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UQ welcomes back Professor Deborah Terry

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The university sector will be vital in the state’s recovery from COVID-19, according to incoming University of Queensland Vice-Chancellor, Professor Deborah Terry.

Professor Terry returns to UQ on Monday (3 August) after more than six years serving as Vice-Chancellor and President of Curtin University in Western Australia.

Professor Terry said UQ was an incredibly strong university, and she was delighted to be back at a time when educating graduates, engaging in research and enriching communities were more important than ever.

“Queensland will need new ideas, new skills and new jobs to power its economic and social recovery and UQ will be at the forefront of this,” Professor Terry said.

“At this time of great disruption, I am convinced that universities will be critical to the road to recovery, and this is no more evident than in UQ’s extraordinary progress in developing a COVID-19 vaccine.

“I look forward to working with UQ staff, students and alumni to build on Professor Høj’s legacy to further enhance the University’s already excellent global reputation for learning and research and delivering knowledge leadership for a better world.”

While yet to officially start work, Professor Terry visited the St Lucia campus on Sunday to meet staff and students hosting UQ’s first virtual Open Day.

About 10,000 people registered in advance for Open Day activities, which include 13 virtual tours, ‘On Air’ events and more than 45 hours of on-demand video content for participants.

UQ Chancellor Mr Peter Varghese AO said he was delighted to have secured Professor Terry as Vice-Chancellor of UQ.

“Her deep knowledge of the higher education sector and her proven track-record as a leader gives me great confidence that she will continue to build on UQ’s many achievements under the leadership of Professor Peter Høj,” Mr Varghese said.

“During her time at Curtin, the university’s global reputation and rankings significantly improved. It is now widely considered to be one of Australia’s rapidly rising universities and is ranked number one for graduate employment in Western Australia.

“Debbie is well known to our UQ community having worked here for 24 years and rising to become UQ’s Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor, before being appointed Vice-Chancellor at Curtin University in 2014.

“On behalf of the UQ Senate, I am very pleased to welcome Debbie back to UQ.”

Media: UQ Communications, communications@uq.edu.au, +61 7 3365 1130; +61 429 056139.

Dosing begins in the first human trial of UQ’s COVID-19 vaccine

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The next critical phase for The University of Queensland’s COVID-19 vaccine is underway – with the research effort moving out of the lab and into human trials.

Healthy adult volunteers have received the first dose of the vaccine at the Brisbane clinic of phase 1 clinical trials specialist, Nucleus Network.

UQ vaccine project co-leader Professor Paul Young said the first human trial was about evaluating the safety of the vaccine and the immune response it generates in a group of healthy volunteers.

The first look at UQ’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate.

“The green light to move into this first phase of human trials follows extensive pre-clinical testing that started when we first selected our lead vaccine candidate on 14 February,” Professor Young said.

Professor Paul Young speaks with Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk before the first volunteers are injected with UQ’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate.

“This testing showed that the vaccine was effective in inducing antibodies that were able to neutralise the virus. Further studies have shown that the vaccine was safe to give to people.”

UQ was tasked by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) to develop a rapid response vaccine against the novel coronavirus in January, supported by an initial investment of up to US$4.5 million.

The Phase 1 trial will involve about 120 volunteers aged between 18 and 55, with a proportion of participants to receive a placebo.

Professor Young said the team will be following the trial closely.

“We expect to have preliminary results after about three months, and if all goes well, we can move as fast as we can to the next stage in the vaccine’s development.

“That will be a larger trial with people from a range of ages, to ensure the vaccine works across the board”

Queensland Minister for State Development, Tourism and Innovation Kate Jones congratulated the UQ team on reaching another important milestone.

“We invested millions into this research because we know a vaccine is crucial to defeating COVID-19,” Ms Jones said.

“Our vaccine – made in Queensland by Queenslanders could save millions of lives throughout the world.”

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk speaks with the first volunteer to be given the COVID-19 vaccine.

UQ vaccine co-leader Associate Professor Keith Chappell said the pace of the project had been relentless and it had been a fantastic achievement to move so quickly into clinical trials.

“We have reached this important stage with help from our collaborators including those at the Australian National University and the Doherty Institute, who are playing a key role in assessing immune responses to the vaccine,” Dr Chappell said.

The clinical batch of vaccine for use in the trial was manufactured in a close partnership between UQ and researchers at CSIRO’s advanced biologics production facility in Melbourne, with technical assistance from Australian biotech company CSL, Brisbane based Patheon and the global biotech company Cytiva (formerly GE Life Sciences).

Project director Professor Trent Munro said the team had known from the beginning that they would need to advance the manufacturing component of the development pipeline to run alongside clinical trials.

“Alongside CEPI, we announced a manufacturing partnership with CSL in June,” Professor Munro said.

