1991 To TodayEven though good fortune played its part, the development of what Oxford scientists hailed as "a vaccine for the world" was built upon 30 years of testing and tweaking of methods.The adenovirus "viral vector" platform that their candidate uses has been around since 1991, said Hill of the university's Jenner Institute.He had been working with Sarah Gilbert, another vaccinologist, to fine-tune the technology.
This has involved using a chimpanzee cold virus as the vector to deliver the instructions, in trials with diseases such as flu, MERS and Ebola over the last decade.