Coronavirus: universities of Melbourne, Sydney secure extra $6m for vaccine projects

Two Australian universities have joined the race to develop a COVID-19 vaccine, securing a combined total of almost $6m in government funding.

Health Minister Greg Hunt said the investments build on existing support from the federal government’s Medical Research Future Fund for COVID-19 vaccines

Two Australian universities have joined the global race to develop a COVID-19 vaccine after securing a combined total of almost $6m in government funding following “encouraging results” in preclinical testing.

Under the funding from the Medical Research Future Fund, the University of Melbourne will receive almost $3m to develop two vaccine candidates. The University of Sydney will also receive almost $3m for a clinical trial to test the safety and effectiveness of a third DNA-based vaccine.

The two Victorian vaccine candidates are being developed by researchers from the Doherty Institute and the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences.

The vaccines target the virus’s most potent weapon — spike proteins — which cover the virus and help it invade human cells.

Doherty Institute Immunology Theme Leader Dale Godfrey said the approaches were “very different” to the two Australian candidates already in clinical trials.

Professor Dale Godfrey of the Doherty Institute.

“SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, is enveloped by proteins that resemble spikes, which enable the virus to attach and enter cells,” he said. “This attachment is mediated by the tip of the spike protein, known as the receptor binding domain.”

He said the vaccine would focus on the tip of the spike protein which is the part of the virus that attaches to human cells.

If successful, the vaccine would prompt the body’s immune system to produce antibodies that would target and neutralise the virus.

“If we can block this attachment we can block infection,” Professor Godfrey said.

At the Monash Institute, researchers are hoping to inject tiny parts of the virus’s genetic material, in this case mRNA, into human cells. Colin Pouton, professor of pharmaceutical biology at Monash University, said the vaccine would teach the human body how to recognise and then attack the virus.

“The goal is to produce antibodies that bind to the virus and prevent infection,” he said.

“mRNA can be produced quickly and, if the virus mutates, modified sequences can be produced rapidly.

Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt at the National Drug Discovery Centre in Melbourne. Picture: AAP

“A cocktail of mRNA molecules could be used to hit several strains.”

He said the vaccine is similar to some of the “leading commercial programs” in the US, including a vaccine developed by Moderna that is currently in third phase clinical trials.

Researchers at the University of Sydney hope to enrol 150 volunteers in a phase one trial which would test the viability of the DNA-based vaccine using a needle-free system.

Health Minister Greg Hunt said the investments build on existing support from the federal government’s Medical Research Future Fund for COVID-19 vaccines, including $5m provided to the University of Queensland for their molecular clamp technology and $1m to biotech Vaxine for their COVAX-19 vaccine.