If Australia produces a viable vaccine for COVID-19 from the work being done at the University of Queensland, we won’t just have to thank the three scientists who spearheaded the project - we’ll also have to thank their children.
Working in Spain, Dr Chappell noticed his usually laid-back Spanish colleagues would get into heated arguments in the lab, which threw him at first, coming from the more reserved world of Queensland academia. “It gave me a lot of confidence, it made me a better person, and I like to think I brought back some of those qualities.”
Now 38, he has three small children of his own and his wife works at a local high school, where he was recently invited to give a talk to students. A 3D map of the virus' spike protein, which the team is attempting to copy using pioneering "molecular clamp" technology.Because he was coming back to his old school, UQ, he sought out his old mentor, Professor Paul Young, head of the university’s School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences.He arrived back in Brisbane in 2011 and together, Dr Chappell and Professor Young started work on a “molecular clamp” that could hold the proteins in their shape.
Professor Paul Young at the official announcement of the start of the human trial phase of the vaccine in July. Professor Young is the elder statesman of the leadership team, having worked for many years in Britain, including on vaccines for Hepatitis B and Dengue fever. He had no plans to return to Australia while he was in London, and in fact was considering a move to Cambridge University, but the birth of his first child made him think about home for the first time in years.
When he started working with Dr Chappell, previously one of his PhD students, he says he knew they had something in the molecular clamp technology which might actually make it all the way to development. “We were planning to have two years of development to get us to that point, but of course just a year in we got the real test.”Trent Munro had been thinking of bringing his children home to Australia for a while. They’d been born in Australia but he’d travelled to the United States when they were still small to accept a role with leading biotech company Amgen.
stuartlayt SO WE CAN SUE THE VACCINE MANUFACTURERS IF ANYTHING GOES WRONG, LIKE INJURY, CANCER, OR DEATH? NAAAH. WHY NOT (you never ask that question of questions, which shows you know the truth)
stuartlayt What a great story; I pray that they are successful for the good of humanity.
stuartlayt Are they being given security protection from anti-vaxers and sovereign citizen lunatics?