The Genius Woman Behind The COVID-19 Vaccine That Might Save Us All

The announcement of the Serum Institute of India to start manufacturing COVID-19 from Oxford University is bringing a ray of hope to the world. The Indian Council for Medical Research is closely monitoring the progress of the vaccine.

The vaccine is an achievement from the ceaseless effort and hard work of Sarah Catherine Gilbert. Sarah is a vaccinologist and a vaccinology professor at Oxford University. Her team of researchers is racing to find the answer to end the COVID-19 pandemic.

Early education and academic achievement

Sarah studied at Kettering High School where she realized her passion for medicine. She then attended the University of East Anglia where she majored in Biological Sciences. Sarah then graduated from the University of Hull with a Doctoral Degree. Here, she did research on yeast Rhodosporidium toruloides’ genetics and biochemistry.

Previous research work

Sarah has worked with several institutions before, like the Leicester Biocentre and the Brewing Industry Research Foundation. In 2010, she worked at the Jenner Institute as a professor. She has been working on novel influenza vaccinations, their development, and preclinical testing. She also took part in developing the universal flu vaccine triggering the immune system to produce T cells that affect influenza.

COVID-19 vaccine

Sarah and her team started to research the vaccine right after China revealed the genome sequence of SARS-CoV-2, the virus behind COVID-19. Her team then tested the adenoviral vector ChAdOx1 that has proven to be effective in eliminating MERS coronavirus in mice.

This vector has also been used to create vaccines for the Nipah virus. The vaccine showed success in hamsters. However, unfortunately, it was never tested on humans.

For COVID-19, Sarah hopes to stimulate a response from the immune system against the SARS-CoV-2 virus by using the adenoviral vector again. Her team includes Andrey Pollard, Catherine Green, Teresa Lambe, Adrian Hill, and Sandy Douglas.

The vaccine was first developed back in January. And now it is in its human trial phase. In the first phase, 550 participants will receive a vaccine called ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 while 550 others will receive a control vaccine for meningitis and sepsis.

Professor Gilbert said that she was 80% confident that the vaccine would be a success.

At the moment, there are at least 70 vaccines that are being developed to fight COVID-19. But the one that Sarah Gilbert and her team are working on is the most potential one. If everything goes well, the vaccine could be available by September this year.

>>> Pune-Based Serum India Will Start COVID-19 Vaccine Production In 3 Weeks