Instituto Butantan is a brazilian biomedical research center affiliated to the State Secretary of Health. The Institute was founded by the Brazilian physician and biomedical scientist Vital Brazil in 1901 by combining in the same institution medical research, the transfer of the results to society as health products, and self-financing through this later activity. Nowadays it's internationally renowned for its research on venomous animals. It is also a state-supported producer of vaccines against many infectious diseases, such as rabies, hepatitis, botulism, tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis and tuberculosis, as well as polyvalent and monovalent antivenoms against the bites of snakes, lizards, bees, scorpions and spiders. The Institute develops basic and applied biomedical research in many areas, including molecular biology, immunology and epidemiology and has a graduate research training program in collaboration with other institutions, in the areas of biotechnology and infectology. Besides its research laboratories, production units and specialized library, it operates an animal breeding center for providing subjects for research and production of sera. The institute also accepts donations of serpents, arthropods and other animals captured by the public and by a network of collaborating centers and individuals.The Butantan Institute is one of the major touristic and educational attractions in a vast park area in the city section of Butantã in São Paulo. It has a serpentarium, a historical museum, a biological museum, and a museum of microbiology. The venom farm is a major attraction and visitors can see the snakes housed in representations of their natural environments.