VNR: UH-based research develops COVID-19 vaccine in early trials

Axel Lehrer

Link to video and sound (details below): https://spaces.hightail.com/space/BWZtES3FPq

A University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa researcher, in collaboration with a pharmaceutical company, has developed a vaccine candidate that shows promise in rapidly inducing immunity to the novel coronavirus in pre-clinical trials.

Axel Lehrer, an assistant professor at the John A. Burns School of Medicine, is leading a team of scientists in the Department of Tropical Medicine, Medical Microbiology and Pharmacology, that collaborates with New Jersey-based Soligenix, Inc. on this project.

Lehrer and Soligenix have previously demonstrated the feasibility of developing a thermostable Ebola virus and multivalent filovirus vaccines and applied the same technology platform to rapidly develop a vaccine for the prevention of COVID-19, the infection caused by SARS-CoV-2.

“Our work to date has demonstrated not only the feasibility of rapid and efficient manufacturing of the required vaccine antigens, but also the potential for a broadly applicable and easily distributed vaccine,” said Lehrer. “We are delighted with our earlier successes on development of filovirus and flavivirus vaccines with this platform.”

Their vaccine candidate successfully demonstrates the ability to rapidly stimulate a balanced antibody response, which includes potent SARS-CoV-2 neutralization and cell-mediated immunity, a measure necessary to clear a viral infection. In addition, these results generated by Lehrer and his team in a well-defined mouse model using a prototype virus antigen display a rapid onset of immunity with antibody responses detected as early as 7 days after the first vaccination.

A manuscript presenting the data has been submitted for peer review to npj Vaccines and is available as a preprint on bioRxiv (https://biorxiv.org/cgi/content/short/2020.07.24.220715v1). 

Link to video and sound: https://spaces.hightail.com/space/BWZtES3FPq

VIDEO:

BROLL: 

(1 minute 16 seconds)

0:00-0:51: Lehrer working in a lab

0:51-0:59: John A. Burns School of Medicine Biosciences building

0:59-1:17: photos of Lehrer in a lab

SOUND:

Axel Lehrer, JABSOM scientist
(19 seconds)
“Most importantly, we’ve already shown that our vaccine candidate can neutralize Sars-Coronavirus2, therefore it could actually be used very rapidly in controlling the current pandemic.” 

Lehrer
(20 seconds)
“We believe we will have a product that isn’t just limited to rich countries or places where you have proper infrastructure but with this product, if it is stable at room temperature, you could ship it all around the world."