South Australian researchers working with Oracle Cloud technology and vaccine technology, developed by local company Vaxine Pty Ltd, are testing a vaccine candidate against the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic.
The team is headed by Nikolai Petrovsky, Flinders University Professor and Research Director at Vaxine.
Oracle tapped for technical collaboration, an expanded research community, and cloud infrastructure for the rapid design of the novel COVID-19 vaccine candidate
His team has tapped Oracle for technical collaboration, access to an expanded research community, and cloud infrastructure that helped enable the rapid design of the novel COVID-19 vaccine candidate.
“The vaccine has progressed into animal testing in the US and, once we confirm it is safe and effective, will then be advanced into human trials,” says Professor Petrovsky — stressing expectations shouldn’t be elevated until all testing is completed.
The latest cloud-based technology provided by Oracle enabled the team to “dramatically speed up our ability to analyse the COVID-19 virus and use this information to design the vaccine candidate.”
“As soon as the genomic sequence of COVID-19 became available in January, we immediately used this, combined with our previous experience in developing a SARS coronavirus vaccine”
“As soon as the genomic sequence of COVID-19 became available in January, we immediately used this, combined with our previous experience in developing a SARS coronavirus vaccine, to characterise the key viral attachment molecule called the spike protein,” Professor Petrovsky says.
“We used computer models of the spike protein and its human receptor, ACE2, to identify how the virus was infecting human cells, and then were able to design a vaccine to block this process,” he says.
A respiratory physician in South Australia involved in conducting previous human trials of the team’s pandemic vaccines
Flinders University Associate Professor Dimitar Sajkov, a respiratory physician in South Australia, has been involved in conducting previous human trials of the team’s pandemic vaccines and hopes to similarly lead clinical trials of this new COVID-19 vaccine candidate.
“The team has exploited the very latest technologies, including AI, advanced manufacturing and Cloud computing to accelerate vaccine design, shaving years off normal development timeframes,” Professor Sajkov says.
“We achieved great results with Vaxine’s swine flu vaccine developed during the 2009 swine flu pandemic, where we commenced clinical trials of a vaccine within 3 months of discovery of the virus. We hope to achieve similar results with their COVID-19 vaccine candidate when it is ready for human testing,” he says.
Source:
- Flinders University. “Vaccine candidate against SARS-CoV-2 being tested.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 3 April 2020. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/04/200403103944.htm>
Razi Berry is the founder and publisher of the journal Naturopathic Doctor News & Review, which has been in print since 2005, and the premier consumer-faced website of naturopathic medicine, NaturalPath. She is the host of The Love is Medicine Project docuseries, The Natural Cancer Prevention Summit, The Heart Revolution-Heal, Empower and Follow Your Heart, and the popular 10-week Sugar Free Summer program. From a near death experience as a young girl that healed her failing heart, to later overcoming infertility and chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia through naturopathic medicine, Razi has lived the mind/body healing paradigm. Her projects uniquely capture the tradition and philosophy of naturopathy: The healing power of nature, the vital life force in every living thing and the undeniable role that science and mind/body medicine have in creating health and overcoming dis-ease. You can follow Razi on social media: Facebook at Razi Berry, Instagram at Razi.Berry and join the Love is Medicine group to explore the convergence of love and health. Look for more, and listen to more Love is Medicine podcast episodes here.
