Scientists at the National Microbiology Laboratory (NML) in Winnipeg have a tradition in developing vaccines. They developed a Canadian vaccine creation that became the first weapon against Ebola before the 2014 pandemic hit. Now, the scientists in Winnipeg may have done it again. According to the lab's head of special pathogens, they could have a vaccine ready by year's end to combat the mosquito-borne illness.
According to an interview of Dr. Gary Kobinger for Reuters, the researchers in the Winnipeg microbiology lab consider that a vaccine against the Zika virus is easy to produce in a really short time. According to Dr. Matthew Gilmour, scientific director general, they have access to the first indication of when something might warrant a vaccine because the laboratory is right on the front line of monitoring and detecting emerging diseases.
The National Microbiology Laboratory has been opened in the year 1999. Today, it is the only facility in Canada featuring a biosafety level 4 rated laboratory. Scientists deal there with dangerous viruses and biological agents, working in labs sealed off from the outside world and wearing pressure suits.
According to Gilmour, the lab's success rate is due to its unique status. The Winnipeg microbiology laboratory is among the first to get samples of emerging diseases brought home by travelers and it receives samples of any unusual pathogens that show up in Canadian hospitals. This gives them the opportunity for identifying diseases. Once new pathogens are identified, scientists can start working on a vaccine.
Heinz Feldmann, the lab's first special pathogens chief at Winnipeg NML, told the National Post in an email that the laboratory is doing its best to motivate researchers to "work on infectious disease problems with national or international impact."
Zika virus was first detected in a Canadian traveler in the year 2013, long before the outbreak in Latin America hit the headlines. Gilmour declared that researchers at the Winnipeg lab had a two-year head start that gave then the time to isolate the virus and start working on a vaccine.
