Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³» of Queensland has been asked to develop a vaccine for the recent coronavirus outbreak at unprecedented speed, using new technology.
The (CEPI) has requested the University use its recently developed rapid response technology to develop a new vaccine, which could be available worldwide in as little as six months.
Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³» Vice-Chancellor and President Professor Peter Høj AC said the fluidity of the current outbreak represented a significant challenge to the international community.
“There is a lot that is still unknown regarding how easily the virus is able to be transmitted between humans,” he said.
“Working with CEPI, Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³» of Queensland is using its vaccine technology to respond to this global health challenge.”
Head of University's , said Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³» of Queensland had novel technology for the rapid generation of new vaccines from the knowledge of a virus’s genetic sequence information.
“The team hopes to develop a vaccine over the next six months, which may be used to help contain this outbreak,” he said.
“The vaccine would be distributed to first responders, helping to contain the virus from spreading around the world.”
Dr Keith Chappell describes the Vaccine Pipeline from in 2019.
, from Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»’s and the said the key to the speedy development of this potential vaccine was the 'molecular clamp' technology, invented by Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³» scientists and patented by .
"Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³» of Queensland's molecular clamp technology provides stability to the viral protein that is the primary target for our immune defence," he said.
“The technology has been designed as a platform approach to generate vaccines against a range of human and animal viruses and has shown promising results in the laboratory targeting viruses such as influenza, Ebola, Nipah and MERS coronavirus.”
Images, captions, the full press conference and other video available .
Media: Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³» communication, communications@uq.edu.au, +61 73365 1120; Tom Matthews, tom.matthews@uq.edu.au, +61 468 746 070.
