[JPost] - Scientists in Sweden are hoping an alpaca named Tyson can help deliver a knockout blow in the fight to develop a treatment or vaccine against the novel coronavirus that has killed nearly 400,000 people worldwide.
After immunizing Tyson, a 12-year-old alpaca in Germany, with virus proteins, the team at the Karolinska Institute have isolated tiny antibodies — known as nanobodies — from his blood that bind to the same part of the virus as human antibodies and could block the infection.
They hope this can form the basis of a treatment for COVID-19 or eventually a vaccine against it, though the work is at an early stage.
Swedes. First it was herd immunity, now it's alpacas. What's next? |