Updated 20 Feb 2020
The latest infectious disease sweeping the globe, the novel coronavirus, has now infected tens of thousands of people. While most of the affected people are in China, the virus has been popping up in cities around the world.
While there have been other types of coronavirus before – think SARS that broke out in 2002-3, or MERS in 2012 – this particular type is new. First spotted in Wuhan, China, scientists think it originated in an animal and spread to humans, then from human to human.
With the rate of travel and global trade today, and the tendency of viruses to rapidly mutate, it can be hard to tell how much of an impact a specific virus might have on the world. Scientists are scrambling to understand this new virus and its behaviour at lightspeed so they can develop, test and produce a new vaccine to protect us.
Creating a coronavirus vaccine in months, rather than years
Vaccine development is complicated and lengthy. Traditionally it takes months to years to take a vaccine from development out into the world. It’s a long process of developing possible vaccines, pre-clinical testing, human trials, regulatory approval and large-scale development.
But this isn’t the first time the world has faced down an epidemic. Our own scientists have been heavily involved in infectious disease work. This includes understanding how SARS spreads, tracking the spread of avian flu, developing the Hendra vaccine, and much more. Research organisations have been down this path before, and learned that the best way to speed up the response is to be really, really prepared.
That’s why we’re part of a global alliance: the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI). It aims to derail epidemics by speeding up the development of vaccines. Within the coalition we’re involved in various parts of a rapid vaccine development ‘pipeline’. Each of our organisations form a part of the pipeline, ready to go when an epidemic hits. This way vaccines can be developed, tested and delivered much faster than ever before.
What we’re doing – a team effort
First up, we have sourced a sample of the novel coronavirus – now known as the virus responsible for COVID-19. This sample is from the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, who were the first organisation outside of China to re-create the virus in the lab. This sample has gone to our high-containment facility in Geelong, the Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness (ACDP).
Our highly trained scientists are working in this secure facility to better understand the virus. We’re exploring: how does it behave? How does it infect and spread? And what are its characteristics?
Once we’ve figured that out, our team at AAHL will start pre-clinical testing of new potential vaccines. This includes potential vaccines from the University of Queensland who are already hard at work.
If those tests show a vaccine is successful, other research organisations will be able to move on to full human trials of the vaccine.
We also have advanced manufacturing capabilities that could create the proteins other organisations need in developing new vaccine candidates.
It’s truly a global team effort in response to a global challenge, and the scientific community is moving at unprecedented speed. If all goes well, the world could be looking at a new vaccine in months rather than the usual years. Find out more about how long it will be before a vaccine against the coronavirus is publicly available.
22nd February 2020 at 9:47 am
Disappointed, i think that what Australians need at the moment is simple procedures that advise Australians old and young the truth about this sickness, how we might avoid it, how to assist our neighbours and friends. that CSIRO is respected they should be giving us advice. simple preventitive hints! not a story about a vaccine down the track, this morning my wife and i on our early morning walk were not far from the Darwin Quarantine centre.
22nd February 2020 at 6:56 am
May I add to what I suspect will be a positive response to the article. It confirms, to me, that the culture of the CSIRO is still a strong and basic scientific organisation. It will relieve some of the panic.
21st February 2020 at 1:44 pm
Thanks CSIRO AAHL and colleagues, Please provide information about the source of the virus, animal host(s)?
25th February 2020 at 12:52 pm
Hi Pam – thanks for your question,
Scientists around the world are still working to determine the original host or carrier of the virus.
Kind regards,
Kashmi
Team CSIRO
21st February 2020 at 1:22 pm
My understanding from this article was that preparedness is a major component in defeating these viruses. Yet we have to rely on facilities like Christmas Island or disused mining camps etc. to provide the security we need. If we were really prepared would we not already have something like a purpose built, preconfigured, demountable village that is more conveniently located to required resources? Keep up the good work CSIRO.
21st February 2020 at 12:52 pm
The untold story of the CSIRO and the many specialists they are working with around the globe. Pity the media can’t spend some time to focus on this part of the epidemic and the response capabilities we have at hand. keep up the great work.