Mauren Villalta Arrieta

Researchers

  • Coordinator of the Quality Control Section, Industrial Division, Clodomiro Picado Institute, Faculty of Microbiology.
  • M.Sc. of the Postgraduate Program in Microbiology, Parasitology and Clinical Chemistry of the University of Costa Rica (2013). 
  • B.S. in Biotechnological Engineering, Technological Institute of Costa Rica (2005).

Mauren Villalta Arrieta coordinates the Quality Control Section. Her work focuses in coordinating and supervising the Quality Control activities of the Industrial Division for the production of antivenoms and new immunobiologicals. Her researches focus on the improvement of the efficacy and safety of the immunobiologicals produced and in the development of new products to help resolve human and animal health problems related to envenomings by snakebite or by the action of other venomous animals, or the infection of pathogen microorganisms. For this, she develops activities like the assessment of the physical-chemical and biological characteristics of antivenoms, among them the neutralizing potency of toxic activities and protein aggregates, she develops immunization schemes, assesses adjuvant agents and the stability of products, and studies the activities and composition of venoms, among others.

Publicaciones representativas de sus intereses de investigación

  • Calvete, J. J., Cid, P., Sanz, L., Segura, A., Villalta, M., Herrera, M., …Gutiérrez, J. M. (2010). Antivenomic assessment of the immunological reactivity of EchiTAb-Plus-ICP, an antivenom for the treatment of snakebite envenoming in sub-Saharan Africa. Am J Trop Med Hyg, 82(6), 1194-201. doi: 10.4269/ajtmh.2010.09-0733
  • Segura, A., Castillo, M. C., Núñez, V., Yarlequé, A., Gonçalves, L. R., Villalta, M., … Gutiérrez, J. M. (2010). Preclinical assessment of the neutralizing capacity of antivenoms produced in six Latin American countries against medically-relevant Bothrops snake venoms. Toxicon, 56(6), 980-989. doi: 10.1016/j.toxicon.2010.07.001
  • León, G., Sánchez, L., Hernández, A., Villalta, M., Herrera, M., Segura, A., Estrada, R., Gutiérrez, J. M. (2011). Immune response towards snake venoms. Inflamm Allergy Drug Targets,10(5), 381-398.
  • Villalta, M., Pla, D., Yang, S.L., Sanz, L., Segura, A., Vargas, M., Chen, P.Y., Herrera, M., Estrada, R., Cheng, Y.F., Lee, C.D., Cerdas, M., Jiang, J. R., Angulo, Y., León, G., Calvete, J. J., & Gutiérrez, J. M. (2012). Snake venomics and antivenomics of Protobothrops mucrosquamatus and Viridovipera stejnegeri from Taiwan: Keys to understand the variable immune response in horses. J Proteomics, 75(18), 5628-5645. doi: 10.1016/j.jprot.2012.08.008
  • León, G., Herrera, M., Segura, A., Villalta, M., Vargas, M., Gutiérrez, J. M. (2013). Pathogenic mechanisms underlying adverse reactions induced by intravenous administration of snake antivenoms. Toxicon, 76,63-76. doi: 10.1016/j.toxicon.2013.09.010
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