The first experimental vaccines against the Wuhan coronavirus (Wuhan CoV) could be tested in just three months’ time – thanks to a newly organised vaccine research group at the US National Institutes of Health (NIH). Called together to conduct human trials for emerging health threats, Anthony Fauci, Director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases within NIH, said three months from gene sequence to initial human testing would be the fastest the agency has ever gotten a vaccine off the ground.

In his inaugural address, Fauci jokingly told the group, “You are going to have your baptism of fire,” referencing the critical circumstances they would have to work with.

Fauci’s agency is partnering with US biotech giant Moderna, which specialises in vaccines based on ribonucleic acid (RNA). RNA contains instructions for making proteins, crucial for cellular development and maintenance. The group hopes to make an RNA vaccine based on one of the crown-like spikes on the surface of the coronavirus, such that it would not endanger people exposed to the virus.

Elsewhere in Australia, at the University of Queensland, scientists backed by the global health emergency group the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) are working on a “molecular clamp” vaccine approach – it involves the addition of a gene to viral proteins to stabilise them and trick the body into thinking it is seeing a live virus and create antibodies against it.The technology has shown promising results in lab tests on other dangerous viruses such as Ebola and the coronavirus that causes Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) – a cousin of the Wuhan CoV.

The Wuhan CoV outbreak, which began in December 2019, has infected hundreds of people in China and killed 26. Cases have also been confirmed in Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Nepal, the US, and Australia.

Despite the fast spread of the virus, Chinese scientists managed to quickly identify its genetic sequence, thus allowing research teams tostart vaccine development work without needing a sample of the virus.Groups worldwide are already executing plans to test vaccines, treatments and other countermeasures to stop the newly identified virus from taking hold globally.

US-based company, Vir Biotechnology (Vir), is one of the many firms scrambling to produce a timely vaccine for the Wuhan CoV; its Chief Scientific Officer Herbert Virgin saidmonoclonal antibodies (mAbs) “may have the potential to treat and prevent the Wuhan coronavirus” as it has shown success against the SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) and MERS coronaviruses.

It is hoped that Vir’s library of infection-fighting mAbs will offer enough overlap in the antibodies to help people infected in the latest outbreak.