BACKGROUND BRIEFING: Getting your head around mRNA vaccines

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2021-05-18 10:00

Australia; VIC; SA; WA

ONLINE BRIEFING: 12:15pm AEST Wed 19 May 2021 - Australia now has two mRNA vaccines lined up to be part of our COVID vaccine rollout, the Moderna and Pfizer jabs, but what exactly is an mRNA vaccine? Join this AusSMC background briefing to get your head around how these vaccines work, how we would go about making them in Australia, and how they might be adapted to better target COVID variants.

Media release

From: Australian Science Media Centre

The briefing will discuss the following issues:

How do mRNA vaccines such as the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines differ from the Astra Zeneca vaccine?
How are mRNA vaccines made?
Could Australia make these vaccines, and if so where and when?
How will these vaccines deal with the COVID variants? WIll we all need a booster in 2022?
What other diseases can mRNA vaccines be used for?

Speakers:

Associate Professor Archa Fox is from the University of Western Australia. She is also president of the RNA Network of Australasia.
Professor Anton Middelberg is Deputy Vice Chancellor at The University of Adelaide. He is an expert in vaccine biomanufacturing
Professor Damian Purcell is Co-lead of Viral Infectious Diseases Theme and Laboratory Head, at The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity at The University of Melbourne

Date: Wed 19 May 2021
Start Time: 12:15pm AEST
Duration: Approx 45 min
Venue: Online

The briefing has now ended. A full recording of the briefing is available below.

Attachments

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Briefing link Australian Science Media Centre, Web page Full recording of the briefing

Journal/
conference:

Organisation/s: Australian Science Media Centre, The University of Western Australia, The University of Melbourne

Funder: N/A

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