Potential COVID-19 Vaccine Developed at U. of Pittsburgh

In the race to find a cure for COVID-19, one potential vaccine is being proposed by scientists in the University of Pittsburgh.

This comes after scientists from the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases and the National Cancer Institute developed a potential vaccine and posted the findings on eBioMedicine.

A news release from the University of Pittsburgh explains that the study conducted is the first “to be published after critique from fellow scientists at outside institutions that describes a candidate vaccine for COVID-19.” As well, “the researchers were able to act quickly because they had already laid the groundwork during earlier coronavirus epidemics.”

Moreover, Andrea Gambotto, who is an associate professor of surgery at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and a co-senior author of the study, released a statement, detailing that scientists “had previous experience on SARS-VoC in 2003 and MERS-CoV in 2014. These two viruses, which are closely related to SARS-CoV-2, teach us that a particular protein, called a spike protein, is important for inducing immunity against the virus.” So, they “knew exactly where to fight this new virus.”

This report comes at a time when the threat of COVID-19 continues to grow, currently infecting 1 million people worldwide.