VIDO-InterVac is one of only a handful of labs in the world, and the only one in Canada with a COVID-19 vaccine currently in the animal testing stages.

The recent recipient of 23.3 million in funding from the federal government, and an additional 4.2 from the province, the Saskatoon lab is on the very front-line of the current pandemic.

Dr. Volker Gerdts, the Director and CEO of VIDO-Intervac, took some time last week to explain what goes on in the lab during the race to solve COVID-19.

In the case of VIDO-Intervac, that battle began in early January when the virus' sequence was made available by researchers in China. Having that sequence allowed Canadian researchers to begin designing vaccine candidates.

By late February, the vaccine had been created in small scale, purified form and was ready for animal testing.

That animal testing uses a process known as the Ferret Model. Due to that animal's susceptibility to the human influenza virus, they are thought by some to be the ideal small animal for influenza and related research.

Dr. Gerdts Explains:

"They receive two immunizations and then we eventually expose them to the virus and we will measure whether they develop disease or not. And the other important thing we're looking for is whether they transmit the virus to other animals. So we're looking there at the ability of the vaccine to reduce the transmission to other animals."

If their vaccine candidate works in the ferrets, something that they might know in as little as four weeks, it will be time to begin the manufacturing of the vaccine for human testing, which is where a portion of that funding comes in.

In order to effectively prove the vaccine safe to test in humans, the lab has to adhere to what is called Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP); a set of practices and guidelines in place by the various agencies that control the authorization and licensing of everything from food and pharmaceuticals to cosmetics and medical devices.

While some of the rules differ from industry to industry, they all share the common purpose of making sure the end product is safe for humans.

"It (has to be) very clean material and can only be manufactured in very specialized facilities. That material then can be used in humans."

Part of the announced federal funding, 12 million to be precise, will go towards expanding VIDO-Interac's vaccine manufacturing facilities in order to meet those stringent requirements and begin human trials, with the remaining money going towards the operation of the high-containment facility and the upwards of 160 staff members working there.

The other aspect of testing, according to Dr. Gerdts, is the ability to test other labs' vaccine candidates. Having those processes in place, and the manufacturing capabilities that will come from this funding boost will allow the lab to accept requests from others that don't share that ability.

"that's really an important aspect of all of this. By enhancing our research capacity we can now take on all of these potential candidates that other people have and determine if they work or not."

That can prove to be a critical upgrade, especially in times of a pandemic, when Dr. Gerdts says that the amount of communication between labs in disparate parts of the world is higher than usual.

With COVID-19 much of that communication is organized by the World Health Organization, which convenes regular meetings between different groups of experts in order to share data. He says that those calls happen every week and typically host anywhere from 60 to 100 international researchers updating each other on their current results.

It's a global collaboration to fight a global concern and one that has brought out a lot of help from both within the industry and outside of it, which Dr. Gerdts said was fantastic to see.

"Even here on campus we've had contacts from people in medicine and veterinary medicine and all agriculture and all over the place have said if you need anything we're here to help. Is there anything I can do, here's my expertise, could I help?"