Research published today in the Nature portfolio journal npj Vaccines describes a new method capable of distinguishing authentic and falsified vaccines using machine learning analysis of mass spectral data. The method proved effective in differentiating between a range of authentic and ‘faked’ vaccines previously found to have entered supply chains.
A key benefit of the novel method is that it uses clinical mass spectrometers already distributed globally for medical diagnostics, giving it the potential to address the urgent need for more effective global vaccine supply chain screening.
Professor James McCullagh, study co-leader and Professor of Biological Chemistry in the Department of Chemistry said:
This method is the culmination of a number of years of collaborative research that has brought together scientists from multiple departments and divisions across the university with outside partners including Prof. Pavel Matousek at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory at Harwell. Rebecca Clarke (former Part II student) and John Walsby-Tickle both played key roles in the method’s development in the Department of Chemistry.
Read more on the Department of Chemistry website.
