Highlights
- Indian-origin scientist Prof S S Vasan gets $1.7 million grant for a COVID-19 treatment project
- ‘Sufficient vaccines but no satisfactory treatment against coronavirus’: Prof Vasan
- Prof Vasan’s research proved AstraZeneca is more effective in ferrets when given as nasal drops
Prof S S Vasan has been working at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation's (CSIRO) high-security facility in Geelong since 2019.
The project leader of the Dangerous Pathogens Team, he and his team have worked on three vaccine candidates, including AstraZeneca, to successfully reach the human trial stage.
This month, he has won a grant of $1 million from Australia’s Medical Research Future Fund with an additional $7,00,000 from CSIRO to help his team identify approved drug candidates to be fast-tracked to the second and third phase of human trials within a year.
“We have already helped three major vaccines in their crucial journey to human trials. One is available in Australia and India while the other two may become available next year if human trials go well,” Prof Vasan told SBS Hindi.
“My current work on the novel antibody therapy and repurposed drugs will hopefully advance to human trials in mid-2022,” he added.
“Research takes time and I only recently shifted focus from vaccines to treatment because we now have sufficient vaccine candidates but no satisfactory treatment against this virus,” Prof Vasan added.
“A great strategy to find potential COVID-19 treatment is to repurpose drugs already approved for this disease. But the current methods to do this are expensive, time-consuming and not fit for purpose,” Prof Vasan said.
In the CSIRO lab, Prof Vasan and his team will also develop their own antibody therapy for COVID-19 for a safe, effective and affordable treatment option for the masses.
Prof S S Vasan at the CSIRO lab at Geelong. Source: Supplied by Prof S S Vasan
“We will be setting up a screening platform with different human tissues for drugs already approved for some other disease. And if it is promising against the coronavirus and its variants, then those drugs can be accelerated to Phase 2 human trials,” Prof Vasan said.
Other than his previous work on the AstraZeneca vaccine, Prof Vasan’s work also includes proving a DNA vaccine called Inovio as safe and effective in ferrets, which is now due to enter Phase 3 human trials, and Mynvax, a heat-tolerant vaccine which is now ready for Phase 1 human trials with the Indian government.
“Our data shows that all formulations of Mynvax tested, resulted in antibodies capable of consistent and effective neutralisation of the Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern,” he said.
Prof Vasan claimed that his team at CSIRO were the first to grow a working stock of the SARS-CoV-2 virus outside China, as well as the first in the world to show that ferrets were suitable and then use the model for evaluating vaccines.
“We evaluated the Oxford vaccine, licenced in Australia as AstraZeneca, and in India as Covishield,” Prof Vasan said, adding that his team showed that it was safe and effective in ferrets before human trials could be conducted.
“I also proposed and proved that this vaccine when given as nasal drops instead of injection, is more protective in ferrets and that is now being tested in humans in England,” he added.
An alumnus of two prestigious academic institutes of India, Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani and the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, Prof Vasan migrated to Australia from the UK. He worked there as Oxford University’s head of public health on viral diseases like dengue and chikungunya.
Prof Vasan has also worked for the UK government, including Public Health England’s high-security facility at Porton Down, on viral diseases such Ebola and Zika, amongst other research projects.
A project team with 92 scientists led by him received the Chairman’s Medal in 2020, the highest award given by CSIRO.
His top advice against the coronavirus includes thorough hand hygiene, wearing washed masks in public places, meeting people virtually or in outdoor settings and getting vaccinated with the booster shot of the vaccine.
