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The Australian government will spend $220 million to upgrade the CSIRO's Geelong laboratory, which is now testing two vaccines for COVID-19.
The grant, to be announced by Science Minister Karen Andrews on Saturday, will be used to refit and modernise three of the 35-year-old facility’s four main laboratories, with work to begin in about two years.
The CSIRO Australian Animal Health Laboratory Collaborative Biosecurity Facility in Geelong.
An extra $10 million has been given to the CSIRO to support its work on testing COVID-19 vaccines.
The investment is one of the largest in Australian scientific infrastructure in many years.
“It’s about the same as an F35 jetfighter,” said Trevor Drew, the lab’s director. “How much do you value your bio-defence over your actual defence?”
The Geelong lab, known as the Australian Animal Health Laboratory, is a cornerstone of Australia’s pandemic defences and has become central to the worldwide race to find a vaccine for the deadly virus.
Scientists working in the secure area at CSIRO's Australian Animal Health Laboratory.CREDIT:CSIRO
It is one of only a handful of Biosecurity Level 4 labs in the world with the extremely high security facilities needed to do research on dangerous pathogens such as SARS-CoV-4, the virus that causes COVID-19. Its labs are kept under negative pressure and housed within an airtight concrete box.
Much of the lab was designed when research was still done in test tubes. Now it is done by robots, and much of the focus is on a virus’s molecules and genes. “At the time there was no such thing as molecular biology,” says Dr Drew. “Now it is a fundamental part of everything we do.”
In January, researchers there started growing large vats of SARS-CoV-2.
Over the next two months, they exposed various animals to the virus to find one that fell sick in the way humans do – eventually settling on ferrets.
On Thursday the agency announced it had introduced two potential vaccines from teams based in the UK and the US into the ferrets. A vaccine designed by a team at the University of Queensland is still in the final stages of development, but it is hoped it will begin tests soon as well.
Researchers will first check the vaccines don’t cause side effects, before testing to see if the vaccine can keep the ferrets from becoming infected. Those tests are expected to take two to three months.
To put the new funding in context, Australia’s largest scientific instrument, the Square Kilometre Array, will receive $293.7 million in funding, but that’s over 10 years.
“Our scientists are working around the clock on the front line to protect the community from COVID-19 and other diseases. This upgrade extends the functional lifespan of [the facility] and ensures that this work will continue,” Ms Andrews said.
The lab will be renamed the Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness.
https://www.theage.com.au/national/...e-push-gets-a-230m-boost-20200403-p54gw0.html
The grant, to be announced by Science Minister Karen Andrews on Saturday, will be used to refit and modernise three of the 35-year-old facility’s four main laboratories, with work to begin in about two years.
The CSIRO Australian Animal Health Laboratory Collaborative Biosecurity Facility in Geelong.
An extra $10 million has been given to the CSIRO to support its work on testing COVID-19 vaccines.
The investment is one of the largest in Australian scientific infrastructure in many years.
“It’s about the same as an F35 jetfighter,” said Trevor Drew, the lab’s director. “How much do you value your bio-defence over your actual defence?”
The Geelong lab, known as the Australian Animal Health Laboratory, is a cornerstone of Australia’s pandemic defences and has become central to the worldwide race to find a vaccine for the deadly virus.
Scientists working in the secure area at CSIRO's Australian Animal Health Laboratory.CREDIT:CSIRO
It is one of only a handful of Biosecurity Level 4 labs in the world with the extremely high security facilities needed to do research on dangerous pathogens such as SARS-CoV-4, the virus that causes COVID-19. Its labs are kept under negative pressure and housed within an airtight concrete box.
Much of the lab was designed when research was still done in test tubes. Now it is done by robots, and much of the focus is on a virus’s molecules and genes. “At the time there was no such thing as molecular biology,” says Dr Drew. “Now it is a fundamental part of everything we do.”
In January, researchers there started growing large vats of SARS-CoV-2.
Over the next two months, they exposed various animals to the virus to find one that fell sick in the way humans do – eventually settling on ferrets.
On Thursday the agency announced it had introduced two potential vaccines from teams based in the UK and the US into the ferrets. A vaccine designed by a team at the University of Queensland is still in the final stages of development, but it is hoped it will begin tests soon as well.
Researchers will first check the vaccines don’t cause side effects, before testing to see if the vaccine can keep the ferrets from becoming infected. Those tests are expected to take two to three months.
To put the new funding in context, Australia’s largest scientific instrument, the Square Kilometre Array, will receive $293.7 million in funding, but that’s over 10 years.
“Our scientists are working around the clock on the front line to protect the community from COVID-19 and other diseases. This upgrade extends the functional lifespan of [the facility] and ensures that this work will continue,” Ms Andrews said.
The lab will be renamed the Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness.
https://www.theage.com.au/national/...e-push-gets-a-230m-boost-20200403-p54gw0.html
