German-born Ghanaian Professor Addo leads Germany’s search for coronavirus vaccine
A German-born Ghanaian virologist Professor Dr. Marylyn Addo is at the forefront of developing a vaccine for the deadly coronavirus that has brought many countries to their knees with hundreds of deaths daily.
Currently, she is the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF) Head of Infectious Disease at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf and working with six other top-notch scientists for the task of combating the virus.
COVID-19 pandemic: Ghana performs first two autopsies at Ga East Hospital
According to DZIF, development and manufacturing organisation, IDT Biologika, would handle mass production when the vaccine is ready.
It has been discovered that inside the coronavirus, there is a spike protein that can penetrate human cells.
Professor Addo is aiming to combine the spike protein with the genetic information of another viral vector that can penetrate cells and can produce spike proteins.
The immune system recognises that these proteins are foreign bodies, triggering an immune response and a spike in immune cells that ultimately work against the coronavirus protein.
The proposed vaccine makes use of the smallpox virus (modified vaccinia Ankara) as a vehicle for the COVID-19 vaccine.
Professor Addo has chalked some feats in health with the production of protective vaccines against the Ebola virus disease and the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) coronavirus in 2014.
Immunology studies, vaccine development, testing of novel anti-infectives and outbreak management are her areas of speciality.
The 50-year-old virologist was born at Troisdorf to a Ghanaian physician who might have inspired her career path, with her mother being a native German.
She studied at the University of Bonn, later proceeded to the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and then moved the US to specialise in infectious diseases at the Harvard Medical School in 1999.
She moved to Germany in 2013 where she has been contributing to research on infectious diseases with several publications and over 14,660 citations.
Married with children, she had been able to climb up the science ladder gaining at least four prestigious awards in the process.
German Ambassador to Ghana, Christoph Retzlaff, has taken to social media to praise the efforts of Professor Addo.
Prof Marylin Addo is a German Ghanaian doctor in Hamburg/ Germany. She and her team are at the forefront searching for a vaccine against #Coronavirus. 🇬🇭🇩🇪 pic.twitter.com/q1LjUyWxeS
— Christoph Retzlaff (@GermanAmbGhana) April 3, 2020
As at Tuesday, April 5, over 3.6million cases of the contagion has been reported worldwide with 1.2million infections. Persons who have been killed by the infection totals 252, 600.