The University of Queensland team began work on their vaccine on January 11, when the first coronavirus genome – its DNA blueprint – was uploaded to the internet by Chinese scientists.
“We did not need the virus itself. All we needed was the sequence,” said Professor Paul Young.
They quickly identified a section of the virus, known as a spike protein, they would need to target by using "molecular clamp" technology, an invention developed at the Queensland University by Dr Keith Chappell, Dr Daniel Watterson and Professor Young seven year ago.
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