The project Development of a vaccine against SARS-COV-2 (Covid-19) on Baculovirus substrates at pilot scale is a research project to develop a vaccine with new technology to cope with the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Project’s research is carried out in the laboratory with key techniques and technologies such as installing the S gene region (Spike protein – specific antigen region) of the new strain of coronavirus into the baculovirus expression vector; Insect cell culture; Infection with baculovirus containing expression vector into insect cells; Culturing and harvesting baculovirus; Purification of baculovirus expressing S protein; vaccine preparation. After creating the vaccine, the research team continued to evaluate antigen properties in the laboratory such as titration, purity, specificity and electron microscope images. After completing preliminary results on vaccine properties, a laboratory-scale vaccine production and quality control process was built and perfected as a basis for possible production scale expansion in the future.
Covid-19 vaccines produced on Baculovirus substrates are also being evaluated pre-clinically on experimental animal models for product effectiveness and safety. The research team including scientists from the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology has successfully isolated and determined the titres of SARS-CoV-2 virus strains in cell cultures as well as infecting experimental animals such as rats (guinea pigs, mice) and rabbits. This is the basis for building a model to evaluate vaccines on experimental animals. The experimental vaccine has undergone pre-clinical evaluation in animal models such as mice, rabbits, and monkeys to determine the effectiveness and safety of the vaccine.
