UK: Imperial College to start human trials of potential COVID-19 vaccine

Clinical researchers at Imperial College London will start human trials of a potential COVID-19 vaccine this week with strong backing from UK government. public research university will soon be recruiting more participants for first phase of vaccine trial, commencing at its West London study facility.

team of researchers at Imperial College won £41 million funding from government and £5 million in philanthropic donations. According to university, trial is supported by UK government, UK Research and Invation (UKRI), Medical Research Council (MRC), National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and Imperial College’s dor-backed COVID-19 Response Fund.

Professor Robin Shattock, who has been leing research work, said in a statement that a viable vaccine could be vital for protecting most vulnerable, enabling restrictions to be eased and helping people to get back to rmal life. He said that team has been able to produce a vaccine from scratch and take it to human trials in just a few months which has never been done before with this of vaccine. 

“If our approach works and vaccine provides effective protection against disease, it could revolutionise how we respond to disease outbreaks in future,” he ded.

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Grually increase volunteers

Scientists in China isolated samples of SARS-CoV-2 virus from COVID-19 patients and sequenced its genetic code. team, led by Professor Shattock, focused on part of sequence that holds blueprint for spike protein. y were able to recreate sequence using enzymes in lab and generate copies of RNA without need for animal cells or human stem cells.

During first phase of trial, scientists will be garing data from a small group of participants to understand how immune system responds to candidate vaccine. study team will initially start with a very low dose and it will be ministered to a single individual and will slowly increase dose and number of volunteers until all remaining participants have been vaccinated.

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(Im: AP)