United in science

Paying tribute to our amazing COVID-19 researchers and generous support of the UQ community

An image of UQ COVID-19 vaccine project co-leader Professor Paul Young holding a vial of the vaccine.

UQ COVID-19 vaccine project co-leader Professor Paul Young. Image: Anjanette Webb

UQ COVID-19 vaccine project co-leader Professor Paul Young. Image: Anjanette Webb

While the UQ COVID-19 vaccine won’t to be rolled out to fight this global pandemic, the University’s researchers have made remarkable progress, and they are confident their powerful vaccine platform will be ready for when the world faces another health crisis. 


For 11 months, the UQ COVID-19 vaccine development team worked around the clock in the bright spotlight of a world waiting for hope.

As the team reflects on December’s news that its vaccine candidate will not progress to the next phase of human trials, they take comfort that the long days in the lab and nights collaborating with partners in different time zones were not in vain.

They were, of course, devastated in the immediate days after the announcement. But they were philosophical too, pointing out that the world was now in a far better place, compared to when they started their rapid response program. 

“In the first half of 2020, we had zero vaccines for COVID-19,” UQ vaccine project director Professor Trent Munro told Contact.

“Scientists were unsure that developing a vaccine against COVID-19 was even possible, and the risk-to-benefit ratio was in a completely different place.


“The world is in the fortunate position now where multiple vaccines have reached late-stage efficacy testing. They are showing very promising data, and are starting to be approved by regulators and rolled out.

“If there were no other options ready, we may have been in a different situation heading into the new year.”

All the signs had been promising. UQ, The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and biotech company CSL entered into a landmark agreement in June 2020 to manufacture and develop the vaccine. 

The Phase 1 trial of the vaccine started in July 2020, to assess safety and the immune response generated in 216 healthy volunteers. Dosing had been completed, and the data showed the UQ COVID-19 vaccine was eliciting a robust response to the virus. 

Importantly, there were no observed safety concerns.

But among the reams of positive data from the Phase 1 trial, there was an unexpected finding that would ultimately prevent the vaccine from progressing.

An image of UQ COVID-19 vaccine project co-leader Professor Paul Young, project director Professor Trent Munro, and project co-leader Associate Professor Keith Chappell in the lab.

UQ COVID-19 vaccine project co-leader Professor Paul Young, project director Professor Trent Munro, and project co-leader Associate Professor Keith Chappell. Image: Anjanette Webb

UQ COVID-19 vaccine project co-leader Professor Paul Young, project director Professor Trent Munro, and project co-leader Associate Professor Keith Chappell. Image: Anjanette Webb

Participants in the trial had generated a low-level antibody response to fragments of a protein – gp41 – used in the ‘molecular clamp’ technology. 

Trial participants had been fully informed of the theoretical possibility of a partial immune response to this component of the vaccine when they consented to participate in the trial. 

“Yes, we understood there was the risk of this response, but we knew this was not a safety issue for participants if it occurred,” Professor Munro said.

“As the data began to come in and we analysed what this meant for the vaccine, we ordered additional tests.

“When we discovered that this partial antibody response was enough to contribute to diagnostic interference with some HIV screening tests, it was a real challenge for the team.


“To be completely clear, there was no possibility the vaccine could cause HIV infection – and routine follow-up tests confirmed a negative result.”

Members of the UQ team had invented the underlying ‘molecular clamp’ technology to provide a way to stabilise viral ‘spike’ proteins to make vaccines more effective, and able to be scaled up and produced rapidly.

“Of the proteins we originally considered as a stabilising element, gp41 from the HIV virus turned out to be the most promising,” UQ vaccine project co-leader Professor Paul Young said.

“The protein pieces that make up the clamp are completely harmless, and adding them to the spike protein provided the required, enhanced stability. So, we progressed this approach into our proof-of-concept research. 

“Our intention was always to explore additional options through the course of our research program.”

In January 2019, the team entered into a partnership with CEPI to look at evolving the technology as a rapid response vaccine pipeline. The plan was to start testing its deployment against some exemplar viruses, like influenza and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) in 2020. 

“We would have learnt a lot in that process. But when SARS-CoV-2 emerged and we saw the emergency unfolding, CEPI called on us to respond, so our focus shifted to using what we had in the toolbox.”

UQ COVID-19 vaccine team member Eve Radunz. Images: Glenn Hunt

In the adrenalin-filled early days of the vaccine quest, everything was falling into place. 

“The existing data from examples where the gp4 clamp was used for other viruses suggested that the biology was right, and it would form the basis for a candidate vaccine,” Professor Young said.  

“That proved to be correct – we had a viable vaccine candidate in a matter of weeks by using this clamp technology, and we were confident that we could produce a high-quality vaccine at scale.

