The Presidency of Fiocruz is deeply saddened by the death of its Vice President for Health Production and Innovation, Marco Aurélio Krieger, on Monday (4/28). He had been in office since 2017. Krieger would have turned 61 next Sunday (5/4) and was battling cancer. There is still no information about the wake.

With a bachelor's degree in Biological Sciences from the Federal University of Paraná (UFPR) in 1987, a master's degree (1989) and a doctorate (1997) in Biological Sciences (Biophysics) from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Krieger was deputy director of Technological Development, Prototyping and Production at the Carlos Chagas Institute (ICC/Fiocruz Paraná), coordinator of the Paraná Molecular Biology Institute (IBMP) and technical coordinator of the Fiocruz Production Unit for Nucleic Acid Diagnostics. At a very young age, he was very important in establishing Fiocruz Paraná and in the alliance with the IBMP, making a definitive contribution to building the Foundation's techno-scientific unit in that state. He has authored several publications, including six patents.

A reference on topics such as immunization and vaccines, Krieger was one of the scientists who dominated much of the news coverage of the pandemic, especially Anvisa's release of the emergency use of the two vaccines - Fiocruz's and Butantan's - against Covid-19. At the time, he appeared frequently on TV and gave repeated interviews to the press about the efficacy of the Covid-19 vaccine developed by Oxford University, in partnership with AstraZeneca and Fiocruz, playing an important role in combating scientific denialism and the anti-vaccine movement. Krieger also played an important role in running Fiocruz's Vaccine Committee.

A born communicator, in 2021 Krieger represented Fiocruz at the technical meeting organized by the Chamber of Deputies' External Commission to Combat Covid-19. On the occasion, he gave an overview of all the work carried out by the Foundation since the technological prospecting of candidate vaccines at the beginning of the pandemic. He commented on the peculiarities of the project and its technical, legal and regulatory complexity, highlighting its completion in record time.

Krieger was enthusiastic about technological innovation and was always committed to incorporating new vaccines, drugs and products into the SUS (Unified Health System). As he always used to point out, "it's important to create an environment that fosters the development of technological innovation projects and encourages the entrepreneurial nature of researchers". Throughout his career, he dedicated himself to projects that could increase the population's access to better vaccines and treatments through SUS and was a tireless advocate of technology for the well-being and health of the Brazilian population.

The researcher played a crucial role in the Inova Fiocruz program. It was during his tenure as vice-president of Health Production and Innovation that Fiocruz became more robust in promoting innovative and strategic research for public health. Within the scope of Inova, he launched several requests for proposals related to the research on Covid-19, including one aimed at any researcher (even from outside Fiocruz) to develop projects that would particularly benefit the most vulnerable people. Tireless and always highly motivated, Krieger worked until his last days on the project to develop the mRNA platform. He was also responsible for bringing the cart-cell to Fiocruz and saw, with great enthusiasm, the potential of this technology for the treatment of cancer and other rare diseases by SUS.

His position as vice-president of Health Production and Innovation at Fiocruz and his passion for new technologies have led him to represent the Foundation in various international forums. In 2024, when visiting Malaysia for a meeting of the Dengue Alliance (Aliança Dengue), he took part in various activities in which he discussed possibilities for cooperation on the mRNA vaccine and health innovation. He was also favorable to a regional organization between Mercosur countries, using the model of Brazil's Health Industrial Economic Complex, to induce and foster regional production, which would reduce foreign dependence on strategic health products.

Also in 2024, he was in China, invited by the Shanghai International Life Science Innovation Campus, to present Fiocruz projects and meet companies that produce vaccines and advanced therapies. Among the most promising advanced therapies, Krieger highlighted those based on the concept of immuno-oncology, whether it be the use of monoclonal antibodies, which can boost the immune response to recognize malignant cells, or methodologies that program the immune system to recognize the markers associated with cancer and thus destroy these cells. This can be done by inducing the expression of receptors that will recognize cancer markers in the defense cells.

Signing a Strategic Alliance Agreement that expands and strengthens Fiocruz's relationship with the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi) in 2023, Krieger said that "the Covid-19 pandemic has shown the importance of the local contribution in tackling the problems that exist in the region. We did it with Chagas disease. The history of Fiocruz shows the contributions of Brazilian and Latin American sciences in tackling diseases that were problems in the region. We want to rescue this spirit", said Krieger, who looked back over Fiocruz's role in tackling arboviruses throughout its history and recalled the institution's work in the fight against yellow fever.

In the field of arboviruses, the IBMP (Molecular Biology Institute of Paraná), established by a partnership between Fiocruz and the government of Paraná, obtained the registration of the ZDC (Zika, dengue and chikungunya) molecular test from Anvisa (Brazilian Health Regulatory Agency) in 2019. Krieger, who monitored the development of the test from the earliest stages and was an enthusiastic supporter of the project, said at the time that the tool "is an important step forward in meeting the challenge of seeking a more accurate diagnosis for arboviruses. The use of molecular methods is one of the main tools for diagnosis due to its high sensitivity and specificity, as well as its great importance in epidemiological studies aimed at surveillance and control of these diseases."

Always very didactic, Krieger's DNA bore the marks of science. His father was Henrique Krieger, a geneticist from Curitiba and retired professor at UnB (University of Brasília). He was born in the United States because of his father, who did his doctorate there. His mother, Ester Proveler, was the sister of Fani Lerner, wife of the famous urban planner Jaime Lerner, who was governor of Paraná and mayor of Curitiba. A devoted father of two sons and loving grandfather to two granddaughters, Krieger was extremely proud of the family he formed with his wife, Sirlines Krieger. And when he was young, he had a peculiar hobby: he liked to cultivate the land and produce organic fruit and vegetables on a family farm.