Coronavirus: Chinese scientists engineer protein in universal vaccine quest

Name: Global Covid-19 death toll hits 500,000 as coronavirus infections surge past 10 million
Uploaded: 2020-06-30T15:00:10.000Z
Duration: 2 min 45 s
Description: Global Covid-19 death toll hits 500,000 as coronavirus infections surge past 10 million

Researchers from the Chinese CDC say the approach has had positive results in animal tests, ramping up the production of antibodies

Vaccine framework could be useful against a range of pathogens, including Mers, team says

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Laboratories around the world are racing to develop a vaccine for Covid-19. Photo: Xinhua

Stephen Chen

Published: 11:00pm, 30 Jun 2020Updated: 12:07am, 1 Jul 2020

Chinese scientists have created an artificial protein that they say could be the basis of a vaccine to help ward off various deadly coronaviruses, including the pathogen that causes Covid-19.

In a peer-reviewed paper published in the scientific journal Cell on Sunday, the researchers said the approach triggered a strong antibody response in mice and monkey trials to Middle East respiratory syndrome (Mers) and the Covid-19 coronavirus.

“The framework of immunogen design can be universally applied to other betacoronavirus vaccines to counter emerging threats,” the researchers led by George Fu Gao, director of the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, said in the paper.

Human trials of the vaccine started earlier this month with approval from the National Medical Products Administration, according to the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Microbiology, which also took part in the research.

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Global Covid-19 death toll hits 500,000 as coronavirus infections surge past 10 million

Test production has also been completed at a pharmaceutical plant in Hefei, Anhui province.