Cancelled University of Queensland COVID-19 vaccine to be trialled in humans next year - ABC News

A second generation of the University of Queensland's vaccine technology that was abandoned during the rush to develop an effective COVID-19 shot will move into human trials early next year.

UQ scientists were devastated in late 2020 when they had to drop out of the initial race to develop a COVID-19 vaccine after recipients in an early human trial of their molecular clamp technology falsely tested positive to HIV.

UQ molecular virologist Keith Chappell said a "proof of concept" human trial of a Clamp2 vaccine against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, was due to begin in Brisbane next March.

Professor Chappell said 35 volunteers would be given a Clamp2 COVID vaccine and 35 would receive Novavax to compare the UQ technology against an already approved COVID-19 shot.

"We believe, and we've shown in animal studies, that Clamp2 is just as safe and effective as the first vaccine we tested in clinical trials," he said.

The original clamp technology used in UQ's first experimental COVID vaccine contained two fragments of a protein found in HIV, which acted like a chemical bulldog clip, holding together an engineered version of the spike protein found on the surface of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Although Clamp2 will first be tested in human trials of a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, Professor Chappell said the scientists were not planning on adding to the COVID-19 vaccines already on the market at this stage.