Australia: Indian Origin Scientist Led Team Brings World Closer To Novel Coronavirus Vaccine

Professor SS Vasan, an Indian-origin scientist in Australia, is leading a team of researchers who have come very close to the development of a vaccine against the coronavirus, reports Times of India.

The group working at Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in Australia have for the first time successfully grown a batch of the virus outside of China in sufficient amount to carry out forth-coming studies in the high security lab.

The growth of virus hold importance as the findings of the study will pave for development of vaccine against the virus.

Notably, SS Vasan is an alumnus of Bengaluru’s Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani. Afterwards, he obtained his doctorate at Trinity college, Oxford on a Rhodes scholarship. He has also worked on Zika Virus, Dengue, and Chikungunya before the Coronavirus.

It should be noted that the death toll due to the novel coronavirus outbreak in China increased to 811 on Sunday (9 February), surpassing that of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) epidemic in 2003.

Data released by China's National Health Commission shows that, until midnight, 811 coronavirus deaths had been recorded in mainland China, other than those registered in the Philippines last weekend and Hong Kong earlier this week.