Imperial College London plans to use the 2 million-pound donation ($2.5 million) to advance its initiative to develop a scalable, low-dose self-amplifying RNA (saRNA) vaccine for COVID-19. An saRNA vaccine makes multiple copies of itself once injected, making it possible to induce immunity with very low doses.

Barts Health NHS Trust, in partnership with University College London and Queen Mary University of London, plans to use the 1 million-pound donation ($1.3 million) to advance their initiative to create a COVID-19 bioresource repository. Researchers continue to collect samples weekly from 1,000 front-line workers before, during, and after their exposure to COVID-19. The data are expected to answer critical questions about immune response and risk factors related to the virus.

COVID-19: A double-edged sword for the pharma industry
The COVID-19 pandemic is causing major disruptions to pharmaceutical R&D activities, despite the pressing need for treatments and diagnostics for the...

Valo to develop pancoronavirus vaccine
Valo Therapeutics announced that it is working on the development of a potential COVID-19 vaccine with applications across future pandemics.

CEPI, Clover to partner on COVID-19 vaccine
The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and Clover Biopharmaceuticals Australia plan to partner on the development of a COVID-19 vaccine.

Recursion launches dataset for COVID-19 drug discovery
Digital biology company Recursion has released an open-source RxRx19 dataset, the first human cellular morphological dataset of SARS-CoV-2, it said.

Nonprofit seeks COVID-19 vaccines for most vulnerable
The nonprofit consortium Human Vaccines Project has launched an initiative to ensure COVID-19 vaccines are developed for vulnerable populations.