How to beat the coronavirus? Re-creating it in Singapore, Australia is vital first step
- Experts from the two countries as well as Japan have cultured the virus outside China, allowing the testing of potential vaccines and treatments
- The development allows Singapore to learn about such viruses faster and develop corresponding contingency plans, researchers say
The team at Singapore’s Duke-NUS Medical School will now use the isolated virus – cultured using clinic samples from infected patients – to research new diagnostic methods, monitor any signs of mutation, and test potential vaccines and drugs.
“This is highly significant as it will accelerate the assessment of trial vaccines’ effectiveness and lead to the development of early diagnostics tests to detect virus in asymptomatic patients,” said Danielle Anderson, assistant professor and scientific director of Duke-NUS’ containment facility.
“We are now at the stage where we are working to culture more virus stock, so we can share this valuable resource with other scientists.”
She said isolating the virus was “very important” because it meant researchers would also be able to see which existing drugs worked on the virus.