“If things go to plan, CSL will rapidly advance production of tens of millions of doses and move the program into later stage clinical testing, regulatory approval, large-scale manufacture and distribution.”

Nucleus Network Principal Investigator and infectious diseases expert Associate Professor Paul Griffin said participants would receive two doses during the trial.

“Participants are thoroughly assessed so we know that they are fit and healthy and eligible to take part, and we will follow them closely through regular monitoring for 12 months,” Dr Griffin said.

“Volunteers won’t know if they receive the vaccine or the placebo – and they need to maintain all the same social distancing and hygiene practises as the rest of us.”

UQ Vice-Chancellor and President Professor Peter Høj AC congratulated the vaccine researchers.

The Queensland Government has provided $10 million Advance Queensland funding for the vaccine project, the Federal Government has contributed $5 million and more than $10 million has been provided by philanthropic and other donors.

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COVID-19 vaccine agreement

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UQ and CEPI partner with CSL to advance COVID-19 vaccine

A landmark partnership will help to accelerate the future development, manufacture and distribution of a University of Queensland COVID-19 vaccine.

Key points:

  • Global biotechnology company CSL will further develop, manufacture and distribute UQ’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate.
  • The UQ vaccine is expected to be available in 2021 should clinical trials be successful.

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Partner with UQ to beat COVID-19

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The University of Queensland is the only Australian organisation tasked by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) to develop a vaccine against the novel coronavirus.

Funding received by government and philanthropic partners is an important extension of CEPI’s ongoing financial support.

Donations could help reduce the timeline for an effective vaccine for COVID-19 by six months and advance vaccine research at UQ to prepare for future outbreaks.

We are hopeful that together we can help limit the spread of and treat COVID-19.

Now more than ever, we need your help.

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UQ COVID-19 vaccine researchers
Professor Paul Young, Dr Keith Chappell and Professor Trent Munro

New drug combination could support better cancer treatments

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Researchers have identified a promising new drug combination that could significantly help the immune system target cancer cells and kill them.

The study published in Cell, describes a treatment that works by combining an intravenous dosage of a well known anti-nausea drug, prochlorperazine (called Stemetil in Australia), with existing cancer treatments.

University of Queensland scientist Associate Professor Fiona Simpson, who led the exhaustive research project, said it could lead to new treatments for some cancers.

Dr Simpson has spent the past decade working on the research project, a tribute to her mother who she lost to cancer in 1999.

“The anti-nausea drug works by changing the surface of the tumour cells so that existing cancer drugs which target tumours are better able to interact with the immune system,” Dr Simpson said.

“The result is that cancer cells become sitting targets that can no longer escape the immune system.

“We observed a process we haven’t seen before and which increased the ‘natural killer’ immune cells’ ability to attach to, and kill the cancer. It is almost as if the killer cells become zipped to the tumour cells.”

The treatment can be combined with and improve the effectiveness of existing cancer drugs like cetuximab, trastuzumab and avelumab and was studied on tumours from head and neck, breast and metastatic colorectal cancers in mice, as well as five patients with head and neck cancer.

“These heroic patients volunteered for a ‘no benefit trial’, consenting to have a tumour biopsy followed by a 20-minute intravenous transfusion of Stemetil, and then another biopsy,” Dr Simpson said.

“We were able to show that the Stemetil altered the tumour cell surface in these patients.”

Following the initial findings, the researchers combined Stemetil with an anti-cancer antibody drug resulting in the disappearance of all the tumours from ten mice with head and neck cancer.

Dr Simpson was curious to see what would happen if they re-introduced the same cancer back into the mice four weeks later.

“Amazingly, their cancer was rapidly eliminated – as if the new combination, in addition to being more effective, was also able to teach the immune system how to better recognise cancer cells,” Dr Simpson said.

“The mice developed a long-term immunity to the cancer they initially had.”

The Fiona Simpson Cancer Research group has been working with expert immunologists including UQ’s Dr James Wells to translate the research findings to patient treatments.

“Our long-term vision is to use this approach to not only clear a patient’s cancer in the immediate term, but to prevent their cancer coming back in the future by establishing protective ‘immune memory’,” Dr Wells said.

Dr Simpson’s team is now completing a safety trial of the combination of Stemetil and cetuximab in head and neck cancer, triple-negative breast cancer and adenoid cystic carcinoma patients at the Princess Alexandra Hospital.

The collaboration involved researchers and doctors from UQ’s Diamantina Institute and Institute for Molecular Bioscience, The Princess Alexandra Hospital, Children’s Medical Research Institute, The University of Newcastle and The University of Sydney.

The University of Queensland’s technology transfer company UniQuest will seek to identify commercialisation opportunities.

The research was supported by the PA Research Foundation, NHMRC, National Breast Cancer Foundation, Cancer Council Queensland and the Rotary Club of Nundah.

This study is published in Cell (DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2020.02.019).

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