This University Of Hawaii Vaccine Could Transform The Fight Against Covid…. Designed to be stored outside the fridge for up to two years, the shot could be pivotal in vaccinating hard-to-reach populations, if researchers can find funding.
Tucked in the corner of the University of Hawaii’s seaside John A. Burns School of Medicine, lab manager Teri Wong wields an oversized pipette in one hand and steadies a stack of petri dishes in the other, preparing to feed a line of fruit fly cells.
These microscopic embryo cells are the foundation of a protein-based vaccine candidate that UH researchers hope will prove pivotal in the global fight against Covid-19. Dubbed CiVax (pronounced sigh-vax) by industry-partner Soligenix, this homegrown jab is designed to be shelf-stable and not need refrigeration to make it more useful for unvaccinated populations in areas many miles away from the nearest vaccine freezer.
With vaccines plentiful in the United States, public health experts argue that inoculating people in developing countries should be the highest priority. This is important not only to alleviate inequality as 94% of the population of low-income countries remained unvaccinated as of December, but because large pockets of unvaccinated people can become breeding grounds for immunity-hopping variants like omicron.
