Institute for Glycomics researchers tackle COVID-19

Institute for Glycomics researchers tackle COVID-19

Four teams of expert scientists from Griffith University’s Institute for Glycomics are targeting the virus SARS-CoV-2 to discover new vaccines and drugs to prevent or cure COVID-19.

The teams are led by the Institute’s group leaders Professor Mark von Itzstein AO, Professor Michael Good AO, Professor Michael Jennings, and Professor Johnson Mak, all world-renowned research scientists in their various fields of infectious diseases research.

Professor von Itzstein AO, Founder and Director of Institute for Glycomics, said that although each team possesses a specific focus and strategy, they were working closely with one another, sharing information, ideas and results, to find innovative ways to tackle the disease.

“This multi-pronged approach between highly skilled infectious diseases experts in the Institute and Queensland Health Departments, including Gold Coast University Hospital and Forensic Scientific Services, coupled with our Institute’s state-of-the-art research facilities and equipment, provides much hope in the fight against COVID-19,” Professor von Itzstein AO said.

Nobel Laureate Professor Peter Doherty AC from the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the Doherty Institute, University of Melbourne, has been in discussion with Professor von Itzstein AO about the direction of the Institute’s COVID-19 research.

“We urgently need solutions for this disease,” Professor Doherty AC said. “Drugs to prevent or treat COVID-19 and a vaccine to prevent COVID-19 are required; and we need them now.

“The Institute for Glycomics’ integrated approach is exciting, adding to the world’s COVID-19 research efforts and I look forward to learning more of their outcomes, that will advance our knowledge, resources, and opportunities for collaboration so we can get to the end goal faster.”

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