Meet the UQ graduate behind the first COVID-19 home diagnostic tool

Dr Sean Parsons saw firsthand the huge impact of a pandemic when he was only a few years out of UQ and working as a young doctor in the emergency department of Caboolture Hospital.

What he saw on the frontline in 2009 was a system in crisis, barely coping with the large number of people presenting with suspected swine flu, whose symptoms could only be accurately diagnosed through sending samples to a laboratory from which they would return several days later.

In just over a decade since then, Parsons (Bachelor of Science (Honours) ’01, Bachelor of Medicine/Bachelor of Surgery ’05) has turned into an international medical entrepreneur – largely through the development of a rapid and accurate flu test.

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“That sculpting needs to take place on time scales of trillionths of a second, so that’s too fast to sculpt using any moving parts or electrical signals – think of it like shooting a ball of clay at high speed through a static apparatus with no moving parts, which slices up the ball, diverts the pieces, and then recombines the pieces to produce an output sculpture, all as the clay flies through without ever slowing down.

Dr Fontaine said there was no device that could fully control and shape a light beam in 3D before the team developed this technique.

“It’s very important to control light delivery as accurately as possible for many applications, ranging from imaging to trapping objects with light, to creating very intense laser beams,” Dr Fontaine said.

Using the new device, researchers will be able to conduct experiments that were previously impossible, putting theoretical concepts in many fields to the test.

This research was published in Nature Communications.

Media: Dr Mickael Mounaix, m.mounaix@uq.edu.au, +61 7 3365 3529; Dr Joel Carpenter, j.carpenter@uq.edu.au, +61 7 3365 1656; UQ Communications, Genevieve Worrell, g.worrell@uq.edu.au, +61 408 432 213.

The University of Queensland and CSL today announce that the Phase 1 trial of the UQ-CSL v451 COVID-19 vaccine has shown that it elicits a robust response towards the virus and has a strong safety profile. There were no serious adverse events or safety concerns reported in the 216 trial participants. However, following consultation with the Australian Government, CSL will not progress the vaccine candidate to Phase 2/3 clinical trials.

The University of Queensland commenced a Phase 1 trial of their COVID-19 vaccine candidate – v451 – in July 2020, to assess safety and immunogenicity in healthy volunteers. CSL was working towards taking responsibility for the Phase 2/3 clinical trial and large-scale manufacture of the vaccine, upon completion of successful trials.

The Phase 1 data also showed the generation of antibodies directed towards fragments of a protein (gp41), which is a component used to stablise the vaccine. Trial participants were fully informed of the possibility of a partial immune response to this component, but it was unexpected that the levels induced would interfere with certain HIV tests.

There is no possibility the vaccine causes infection, and routine follow up tests confirmed there is no HIV virus present.

With advice from experts, CSL and UQ have worked through the implications that this issue presents to rolling out the vaccine into broad populations. It is generally agreed that significant changes would need to be made to well-established HIV testing procedures in the healthcare setting to accommodate rollout of this vaccine. Therefore, CSL and the Australian  Government have agreed vaccine development will not proceed to Phase 2/3 trials.

The Phase 1 trial will continue, where further analysis of the data will show how long the antibodies persist, with studies so far showing that levels are already falling. The University of Queensland plans to submit the full data for peer review publication.

UQ Vice-Chancellor, Professor Deborah Terry, said while the outcome was disappointing, she was immensely proud of the UQ team who had shouldered a heavy burden of responsibility while the world watched on. “I also want to thank our many partners, our donors – including the Federal and Queensland Government – and of course the 216 Queenslanders who so willingly volunteered for the Phase 1 trials.”

UQ vaccine co-lead, Professor Paul Young, said that although it was possible to re-engineer the vaccine, the team did not have the luxury of time needed. “Doing so would set back development by another 12 or so months, and while this is a tough decision to take, the urgent need for a vaccine has to be everyone’s priority.”

“I said at the start of vaccine development that there were no guarantees, but what is really encouraging is that the core technology approach we used has passed the major clinical test. It is a safe and well-tolerated vaccine, producing the strong virus-neutralising effect that we were hoping to see. So we will continue to push forward and we are confident that with further work the Molecular Clamp technology will be a robust platform for future vaccine development here in Australia and to meet future biosecurity needs.

