The global effort to develop a COVID-19 vaccine is making dramatic progress, with human trials under way
Queensland scientists racing to make a COVID-19 vaccine are upbeat as their research begins critical human trials this week, joining another Australian project and 28 international efforts to end the pandemic.
A test subject receives a jab in the first-stage safety study for Moderna's mRNA vaccine, which shapes as one of the most promising projects.University of Queensland scientist Professor Gabrielle Belz says the virus looks like a good vaccine target and, critically, it mutates slowly. "That is a really big bonus," she said.It has what Professor Belz calls a "nice big spike protein", which makes it a perfect target for vaccines.
He said molecular clamp technology was based on "work [the university has] done with MERS, which is a completely different virus to COVID-19. Whereas our work is done on SARS, which is 85 per cent genetically identical to COVID-19."Vaxine's jab went into human trials two weeks ago and 32 people have already been given a dose. Professor Petrovsky is a controversial scientist, but a serious one.
"How are we going? Two words: incredibly well. So far, the results of clinical trials have been encouraging: good, strong immune responses," he said.That meant the ones to watch were those using mRNA, a simple technology that could quickly be mass-produced, Professor Godfrey said.
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