The year 2020 has been marked by possibly the greatest health challenge to face modern society. The emergence of COVID-19 as a novel human pathogen has had devastating impact on global health and economy.
Yet these difficult times have been an opportunity to combine our collective resources and expertise to investigate some positive and lasting impacts for the medical research/biotech sector, right here in WA.
BRACE
Healthcare workers (HCW) are at the forefront of this challenge due to their close and frequent contact with infected patients. Healthcare worker absenteeism due to infection with COVID-19 or isolation requirements places significant pressure on the healthcare system and can lead to deadly consequences during an outbreak situation.
In order to combat this, researchers looked for any existing vaccines that may have the potential to provide protection against COVID-19. One option was the BCG (Bacille Calmette-Guérin) vaccination, typically used against tuberculosis but known to protect from a variety of additional viral and bacterial pathogens.
Researchers at The Kids Research Institute Australia's Systems Vaccinology team and Vaccine Trials Group led the WA roll-out of the BRACE Study to see if the BCG vaccine could help reduce the spread and severity of the virus amongst hospital staff. BRACE brought together Perth Children’s Hospital, Fiona Stanley Hospital and Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital to work in partnership with Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) in Melbourne.
A study of this nature usually takes up to a year to reach the recruitment stage, but thanks to the hard work and dedication by all involved, 1800 participants were enrolled in just under three weeks! The three and six-month post vaccinations clinic visits have also been completed, and the study has now been expanded globally to recruit 10,000 healthcare workers across three continents and five countries.
The BRACE Study was endorsed by the Director-General of the World Health Organisation, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who called for global support and assistance in the fight against COVID-19.
BRACE Influenza Sub-study
Given BCG’s potential ability to boost vaccine responses, the BRACE Perth team also initiated a sub-study designed to assess the immune response to concurrent annual influenza vaccination.
This work has been met with much enthusiasm across Australia, with the Australian WHO Reference Laboratory (Melbourne) partnering with The Kids Research Institute Australia to support this. Additional samples for this sub-study were collected from 380 participants at baseline, and then again at 1-month post-vaccination, as well during the 3-month follow-up together with the full cohort.
COVIGEN Study
Australia’s first needle-free, gene-based COVID-19 vaccine study is being spear-headed in WA by The Kids Research Institute Australia thanks to almost $6 million in Coronavirus Research Response funding announced by Health Minister Greg Hunt.
Only the fifth DNA vaccine to enter clinical trials worldwide, and the first one in Australia, the COVIGEN COVID-19 vaccine study began in early December and will evaluate safety and effectiveness when given to healthy adults.
Led by The University of Sydney and the Vax4COVID Alliance, The Kids Research Institute Australia was named as one of Australia’s most experienced vaccine trial sites and one of four locations chosen to participate in Phase 1 of this study.
Recruitment information for the COVIGEN Study will be available soon. Please join the VTG recruitment database if this is something you may be interested in participating in.