The Pediatric Section of Tropical Medicine conducts a comprehensive research and development program for producing a new generation of drugs, diagnostics and vaccines for the Neglected Tropical Diseases and Neglected Infections of Poverty, as well as fundamental and applied research against these diseases. To carry out this research, the section's laboratories are organized into these groups:
- Laboratory for Zoonotic and Viral Diseases: aimed at research of emerging pathogens, including West Nile virus and Chagas disease and coronoviruses.
- Laboratory of Human Parasitology: dedicated to using modern molecular methods to detect parasitic infections in patients.
- Laboratory for Vector Biology and Bacterial Pathogens: focuses on bacterial diseases such as relapsing fever spirochetes and the vectors that transmit them including Ornithodoros ticks.
- Laboratory of Immunoparasitology aims to dissect the complex relationship between parasites and the host immune response.
- Biosafety Level-3 (BSL-3) Facility is focused on the research of pathogens that require specialized handling including pathogens of human importance such as SARS-CoV-2, West Nile virus and Chikungunya virus.