Cookies on this website

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you click 'Accept all cookies' we'll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies and you won't see this message again. If you click 'Reject all non-essential cookies' only necessary cookies providing core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility will be enabled. Click 'Find out more' for information on how to change your cookie settings.

Trial participant having a blood sample taken. © Credit: University of Oxford, John Cairns

The pandemic is only a year old, but we already have multiple vaccines available to fight COVID-19 – including the vaccine developed by the team we’re part of at the University of Oxford.

With our partner AstraZeneca, we have submitted both interim efficacy data and safety data for the vaccine to regulators across the world for independent scrutiny and approval. So far the vaccine has been approved for emergency use in the UK, India, Morocco, Argentina and El Salvador.

As well as being great news for getting us back to normal, this represents a phenomenal scientific achievement. Typically, developing a vaccine takes decades – but we have several available for COVID-19 after just 12 months. Here’s how we managed this for the Oxford vaccine.

Read the full article on The Conversation website, written by Tonia Thomas (Oxford Vaccine Group) and Rachel Colin-Jones (Centre for Clinical Vaccinology & Tropical Medicine, Jenner Institute).

Oxford is a subscribing member of The ConversationFind out how you can write for The Conversation.

Similar stories

New trial to study how the human immune system adapts to ‘tolerate’ malaria parasites

Scientists at the University of Oxford and the University of Edinburgh have launched a pioneering study that examines how the immune system responds to repeated malaria infections. The BIO-004 study is being run in partnership between the Department of Biochemistry (Draper Lab, based in the Kavli Institute for Nanoscience Discovery), the University of Edinburgh (Spence Lab, Institute of Immunology and Infection Research) and the Oxford Vaccine Group (part of the Department of Paediatrics). BIO-004 will provide a unique insight into how the immune system adapts over the first few malaria infections of life, learning to tolerate malaria parasites and developing natural immunity to severe illness.