More eminent Qld scientists have joined the fight against the COVID-19 contagion
Philanthropist Clive Berghofer has donated $1 million to allow more Queensland scientists to join the desperate search for therapies to fight COVID-19.
QLD News
Don't miss out on the headlines from QLD News. Followed categories will be added to My News.
MORE eminent Queensland scientists have joined the fight against conquering COVID-19, with moves to use a Brisbane biosecurity facility, set up to handle dangerous infectious diseases, to urgently screen potential therapies.
The QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute will use a $1 million donation from Toowoomba philanthropist Clive Berghofer to fund a range of projects, including studies into why some patients become severely unwell when infected with the pandemic coronavirus strain, while others develop only mild symptoms.
WORLD-FIRST DRUG FOR FRONTLINE HEALTH WORKERS
QLD RESEARCHERS CLOSE TO CLINICAL TRIALS OF VACCINE
MORE BLOOD DONORS URGENTLY NEEDED DURING PANDEMIC
Intensive care physicians internationally have had to put some previously healthy young adults with COVID-19 on ventilators to try and save their lives, while many others the same age have developed only mild symptoms.
Queensland has also been at the forefront of the desperate international push to find an effective vaccine to protect people against developing the virus, which has infected more than 300,000 people worldwide.
And infectious diseases physician Professor David Paterson, of the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital, is already testing existing antiviral drugs in Australians with COVID-19.
QIMR Berghofer’s acting director David Whiteman said the institute’s scientists would use the biosecurity facility to grow the virus in human cells.
“They will then work with collaborators at other Queensland and Australian research organisations and biotech companies to rapidly screen potential new antiviral drugs and existing drugs approved for other uses,” Professor Whiteman said.
The researchers also hope to study the genetics of how the human body responds to COVID-19 for insights into why some people are more severely impacted than others.
“All of these different strands of research are about giving us more information, more ways of attacking the virus, more ways of defeating the virus,” Professor Whiteman said. “Finding genetic mutations which may predispose people to having severe disease could lead to new insights into how to treat the disease.”
In a three-pronged attack against the virus, QIMR Berghofer scientists have launched another project into the development of a test to identify people with immunity against the virus.
“At the moment, no test can tell us if someone has previously been infected and has recovered – only if someone is currently infected,” Professor Whiteman said.
“It looks likely that those who have recovered will have immunity against reinfection.
“That is important to know, since immune people can rejoin the workforce.
“That would help immediately in getting people back to work and people back into health work particularly, putting people back on the front line.”
To donate to the research: qimrberghofer.edu.au
They just sang while she died: Neighbours haunted by religious chants for Elizabeth
For two days the parents of little Elizabeth Struhs and their fellow religious fanatics sang and prayed as she lay dying. Only after her tragic death have neighbours realised what the chants they overheard signified.
Fears Productivity Commission gives LNP license to ‘dissect’ workers’ lives
A new government productivity agency tasked with improving lives will instead be used as a trojan horse to “dissect” the pay and conditions of workers, with powers to inquire into any aspect of Queensland life, opposition MPs say.