IIT Guwahati collaborates with Hester Biosciences for Covid-19 vaccine

The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Guwahati, is collaborating with Ahmedabad-based pharmaceutical company Hester Biosciences to develop a vaccine against Covid-19. It expects the vaccine to be ready for animal studies by the end of this year.

The vaccine is planned to be based on the recombinant avian paramyxovirus-based vector platform. The recombinant avian paramyxovirus-1 will be used to express the immunogenic protein of SARS-CoV-2, and that will be a vaccine candidate for further study.

The avian paramyxovirus-1 has been explored as a vaccine vector for various animals and human pathogens and used to express the immunogenic protein of human pathogens like human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), avian influenza virus, human parainfluenza virus, and SARS-CoV. Similarly, it has also been explored as a vaccine vector for animal pathogens like infectious bursal disease virus, infectious laryngotracheitis virus, bovine herpes virus, and Nipah virus, among others.