Partnership to supercharge vaccine production

The molecular clamp is being used to attack some of the world’s worst diseases. Credit: University of Queensland Vaccines to stop the world’s next epidemic could be developed in record time under a $14.7 million partnership using technology developed at The University of Queensland. The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) has funded a research consortium to develop a rapid response pipeline to develop and test new vaccines in as little as 16 weeks. The Australia Government has been an early supporter of CEPI by providing a previous contribution of $2 million, and UQ and CEPI are pleased to see a further contribution today of $4.5 million. UQ’s Professor Paul Young and Dr Keith Chappell are leading the project, which has the potential to save millions of lives by targeting existing and new pathogens. “The World Health Organization’s Blueprint list of priority diseases recognises that new epidemics can arise from known and unknown viruses...