Sementis and its researchers from the University of South Australia have developed a vaccine for mosquito-borne chikungunya virus, which they believe could be quickly adapted to target Zika.
Head of the university’s Experimental Therapeutics Laboratory associate professor John Hayball said the chikungunya vaccine — which has been shown to offer complete protection in mice models — was based on a “platform” idea that could be rapidly adapted to other diseases.
“We didn’t just want to make a new vaccine against emerging diseases,” associate professor Hayball said.
“We wanted to put together a whole system that can be deployed rapidly as new emerging infectious diseases arise. And we’re going to see more and more of them.”
The technology, which has taken four years and $5 million to develop, uses genetic engineering techniques to insert genes for antigens from different viruses, which encourage the body’s own immune system to fight the disease.
“Potentially, any contract manufacturing organisation around the world could take our system and amplify it up into large-scale vaccine production,” he said.
The team has already ordered the Zika virus genes from a German laboratory, as well as a laboratory live strain from the US, which they will use for their experiments with the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute in Queensland.
The vaccine hope comes as calls are made to the Federal Government to send Australian biosecurity specialists to overseas hot spots to help contain the Zika virus, such as remote Pacific Islands, South-East-Asia and South and Central America.