A new Covid-19 drug screening and resistance hub (CRUSH) aimed at uncovering medical treatments to combat the virus has been launched at the University of Glasgow.
The facility has been established at the uni’s centre for virus research.
The CRUSH Project has received £2.5m of funding to accelerate the research and a bid to understand the virus that has stopped the world.
In a bid to find drugs that will kill the virus without harming people they have been growing Covid in the lab to try and understands how it works and mutates.
Dr Agnieszka Szemiel from CRUSH said: “Sometimes when you get home it’s 10pm and you are just collapsing in bed you feel like ‘why did I volunteer’. But on the other hand if we are able to provide medication that works, this will help.”
Professor Massimo Palmarini from the University of Glasgow Centre of Virus Research said: “There was a certain level of realisation that this our time that we can contribute and normally we do research as really as going long term objectives where you don’t see the practical obligation right away. When instead with this, it was a bit different.”
Despite increased hope vaccines will help the world beat covid, Professor Palmarini says it’s crucial we also have anti-viral drugs.
He continued: “The vaccine will never be universal, so there will never be 100% of individuals vaccinated so you need to have other therapeutics that can act at the single patient level.”
Follow STV News on WhatsApp
Scan the QR code on your mobile device for all the latest news from around the country
