Imperial College Of London's New Ebola | Lassa | Marburg Vaccine Approach: "saRNA Rapid Scaling" -- EML Vac Phase I/II Study Now Enrolling...

This is excellent. And note that while this is only a smaller "safety testing" study, among healthy 18 to 50 year olds who volunteer to get jabbed, in and around London, it is a very encouraging step forward.

Fighting viral haemorrhagic fever outbreaks is a vital mission -- both in Africa, and increasingly, in the rest of the world. Here's the latest on it all -- Cheerio!

. . .The collaboration between Imperial College London and Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust will deliver a first-in-human (FIH) clinical trial of three new vaccines targeting Ebola, Marburg and Lassa fever – viruses that can cause severe, often fatal illness and trigger devastating outbreaks.

The study, known as EML-Vac, is being led by Professor Robin Shattock, Chair in Mucosal Infection and Immunity in the Department of Infectious Disease, and Dr Marta Boffito, Consultant Physician and Clinical Director at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. . . .

The vaccines being tested in EML-Vac use a new technology called self-amplifying RNA (saRNA). Unlike traditional vaccines, which can take years to develop and manufacture, saRNA vaccines can be designed and produced much more quickly – a crucial advantage when new outbreaks emerge.

These vaccines work by giving the body instructions to make harmless pieces of the virus, allowing the immune system to learn to recognise and fight the real infection if it is encountered in the future.

The three vaccines have been designed to target the glycoproteins of the Ebola, Marburg and Lassa viruses and are delivered inside tiny fat-based particles, known as lipid nanoparticles. . . .

This sort of highly-novel, cutting edge vaccine science. . . will increasingly be undertaken outside the USA, given our current Luddite leadership, in federal positions. Damn. But here's to cheering our cousins, across the pond. Well done! Be like Rev. Dr. King! [But be entirely not like. . . the faux orange one.]

नमस्ते