By Luke Voogt
A Jan Juc scientist is helping to supply vital COVID-19 products to researchers in the race to develop a vaccine.
As marketing manager of a Melbourne-based science company, Sarah Fardy helps get coronavirus supplies to scientists on the front line of the fight against the pandemic.
The former lab researcher liaises with institutes across the country, including Geelong’s Australian Animal Health Laboratory (AAHL).
“Every lab that’s running is switching to COVID-19 research and that’s where we come in,” she said.
“We act as a supermarket for laboratories … where everybody has PhDs and technically advises on products that researchers need.”
Ms Fardy previously worked at the AAHL in immunology and has her “finger on the pulse” of the pandemic.
“I actually get to see way more now that I’m outside the lab than when I was at the bench,” she said.
Ms Fardy’s employer, Jomar Life Research, sells recombinant copies of the COVID-19 spike protein artificially-produced in another cell system.
“It’s the little bit that sticks out and gives the coronavirus it’s crown shape,” she explained.
The company also produces copies of the receptor in human cells that is vulnerable to COVID-19.
“[The spike protein] sticks to our bodies in the ACE-2 receptor [which] we have loads of in our mouths,” Ms Fardy explained.
The artificially-produced products allow scientists to safely simulate COVID-19 infections, she said.
The company also sells blood tests that detect coronavirus antibodies, differing from nasal swabs that health authorities use to detect the virus itself, Ms Fardy explained.
“It won’t tell you whether you’re an active case but it will tell you if you’ve developed an antibody response to the virus,” she said.
“At the moment they’re being used in studies to look at the antibody levels being generated by vaccine candidates.”
While the tests are currently for research use, they could help identify people who need the nasal swab test, Ms Fardy explained.
They could also potentially identify, in combination with a negative swab test, people able to return to work after developing immunity to the coronavirus, she said.
Jomar Life Research also sells products allowing scientists to study the ‘cytokine storm’ of the coronavirus, the phase of the disease that kills people.
A cytokine storm is an immune overreaction, which in coronavirus cases causes a build-up of fluid in the lungs – the disease’s leading cause of death.
