**1. Introduction**

From 1998 to 2018, we conducted a translational research project to test the concept that chronic Chagas disease cardiopathy (CCC) severity could be associated with low levels of blood selenium (Se), and if supplementation with Se could help to sustain the asymptomatic cardiac stage and reduce disease severity. Pre-clinical studies in mice [1–3], clinical studies in affected people [4], and a clinical trial [5] with patients in the early stages of CCC were performed. Here we revisit and build the narrative of this process, from the very first ideas, through all the difficulties that we faced until the present days and the perspectives to introduce a new treatment for a neglected disease.
