Wednesday, March 27, 2024

The Ghanaian-born virologist developing a coronavirus vaccine

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Isaac Kaledzi
Isaac Kaledzihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Kaledzi
Isaac Kaledzi is an experienced and award winning journalist from Ghana. He has worked for several media brands both in Ghana and on the International scene. Isaac Kaledzi is currently serving as an African Correspondent for DW.

Ghanaian-born Professor Marylyn Martina Addo is one of just a few women at the forefront of finding a vaccine for the deadly Coronavirus.

The Ghanaian-German virologist and her team of scientists in Hamburg, Germany are hoping to save many lives with their vaccine.

Professor Addo is the head of the German Center for Infection Research’s Infectious Disease Unit at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf.

At the peak of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, professor Addo developed and tested vaccinations that protect people from the disease.

When the Coronavirus pandemic started to kill thousands people around the world, Professor Addo started developing a vector-based vaccination to protect people.

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Inside the coronavirus there is a spike protein that can penetrate human cells.

Addo is looking  to combine the spike protein with the genetic information of another viral vector that can penetrate cells and can produce spike proteins.

The immune system recognises that these proteins are foreign bodies, triggering an immune response and a spike in T cells that ultimately work against the coronavirus protein.

The proposed vaccine by professor Addo makes use of the smallpox virus as a vehicle for the COVID-19 vaccine.

The vaccination will be developed by IDT Biologika.

Ghanaian Heritage

Professor Addo is the daughter of a Ghanaian father and a German mother, and she was born in the German city of Troisdorf.

Her father is a physician, something that inspired her to also study medicine at the University of Bonn.

Professor Addo earned her diploma at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, during which she researched Candida albicans transmission between HIV-positive people.

In 1999 she moved to Boston, where she specialised in infectious diseases at the Harvard Medical School.

In 2013 Addo returned to Germany, where she was made a Professor and the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF) Head of Infectious Disease at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf.

She works there on infectious diseases and tropical medicine.

 

Source: Africafeeds.com

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