UQ races against time in 150-day vaccine development challenge

A team of Queensland researchers has begun an ambitious race to develop a vaccine for a rare but potentially fatal virus in just 150 days, according to a statement released by the University of Queensland on Wednesday.

UQ’s Vaccine Rapid Response Team is testing its capabilities by creating a vaccine for the Bolivian Chapare virus, with the clock having started on 10 February.

“Our goal is to get as close as possible to achieving CEPI’s aspirational ‘100 Days Mission’ to create a vaccine from scratch in just over three months when faced with a new pandemic threat,” said team leader Prof Keith Chappell from UQ’s Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology.

The pressure test, backed by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), aims to demonstrate how far pandemic response capabilities have advanced since COVID-19, which took nearly a year for the first vaccines to be developed and approved.

Prof Chappell’s team was given their target virus in March as a deliberate challenge designed to mimic the sudden emergence of a viral threat. They will now produce 26 vaccine candidates using UQ’s re-engineered molecular clamp technology, which successfully completed a proof-of-concept phase I clinical trial last year.

The Chapare virus, currently only known to occur in Bolivia, causes severe haemorrhagic fever. There have been five documented outbreaks since the disease emerged in 2003, with a laboratory-confirmed case reported in January this year.

CEPI project leader Dr Nicole Bézay said while the work could accelerate vaccine production should a significant Chapare outbreak occur, the main focus is on testing and improving the vaccine development process for the re-engineered clamp technology.

“This pressure test is ultimately designed to show us where the pain points are in moving so quickly, to show us what works, and what doesn’t work when making a new vaccine,” Prof Chappell explained, acknowledging that meeting CEPI’s 100-day target was a “moonshot,” but completing the task in 150 days would represent an “astonishing advance.”

Picture: credit UQ