[REPORTER] Time to check in on the global race to find a vaccine for COVID-19
and the role of Aussie scientists.
[ROB GRENFELL] Our staff have now been working for nearly six months on 24/7 rosters.
Everybody is in fact actually very tired at this time, but these are highly specialised team members
and they are doing something that is incredibly important for the survival of humanity.
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[REPORTER] This shows the global vaccine development pipeline
and CSIRO’s role up to the preclinical trials stage, happening as we speak.
Earlier on, CSIRO secured a stock of SARS-CoV-2 from Melbourne’s Peter Doherty Institute
which was then replicated...
characterised...
and sequenced at its [CSIRO's] high containment facility in Geelong.
CSIRO’s work is being supported by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations,
which along with the WHO, identified the two vaccines currently being tested on ferrets
in the preclinical trials at Geelong.
These come from The University of Oxford and Inovio Pharmaceuticals in the U.S.
[ROB GRENFELL] We’ve actually reached a milestone in our work on testing potential vaccine candidates.
We’re halfway through our preclinical studies.
What that means is that we've in fact actually gone through the stages of immunising the animals
and exposing them to the virus and we’re now at the stage of testing to see
whether or not they’ve in fact actually contracted it.
[REPORTER] The ferrets are infected with a high-concentrated solution of the virus
sprayed up the nose, which is similar to how humans catch coronavirus, from say a sneeze.
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Just as it takes up to two weeks for humans to show symptoms, it’s a similar waiting game in ferrets.
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CSIRO has used ferrets before to research SARS, Nipah and Ebola.
[ROB GRENFELL] Ferrets’ respiratory systems share a particular protein receptor on the lining of the lung cells
which humans also have and it just so happens that
the coronavirus binds to that particular receptor site on the lung cell.
So, it’s actually a very good model for analysing whether or not the animal gets infected
and whether or not that infection progresses.
So, in that sense it’s actually a great way of actually proving that a vaccine candidate may work
and also that it’s safe before we progress to using this in humans.
But we’re well and truly on the way for securing our final results by late June.
[REPORTER] This work has happened in just a few months. It normally takes one to two years.
[ROB GRENFELL] There are a number of Australian candidates that are being proposed.
The most advanced at this stage is the one from The University of Queensland.
It's been in fact on the drawing boards before this pandemic and our protein manufacturing laboratory
had been working with them on how to turn mathematical models into actual real proteins.
That work has progressed substantially where in fact now that theoretical model - the molecular clamp -
is now a physical protein.
They’re going through phases now to turn it into a potential vaccine candidate
and working out which is the best combination to use,
and once they move to that phase of having a single candidate they’ll move into the preclinical phases.
[REPORTER] Overseas, clinical trials are already happening, like at The University of Oxford.
Now, there’s three phases before a vaccine can go into general use
and no successful coronavirus vaccine has ever been developed.
But, some Chinese vaccines are already in phase 2 trials and just this week,
American biotech company, Moderna,
announced that its phase 1 trials saw participants - i.e. humans - develop antibodies against SARS-CoV-2,
the virus that causes COVID-19.
[ROB GRENFELL] Now that’s actually accelerated, that’s extraordinary steps to do that,
but they are being monitored very closely by the regulatory agencies globally
and also in seperate countries.
If all things go well, by the end of this year, early new year,
we could be finding ourselves commencing the distribution of vaccines around the globe.
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[REPORTER] Thanks for watching.
This series of Good Shout Stories has been made with the support of FSW Shoes.
It’s a family-run business in the ACT and New South Wales that ships right around Australia.
So, check out FSWshoes.com.au and we’ll see you next #GoodShoutFriday.