{"id":26048,"date":"2022-11-25T02:31:05","date_gmt":"2022-11-25T03:31:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peymantaeidi.net\/stem-cell\/?p=26048"},"modified":"2022-11-25T03:47:06","modified_gmt":"2022-11-25T03:47:06","slug":"university-of-queensland-restarts-vaccine-trials-after-hiv-false-positives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peymantaeidi.net\/stem-cell\/2022\/11\/25\/university-of-queensland-restarts-vaccine-trials-after-hiv-false-positives\/","title":{"rendered":"University of Queensland restarts vaccine trials after HIV false positives"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cThis progress has been possible through the continuing support from CEPI, the Queensland and Australian governments and philanthropic partners.\u201d<\/p>\n

The SARS-CoV-2 virus has a spike protein, which is used by the virus to invade the body\u2019s cells, but is also how the immune system detects that there is a virus to fight off.<\/p>\n

The belief behind UQ\u2019s clamp technology is that its vaccine can neutralise the virus, while using a molecular clamp made up of amino acids to hold the spike protein in place, in the right shape, so the body could learn how to fight it without getting sick.<\/p>\n

The issue for UQ in 2020 arose from how the scientists made the original clamp in their vaccine. Creating a clamp is a challenging exercise and one of the most successful ones in development had used a fragment of a protein found in HIV. While this fragment was harmless, it caused the body to elicit chemicals that were detected on tests as HIV.<\/p>\n

The new vaccines will be manufactured at the Queensland branch of the National Biologics Facility, within UQ\u2019s Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology.<\/p>\n

Melanie Saville, CEPI executive director of vaccine research and development, told AFR Weekend<\/em> the investment in UQ\u2019s trials formed part of what it calls its \u201c100-day mission\u201d.<\/p>\n

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\u201cTo put it in the context of COVID-19, what happened was the first vaccines were used in December 2020 and there were already 68 million cases of COVID at that time. If we\u2019d done it in 100 days, it would have been in April \u2026 and the impact would have been far greater,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re looking at a number of different things you need to do, one of which is the technology to get to a safe and effective vaccine in 100 days.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the things with the molecular clamp is because it clamps the spike protein in a form that you know is going to produce the best immune response … it can be adapted to a number of different viruses very quickly and should be able to be made at scale quite quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n

UQ associate professor Dan Watterson, who spearheaded the redesign of the clamp, emphasised that the point of this trial was not to rush a new COVID-19 vaccine to market.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is about the role this technology could play in safeguarding against future pandemics, and ensuring we have an Australian-based rapid-response vaccine pipeline and the team and infrastructure ready to deliver clinical-grade material should it be needed in the future,\u201d Dr Watterson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving this capability in Queensland complements planning for a new Translational Manufacturing facility at the TRI, a facility that will support future efforts to progress therapeutic and vaccine candidates through the clinical trials process and to market.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some of Australia\u2019s biggest companies have also made donations to UQ to bring the vaccine to life, including the BHP Foundation, Newcrest, Glencore, the Paul Ramsay Foundation, RACQ and its members, A2 Milk, The Lott and Aurizon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThis progress has been possible through the continuing support from CEPI, the Queensland and Australian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26050,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peymantaeidi.net\/stem-cell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26048"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peymantaeidi.net\/stem-cell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peymantaeidi.net\/stem-cell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peymantaeidi.net\/stem-cell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peymantaeidi.net\/stem-cell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26048"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/peymantaeidi.net\/stem-cell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26048\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26051,"href":"https:\/\/peymantaeidi.net\/stem-cell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26048\/revisions\/26051"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peymantaeidi.net\/stem-cell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peymantaeidi.net\/stem-cell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peymantaeidi.net\/stem-cell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peymantaeidi.net\/stem-cell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}