Researchers from the Pandemic Sciences Institute and the Nuffield Department of Medicine’s Centre for Human Genetics have secured funding for a project which will help assess whether vaccines already or previously licensed against Zaire ebolavirus could offer protection against Bundibugyo ebolavirus. The study is a collaboration with the Centre de Recherche et d’Analyse Biomédicale Guinea (CRAM), WACCREP member research institution led by Dr Joseph Akoi Boré and the European Plotkin Institute for Vaccinology – Université libre de Bruxelles.
As one of four new studies backed by CEPI (Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations), the project will test blood samples from recipients of the Ervebo vaccine and survivors of Zaire ebolavirus disease. Findings will indicate whether immunity developed as a result of vaccination or natural infection to Zaire ebolavirus could provide protection against the Bundibugyo virus, including the current outbreak and a strain associated with the 2007 outbreak.
Professor Miles Carroll, Principal Investigator at the Pandemic Sciences Institute and Professor of Emerging Viruses at the Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford, said: “We are delighted to receive this investment from CEPI and to be collaborating with our Guinean and Belgian colleagues in this important research project. We believe our study will provide critical information on the ability of naturally acquired and vaccine-induced immunity to Ebola virus, to protect against infection with Bundibugyo virus from the current outbreak. Such data is critical for rapid vaccine deployment decision making.”
