British scientist makes breakthrough in race for coronavirus vaccine: Sky

The ultrastructural morphology exhibited by the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV), which was identified as the cause of an outbreak of respiratory illness first detected in Wuhan, China, is seen in an illustration released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia, US on January 29, 2020. (REUTERS File Photo)

LONDON, February 5 (Reuters): A leading British scientist has made a significant breakthrough in the race for a coronavirus vaccine by reducing a part of the normal development time from "two to three years to just 14 days", Sky news reported.

Robin Shattock, head of mucosal infection and immunity at Imperial College London, said he is now at the stage to start testing the vaccine on animals as early as next week with human studies in the summer if enough funding is secured, Sky said.

"Conventional approaches usually take at least two to three years before you even get to the clinic," he told Sky. "And we've gone from that sequence to generating a candidate in the laboratory in 14 days."

The vaccine will be too late for this current outbreak but it will be crucial if there is another one, Sky said.