Indian scientist Professor S S Vasan along with some of his colleagues has grown the first batch of the novel coronavirus in sufficient stock for conducting preclinical studies in a high security laboratory in Australia.
As per a TOI report, Vasan along with his team had been able to successfully develop the first stock of the virus in the lab at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO).
Researchers at Australia’s Doherty Institute were recently able to isolate the virus from a human sample.
According to Vasan, it is quicker to work with the real virus sample and it will help the team to pace up with their research works.
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“It is quicker to work with the real virus to expedite preclinical studies on the relative efficacy of vaccine candidates under development,” he added.
He also informed about the research work being carried out to find a solution for treating novel coronavirus.
“My colleagues at the Animal Health Laboratory in Australia are work on diagnostics, surveillance, and response. Another part of the CSIRO (Manufacturing) is supporting the scale up of vaccine antigens being developed by the University of Queensland,” Vasan said.
Vasan, who is an alumnus of BITS Pilani and IISc Bangalore, believes that in addition to fuelling the essential vaccine preclinical studies, the research works will also accelerate the development and evaluation of therapeutics to compliment vaccines.