Pitt lab working to create vaccine for coronavirus
In a way, COVID-19, the virus that has the world’s attention, is already in Pittsburgh.
Two weeks ago, a specially-trained FedEx delivery team brought a well packed box full of dry ice and small vials full of 50 million samples of SARS-CoV-2 — the virus that causes the disease COVID-19 — to the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Vaccine Research on Fifth Avenue in Oakland.
The delivery made the highly secure center — one of just 12 federally designated Regional Biocontainment Laboratories nationwide equipped to ramp up testing quickly — one of a couple dozen labs in the U.S. to be given samples of the now notorious virus that has shut down countries, roiled economic markets and caused President Donald Trump to hold a press conference to try to calm the nation’s nerves Wednesday night.
The hope from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in giving Pitt and other laboratories the samples is that they’ll more quickly get to a vaccine that can stop the incredibly infectious virus in its tracks.
Only one thing is certain about that goal, said Dr. Paul Durex, director of Pitt’s Center for Vaccine Research: “Life has told me things like this take longer than you want.”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/pitt-lab-working-to-create-vaccine-for-coronavirus/ar-BB10uAII?ocid=hplocalnews
