An international research team has identified the mechanism behind one of science’s most enduring mysteries: what makes the 100-year-old tuberculosis (TB) vaccine so effective at preventing newborn deaths from diseases other than TB? The ability of Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG)—one of…
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Vaccine by September? Oxford team run promising trials on monkeys
Could the world have a coronavirus vaccine by September? Monkeys given Oxford University’s jab were infection-free a month after contact with the virus – and researchers say ‘millions’ of doses could be ready this fall Last month, six rhesus macaque monkeys…
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Virus-scanning tool could detect previous COVID-19 infections and inform vaccine development
When a virus invades the body, it leaves fingerprints behind. A research tool known as VirScan can detect this evidence—from just a single drop of blood—and identify the viruses that have infected a person in the past. Soon, the new…
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The US is fast-tracking a coronavirus vaccine, but bypassing safety standards may not be worth the cost
Last week American biotech company Moderna commenced the first clinical trial of a vaccine for COVID-19. Similar studies are reportedly being planned in the US, China, Israel, Australia and elsewhere, with at least 20 potential vaccines under development. The usual…
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What’s next for coronavirus, how to avoid it, and will there be a vaccine?
As the new coronavirus, known in shorthand as COVID-19, continues to spread around the world, researchers, including those at the University of Virginia, are turning their attention to developing vaccines and antiviral drugs that could contain and treat the respiratory…
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U.S. Scientists Take Key Step Towards Towards Coronavirus Vaccine
WEDNESDAY, Feb. 19, 2020 — There’s been a crucial move forward in efforts to develop vaccines and treatments against the new COVID-19 coronavirus, U.S. researchers say. As of Wednesday, cases of infection with the virus have topped 74,000 (the vast…
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Here’s why the WHO says a coronavirus vaccine is 18 months away
The World Health Organisation said this week it may be 18 months before a vaccine against the coronavirus is publicly available. Let’s explore why, even with global efforts, it might take this long. China shared publicly the full RNA sequence…
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Scientists race to develop vaccine for new coronavirus
Scientists from the United States to Australia are using new technology in an ambitious, multi-million-dollar drive to develop a vaccine in record time to tackle China’s coronavirus outbreak. The new virus has spread rapidly since emerging late last year in…
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A new way to give an old tuberculosis vaccine proves highly effective in monkeys
What if you could make the tuberculosis vaccine much more powerful, not by altering the ingredients, but just by changing the way it is given to people? It would help prevent the infection that kills more people every year than…
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