in this lab in Paris biosecurity is high this is where samples have suspected coronavirus come from across France because they had Europe's first cases of the virus scientists here at the Pasteur Institute were working on treatments before anyone else what idea is to use one of nature's most infectious viruses to target coronavirus Louie Pasteur himself saying the best doctor is the nature if you can imagine a virus like measles it's a hugely smart individual able to spread among the population using your own immune system to get out from you to reach another one they're taking
a tried and tested vaccine for measles and genetically engineering it so it looks to the body's immune system like coronavirus they're starting by splicing some of the genetic code from coronavirus into bacteria this produces large amounts of it without risking infection then they combine the coronavirus genes with those in the measles vaccine and this next step really does have to happen behind closed doors because they're taking a stretch of coronavirus genetic material and putting it into their needles vaccine then infecting human cells with it and it's only once that vaccine has been proven to be
safe that it'll be allowed out of confinement but that process will take months around the world labs are looking at alternative approaches to vaccines for coronavirus but researchers here say it's not a race to be first it's the race to have something useful and I mean for me it's not important who gets there first but that someone gets there was something useful the prime driver is really to get something to help the people as quickly as possible we don't know if coronavirus will spread around the globe and if it does how many people might be
vulnerable to it but given the uncertainty research like this can't happen quick enough Tom Clark News at Ten Paris you
