Biotech tackles coronavirus: the scientific frontier
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to dominate headlines, the scientific community is partnering to accelerate the development of diagnostics, therapies and vaccines.
Flatten the curve. Social distancing. Self-isolation. The coronavirus crisis has given us a new vocabulary as well as overhauling our lives. We are all straddling a difficult line: continuing our daily activities while learning to navigate a new normal. For those working on the frontlines of healthcare — nurses, doctors, scientists, or biotech engineers — this new normal is also a wild race against time to care for patients and stop the spread of the virus.
With half of the world’s population in lockdown, the coronavirus has created an uncertain future. However, it has also ignited unparalleled number of global scientific partnerships. Research institutions, biotech companies, and big pharma are working together on COVID-19 diagnostics, therapies, and vaccines.
Emmanuel Ligner, President of Cytiva, the biotech company I work for, regularly says: “No one can do it alone.” Indeed, Cytiva is collaborating with many companies to bring our technology and expertise to diagnostics and vaccine development projects. Let me give you a few recent examples of how real-time collaboration pushes the fight forward.
High hopes for a vaccine being developed in Australia
The University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia recently reported positive findings from early pre-clinical trials of their COVID-19 vaccine, with data indicating their candidate’s ability to raise high levels of antibodies to neutralize the virus.
Back in January, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) tasked the University of Queensland to develop a COVID-19 vaccine. Specific biotechnology expertise and technology was needed, so the Brisbane scientists quickly connected with our Australian team. In a matter of days, Cytiva researchers and engineers from Sweden and the US joined the effort.
In a concerted response, our team started taking actions across our global sites. In Australia, our engineers began overseeing the production vaccine for the phase 1 clinical trial at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), a government scientific research group; in Sweden, work got underway to create a prototype affinity resin, while in the US, our team started manufacturing the material for the phase 2 clinical trials.
Based on the university’s proprietary molecular clamp technology, the vaccine targets the virus’ ‘spike protein’ and locks it in its native shape, allowing the immune system to recognize and then neutralize the virus. This requires a specific affinity-based resin for the vaccine purification, which will be developed in Uppsala, Sweden, where Cytiva manufactures chromatography resins — technologies used in the production of biopharmaceuticals.
The University of Queensland’s candidate is scheduled to go into a clinical trial mid-year.
Collaborations in diagnostic testing
Meanwhile, the need for timely and reliable testing has skyrocketed. “Test, test, test” is the message Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Head of the World Health Organization, has reiterated over the past months, urging governments to ramp up screening of every suspected case. Back in February, Klaus Hochleitner, Global Product Specialist Diagnostics at Cytiva and an industry veteran with over 30 years of diagnostics expertise, offered support to those working on tests via a LinkedIn post. This led to a collaboration with the Canada-based diagnostics company Sona Nanotech to complete the development of Sona’s rapid response lateral flow test.
Klaus Hochleitner says: “This ties into our daily mission of advancing and accelerating therapeutics, by supporting the global scientific community working tirelessly to address the COVID-19 outbreak.”
Another collaboration that arose from Klaus’ LinkedIn post was with UK-based life sciences company, Avacta. They are developing an Affimer-based rapid test that could detect the coronavirus infection in minutes, with no need for laboratory equipment.
We also recently teamed with Genedrive, a molecular diagnostics company, to support the development of a coronavirus test based on the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) — a highly efficient and commonly used laboratory method. The test will combine Genedrive’s PCR chemistry with our LyoStable stabilization technology, which would allow the manufacturing of more than 10,000 tests per hour. Producing such large volumes of tests could have a significant impact on controlling the pandemic.
There is so much hope that these collaborations will lead to the scientific breakthroughs needed to overcome COVID-19. The unprecedented mobilization of the scientific community is creating a new culture of cross-disciplinary cooperation, openness, and data sharing. At Cytiva, we have a strong heritage of collaboration and scientific discovery.
Stay tuned as we continue to bring you more stories on how we combat the COVID-19 pandemic.
