USask VIDO-InterVac and International Vaccine Institute collaborate on COVID-19 work
The International Vaccine Institute (IVI) of South Korea, a world-renowned international organization founded by the United Nations Development Programme, is collaborating with VIDO-InterVac at the University of Saskatchewan (USask) to better understand the virus causing the COVID-19 pandemic and to develop vaccines and potential treatments.
By USask Research Profile and Impact“The worldwide importance of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic seems to naturally align our two vaccine institutes and provides the opportunity to build on this partnership,” said Jerome Kim, director general of the IVI based in Seoul.
The two research centres are partnering on a $180,000 project that will look at virus replication, immune responses, and the effect of antivirals and other medicines to combat COVID-19.
The USask funding for the initiative comes from the USask International Blueprint’s Global Innovation Fund and VIDO-InterVac.
South Korea has been one of the countries hardest hit by this virus. IVI has formed a number of partnerships with companies and governments to advance vaccines against the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19.
“This is a great example of the international partnerships needed to stop the global spread of this highly contagious virus,” said VIDO-InterVac Director Volker Gerdts.
The funding collaboration builds on a long-standing relationship between the two institutes, as well as on a recent memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed between USask President Peter Stoicheff and Director-General Kim in South Korea in October of 2019. Read more about the MOU here: https://news.usask.ca/articles/research/2019/usasks-vido-intervac-and-south-koreans-international-vaccine-institute-to-undertake-scientific-exchanges.php
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About IVI:
The International Vaccine Institute (IVI) is a nonprofit inter-governmental organization established in 1997 at the initiative of the United Nations Development Programme. Headquartered in Seoul, South Korea, IVI has 35 signatory countries and the World Health Organization (WHO) on its treaty, including Korea, Sweden, and India as state funders. IVI’s mandate is to make vaccines available and accessible for the world’s most vulnerable people, focusing on infectious diseases of global health importance such as cholera, typhoid, shigella, salmonella, schistosomiasis, Group A Strep, Hepatitis A, HPV, TB, HIV, MERS-and Corona Virus, as well as antimicrobial resistance. For more information, visit https://www.ivi.int
For more information, contact:
Trenna Brusky
Marketing Co-ordinator
VIDO-InterVac
trenna.brusky@usask.ca
306-966-2274
Victoria Dinh
Communications and Media Relations Co-ordinator
University of Saskatchewan
victoria.dinh@usask.ca
306-966-5487