Israeli scientists: ‘In three weeks, we will have coronavirus vaccine’
A team of Israeli scientists are on the cusp of developing the first vaccine against coronavirus, according to Israel’s Minister of Science and Technology, Ofir Akunis. If all goes as planned, the vaccine could be ready within three weeks and available in 90 days.“Congratulations to MIGAL [The Galilee Research Institute] on this exciting breakthrough. I am confident that there will be further rapid progress, enabling us to provide a needed response to the grave global COVID-19 threat,” Akunis said, referring to the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.For the past four years, a team of MIGAL scientists has been developing a vaccine against infectious bronchitis virus (IBV), which causes a bronchial disease affecting poultry, and whose effectiveness has been proven in pre-clinical trials carried out at the Veterinary Institute.MIGAL is located in the Galilee.“Our basic concept was to develop the technology, and not specifically a vaccine for this kind or that kind of virus,” said Dr. Chen Katz, MIGAL’s biotechnology group leader, who explained that “the scientific framework for the vaccine is based on a new protein expression vector, which forms and secretes a chimeric soluble protein that delivers the viral antigen into mucosal tissues by self-activated endocytosis, causing the body to form antibodies against the virus.”
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