Cambridge: Scientists have developed a new vaccine technology that can protect against a wide variety of coronaviruses.
The vaccine (which has so far only been tested on mice), developed in joint research between the University of Cambridge and Oxford and the California Institute of Technology, marks a breakthrough in the vaccine field.
Rory Hills, a graduate researcher at the University of Cambridge and lead author of the report, said the experiment was a step towards scientists’ goal of developing a vaccine before a global outbreak.
The trial injection works by attaching several proteins from different coronaviruses to nanoparticles (about 100,000 times smaller than a human hair) that can then improve the immune system’s response to the threat.
These vaccines train the immune system to recognize proteins from different coronaviruses, which means the vaccine can protect against new variants.
(function(d, s, id){
var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];
if (d.getElementById(id)) {return;}
js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;
js.src = “//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3&appId=770767426360150”;
fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);
}(document, ‘script’, ‘facebook-jssdk’));
(function(d, s, id) {
var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];
if (d.getElementById(id)) return;
js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;
js.src = “//connect.facebook.net/en_GB/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.7”;
fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);
}(document, ‘script’, ‘facebook-jssdk’));