The Peter Doherty Institute was the first Australian laboratory to establish a Covid 19 PCR test and diagnose the first SARS- Cov 2 infection on Australian shores, its research scientist is heavily involved in developing novel diagnostic tools applied across many areas of medical science and the institute plays a key leadership role in advising state and federal government on best medical practice. It’s no great surprise therefore that we have learned of their ground-breaking development of a new subunit Covid 19 vaccine utilising the receptor binding domain at the tip of the virus’s spike proteins. This is the region responsible for virus attachment and infection and for eliciting over 90% of neutralising antibodies following SARS Cov-2 infection. Parallel with the subunit vaccine development, another Melbourne group – the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences has developed a similar vaccine but using mRNA technology copying the virus’s genetic sequence that codes for the receptor binding domain.

As the Covid pandemic continues to spread around the world with over 187 million recorded infections and 4 million deaths, countries including Australia have embarked upon vaccination programs including the use of mRNA (Pfizer and Moderna), viral vector (Astra Zeneca), and subunit protein vaccines (Novovax).

Covid 19 has brought forth upon the world a pandemic unrivalled since the Spanish flu (1918 - 1920) caused by H1N1 influenza A. Described by Australian Treasurer Josh Frydenberg as the "new and invisible enemy", every doctor has had to avail themselves of knowledge regarding this highly contagious virus.