Our capabilities
Our COVID-19 capabilities
We are contributing to global efforts to solve the scientific challenges posed by COVID-19 and prepare for possible future pandemics.
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Overview
We have more than 30 research projects underway tackling the coronavirus. We are working in partnership with national and international researchers, as well as with our clinical colleagues at various hospitals and healthcare precincts.
We have mobilised our expertise in immunology, virology, structural and system biology to better understand the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the immune response to it and to design relevant infection models to support research and therapeutic discovery. Researchers from our Infection and Immunity, Cardiovascular, Cancer, and Neuroscience Programs are working together for a comprehensive approach using our advanced Platform technologies.
Our researchers are also reaching out to inform the community with reliable, expert information about the COVID-19 pandemic and have responded to calls from the Australian Academy of Sciences to register as experts willing to assist with research and policy decision-making.
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Research themes
- Understanding the coronavirus and how to stop it.
Our researchers are using advanced technologies to build new knowledge and inform the development of vaccines and treatments against the SARS-CoV-2 virus. We are taking a multi-pronged approach that includes:
- Structural biology: detailed imaging of the virus to assist the design of effective vaccines and treatments.
- Immune responses: in-depth characterisation of our body’s immune response to the virus to aid patient recovery.
- Working towards discovery of antiviral therapies.
- Informing our response to the pandemic.
- Improving viral detection and antibody testing.
- Mapping and modelling viral spread and evolution
- Understanding co-morbidities and complications.
- Physiological perturbations and destructive immune activation in COVID-19 patients
- Supra-infections that affect patients in intensive care and on ventilators.
- Designing relevant models of COVID-19 infection.
- Development of vaccines and therapies against COVID-19 relies on models that mimic human infection as faithfully as possible. Our researchers are designing models of animals, organoids and lung cells that will be broadly available to the research community.
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Projects and experts
We have more than 30 research projects underway tackling the coronavirus. The details can be viewed using the button below.
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Publications
Our researchers' published findings:
- The drug target and mechanism of action of potential antirviral drug Arbidol. Published in the International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents. May 2020
- A Monash University-led study has shown that an anti-parasitic drug, Ivermectin, already available around the world can eliminate SARS-CoV-2 in cells in 48 hours. The results were published in the peer-reviewed medical journal Antiviral Research. April 2020.
- Monash researchers determine the 3-D structure of one of the proteins (protein 9, Nsp9) produced by the novel coronavirus. Results available on bioRxiv. April 2020
- Emerging COVID-19 coronavirus: glycan shield and structure prediction of spike glycoprotein and its interaction with human CD26. Published in Journal of Emerging Microbes and Infections. March 2020.
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Collaborators
We collaborate broadly with many national and international scientists and with clinical partners to solve the scientific challenges of COVID-19. Our collaborators include:
- Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory (VIDRL)
- The Royal Melbourne Hospital
- Alfred Hospital
- Monash Medical Centre
- Monash Health
- Cabrini Health
- Monash Children’s Hospital
- St Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis TN
- First Affiliated Hospital, College of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, P.R. China
- CSIRO Geelong
- Baker Institute
- Hudson Institute
- Burnet Institute
- Doherty Institute
- QIMR -Berghofer Medical Research Institute
- Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences
- Medicines Manufacturing Innovation Centre
- WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza
- University of Queensland
- The University of Melbourne
- The University of Adelaide
- National University of Singapore
- University of California, Berkley