In 1976, the director of the institute Pasteur in Paris, Jacques Monod, awarded with the Nobel Prize in 1965, invited Professor Dr. Luiz Hildebrando da Silva to direct the experimental parasitology unit.

In those times, the OMS (WHO - World Heath Organization) was encouraging the worldwide research institutes to take studies on molecular biology in the realm of neglected diseases, among them, malaria.

During his stay in Paris, from 1978 to 1996, Professor Dr. Luiz Hildebrando published 69 works about malaria immunology and about the molecular structure of antigens of Plasmodium falciparum.

In 1997, retired from the institute Pasteur, Professor Dr. Luiz Hidebrando took a test for titular professor of parasitology at USP (São Paulo University) and moved in Porto Velho, Rondonia where he worked for the Research Center of Tropical Medicine of the Secretary of Health.

The Research

The study activities on lands to characterize the epidemiologic type of malaria in Rondônia Brazil have introduced new immunologic and molecular methodologies on immunology and physiopathology of malaria in this region. The survey led to the identification of two particular situations of the disease:

1- The malaria in firm lands, observed in agricultural nestings and city peripheries, with hipoendemic type, seasonality exceeding the rain period, greater incidence of vivax malaria, absence of asymptomatic forms and risk population identified as adult men, exposed to the transmission by professional activities.

2- The malaria of river areas, where anopheles nests multiply where during the rain season, in forest pools formed by the big rivers overflow. This type of malaria the risk population was identified as children, while adults are usually immune having asymptomatic malaria.