“There was no question that if we had looked for another protein rather than proceed with gp41, there would have been a minimum six- to 12-month delay – and we would not have had the same level of confidence that it was even going to work. 

“Of all the options, it had provided the greatest stability in those earlier studies, and we engineered it in such a way that we removed the major antibody binding sites from the protein to minimise the impact of the potential immune response.”

The HIV testing area is very complicated and, according to Professor Munro, it’s what makes this a very difficult issue to solve. 

“The immune response to our vaccine has been shown to interfere with many first point-of-call HIV tests – indicating a false positive – which in Australia would be followed up with a further diagnostic test,” he said.

“In the weeks following the initial data, we worked with CSL, the Australian Government advisory committees, HIV experts and pathology experts to understand the impact. 

“Any tests that do not give someone clarity can create concern. And, fundamentally, anything that interferes with public confidence in vaccines has to be part of the consideration. 

“That’s why we understand the decision to halt our vaccine.

“The hardest thing is that from a safety-data and immunogenicity point of view, including a strong immune response in the elderly, everything looks stellar. And I don’t use that word lightly.”

An image of UQ COVID-19 vaccine team member Eve Radunz.

UQ COVID-19 vaccine team member Eve Radunz. Images: Glenn Hunt

UQ COVID-19 vaccine team member Eve Radunz. Images: Glenn Hunt

An image of UQ’s COVID-19 vaccine project co-leader  Professor Paul Young speaking with project director  Professor Trent Munro.

UQ’s COVID-19 vaccine project co-leader Professor Paul Young talks with project director Professor Trent Munro. Images: Anjanette Webb

UQ’s COVID-19 vaccine project co-leader Professor Paul Young talks with project director Professor Trent Munro. Images: Anjanette Webb

For now, the Phase 1 trial of the UQ vaccine will continue, where further analysis of the data will show how long the antibodies to gp41 persist.

“The level of antibody response against HIV is actually very low, and initial signs are already showing that this response is waning,” Professor Munro said.

“We’re going to resume our original CEPI program of work – building on what we have learned about this technology and its ability to produce robust, stable vaccines.

“If anything, this year’s results have given us even greater confidence that the underlying approaches will provide the world with an incredibly powerful solution for viral pandemics in the future as well as a raft of viral targets for which vaccines don’t yet exist.”

A statement released by CEPI said the concepts underlying UQ’s ‘molecular clamp’ vaccine technology showed great promise.

“CEPI is committed to continuing to work with UQ to resolve this issue so that the platform can be used to develop vaccines against other diseases in the future.”

With the underlying approach now confirmed – that the clamp is effective, it stabilises viral surface proteins and elicits the right type of immune response in a clinical trial – this opens the door for the team to look at how it could be used for other viruses. With the HIV clamp data, they also now have a benchmark to compare, so they will know quickly what good looks like.

“The project demonstrates the clinical trial process and scientific methods can withstand the pressures of speed, and that’s really important, because one of the big debates has been whether vaccine development is progressing too quickly and cutting corners,” Professor Munro said.

An image of UQ COVID-19 vaccine project co-leader Associate Professor Keith Chappell.

UQ COVID-19 vaccine project co-leader Associate Professor Keith Chappell. Image: Anjanette Webb

UQ COVID-19 vaccine project co-leader Associate Professor Keith Chappell. Image: Anjanette Webb

Project co-leader Associate Professor Keith Chappell said the team can look back with pride at how they banded together with the weight of the world on their shoulders.

“Especially during the first lockdown, when the disease was so unknown and everyone was at home feeling completely helpless, watching the death rate rise and hospital wards filling up, to be able to go into work and feel like I was doing something to help – actually contributing – I felt very lucky to have that.”

Professor Young said that the enormity of the task at hand was never far from the researchers’ minds.

“We all have our own strategies to cope, but don’t get me wrong, every day we’ve been feeling the weight of the world’s expectations,” he said.


“We are proud that UQ has been shown to have the talent, collaborations and technology to make a real difference in this crisis. We’ve been humbled to have been part of the collective scientific effort working towards a common goal.”

CEPI had provided significant funds to set up the rapid UQ vaccine pipeline. The Queensland Government provided $10 million in Advance Queensland funding for the vaccine development, while the federal government contributed $5 million. More than $10 million was raised from over 2600 philanthropists and generous members of the public. 

Professor Young said the researchers were blown away by the response.

“The ongoing community support has been one of things that has propelled the team forward this year and kept spirits high,” he said.

“The progress we’ve made, and the speed at which we’ve been able to work, shows what happens when people get behind a scientific project.”

“In the end, it wasn’t about whether the vaccine was going to work or not; it was about the impact of diagnostic interference, and for a complex disease like HIV that was ultimately the barrier for progression.”


Follow the timeline to see how the UQ vaccine was developed.