Dr Andrew Nash, Chief Scientific Officer for CSL said this outcome highlights the risk of failure associated with early vaccine development, and the rigorous assessment involved in making decisions as to what discoveries advance.

“This project has only been made possible by the innovative science developed by world-class scientists at The University of Queensland and the strong collaboration between our organisations, and many others, over the past 10 months. CSL and Seqirus are committed to continuing our work to protect the Australian population against COVID-19. Manufacture of approximately 30 million doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine candidate is underway, with first doses planned for release to Australia early next year.  In addition, CSL has agreed at the request of the Australian Government to manufacture an additional 20 million doses.”

UQ and CSL acknowledge the support of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) in partnering to enable the rapid development of the vaccine candidate through clinical trials.

Media: UQ – Kim Lyell, k.lyell@uq.edu.au, +61 429 056139; Seqirus – Joanne Cleary, joanne.cleary@seqirus.com, +61 428 816 751; CSL – Christina Hickie, christina.hickie@csl.com.au, +61 429 609 762.

A new medication which can be applied to the skin could help prevent organ transplant recipients from developing harmful skin cancers.

The world-first treatment being developed at The University of Queensland is the only drug of its type that could prevent the incidence of skin cancers for transplant patients.

Lead researcher from UQ’s Diamantina Institute Associate Professor James Wells said the treatment was shown in models to clear skin tumours that grow as a consequence of taking tacrolimus – a drug that transplant patients must take to suppress their immune systems to avoid organ rejection.

“It’s first-in-class, meaning there is no other drug that has been developed targeting the same mechanism,” Dr Wells said.

Organ transplant recipients are 100 times more likely to develop squamous cell carcinomas (SCC) than the general population, with patients developing multiple SCCs.

The current treatment includes invasive surgery or drugs with harmful side effects.

“This new potential therapy works by enabling the patient’s immune system to fight the skin cancer locally, without impacting the most commonly prescribed drug, tacrolimus, and its role in preventing rejection of transplanted organs,” Dr Wells said.

“Our goal is to provide the best possible outcome for the patient, which is the prevention of skin cancers while on immune-suppressing drugs.

“Such an outcome has the potential to be transformative for organ transplant patients trapped by the longterm need for immunosuppression resulting in the development of multiple skin cancers that require surgery and could be lethal.”

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Locally made coronavirus proteins produced in a state-of-the-art laboratory in Brisbane are proving highly useful in a sophisticated blood test for COVID-19.

The University of Queensland’s Protein Expression Facility (PEF) partnered with the Public Health Virology team at Forensic and Scientific Services (FSS), Queensland Health to develop SARS-CoV-2 viral proteins

These synthetic proteins can be used in a blood test to safely screen patient antibodies for prior exposure to COVID-19.

UQ PEF Director Professor Linda Lua said the high-quality proteins were extremely valuable in determining the robustness and reliability of the antibody blood test, an important capability for detecting COVID-19 in Queensland.

“Manufacturing synthetic SARS-CoV-2 viral proteins in Queensland is testament to the technological expertise available in the state,” Professor Lua said.

“PEF was able to respond rapidly as the pandemic emerged because the facility has a track record in producing proteins and is equipped with a range of production capabilities.

“Using these proteins has other significant benefits like reducing biohazard risks from not working with the live virus and having a scalable and consistent production line – especially critical during pandemics.

“As a Queensland-based provider, we can help ensure a degree of supply chain security against testing shortages resulting from issues with international vendors or shipping delays.”

FSS Senior Research Scientist Dr Alyssa Pyke said an early and rapid response was critical for protecting the public against any disease outbreak and was vital during a pandemic.

“As the state’s reference laboratory, we provide essential testing capabilities and public health support for the detection of dangerous viruses like the novel coronavirus,” Dr Pyke said.

“We need a holistic approach when dealing with viral outbreaks and protecting the community at large. This means looking for evidence of the virus itself as well as antibodies in patients who may have had the disease.

“The team were able to quickly develop diagnostics before cases arrived from overseas and were the first to isolate the virus in Queensland.

“Being able to recover and grow live SARS-CoV-2 meant we could rapidly provide DNA templates of different parts of the virus to PEF, which they then used to manufacture a set of coronavirus proteins.”