Called 2019-nCoV, the new coronavirus, which has already killed nearly 500 people in China and contaminated some 20,000 people, retains much of the mystery.
At the Pasteur Institute, around fifty people are mobilized full time to work to isolate and culture the strains of the virus. It is a question of understanding its specificities, of studying it in detail, in order to find a potential vaccine.
“In nature, it goes from patient to patient and we can never isolate it. In a laboratory, we will be able to keep it with us, we will be able to understand, analyze its sequence, its structure, do biochemistry, biology, understanding how it works, what cell it infects … “, explains to BFMTV Fréderic Tangy, head of the innovation laboratory at the Pasteur Institute.
Vaccine available in fall 2021
The isolated virus then comes the preliminary phase, a test phase during which it is confronted with already known molecules and where its reactions are observed. Then comes the clinical phase, during which the vaccines are tested on laboratory mice.
“The results of the clinical phases will be obtained at the end of summer 2021, which would make it possible to launch vaccination campaigns in autumn 2021”, details for his part Professor Christophe D’enfert, scientific director of the Institute Pastor, still on the air.
Currently, other laboratories are working on this vaccine around the world. In order to speed up the process, the Pasteur Institute made a call for donations earlier this week.
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