Fonseca in 1922. In all, the IOC maintains 20 biological collections, with millions of samples, which preserve the epidemiological memory of diseases, in addition to contributing to knowledge about biodiversity and new research in public health. 

Na next report from the special series 'Timeline: IOC 125 Years', which covers the years 1925 to 1950, meet women who were pioneers in research at the Institute and see important contributions to science and public health.

:: See the main ones bibliographical references consulted for the production of the 'Timeline: IOC 125 years'.

Check out other articles about the 125th anniversary of IOC na special page of the Silver Secular Jubilee.