Researchers in Southampton and Oxford set to begin trials of vaccine for coronavirus
Researchers at the University Hospital Southampton and the University of Southampton are set to begin trials of a vaccine for Covid-19.
They will be trialling a drug developed by clinical teams at the University of Oxford's Jenner Institute and Oxford Vaccine Group.
The trial will involve up to 510 healthy volunteers between 18 and 55, with around 187 recruited in Southampton.
What is the vaccine?
It is called ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 and is made from a weakened version of a common cold virus (adenovirus) from chimpanzees that has been genetically changed so that it is impossible for it to grow in humans.
This has been combined with genes that make proteins from the COVID-19 virus (SARS-CoV-2) called spike glycoprotein which play an essential role in the infection pathway of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
Professor Faust says the study will help assess whether healthy people can be protected from the virus with the vaccine, and its safety and ability to generate good immune responses.
According to the World Health Organisation, more than 70 COVID-19 vaccines are in development worldwide, but the UK now joins the United States and China in beginning human trials.
The study is taking place in Oxford and Southampton with three further sites likely to be added.
Half of volunteers in the study will receive either the COVID-19 vaccine and the other half will be given a licensed 'control' vaccine against meningitis and sepsis (the conjugate MenACWY vaccine) as comparison.