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The Life Scientific: Sarah Gilbert on developing a vaccine for Covid-19

Sarah Gilbert on the search for a vaccine for Covid-19

Sarah Gilbert on developing a vaccine for Covid-19

BBC Radio 4 - The Life Scientific, Sarah Gilbert on developing a vaccine for Covid-19

How did Sarah Gilbert get so far, so fast in developing a vaccine for Covid-19?

How did Sarah Gilbert and her Oxford team get so far, so fast in developing a vaccine for Covid-19?

Sarah Gilbert started working on a vaccine for Covid-19  just as soon as the virus genome was  sequenced. Within weeks, she had a proof of principle. By early April, her team at the Jenner Institute in Oxford had manufactured  hundreds  of doses ready for use in clinical trials. In phase one of these trials, completed in July, this vaccine  was shown to be safe  for use in a thousand healthy volunteers, aged between 18 and 55. It also provoked exactly the kind of immune response to Covid-19 that Sarah was hoping to achieve. Larger scale clinical trials are currently underway in the UK, South Africa and Brazil. If everything goes according to plan and the vaccine meets all the necessary regulatory standards, it will be manufactured in multiple locations including the Serum Institute in India and made available for use in low to middle income countries. AstraZeneca has already committed to making two billion doses, each costing about $4. The UK  has an order in for 100 million. Sarah talks to Jim Al-Khalili about her life and work. As a young woman, she nearly gave up on a career in science. Now she’s in charge of one the most successful vaccine projects in the world. How did Sarah and her Oxford team get so far, so fast in developing a vaccine against Covid-19?
Producer: Anna Buckley

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Professor Jim Al-Khalili talks to leading scientists about their life and work.

Professor Jim Al-Khalili talks to leading scientists about their life and work, finding out what inspires them and asking what their discoveries might do for us in the future.

Professor Jim Al-Khalili talks to leading scientists about their life and work, finding out what inspires and motivates them and asking what their discoveries might do for us in the future

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Sarah Gilbert on developing a vaccine for Covid-19

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