At the head of vaccine research

Clear Lake resident working for company that makes a device which would be instrumental in finding a cure for COVID-19.

Coronavirus much of the focus fighting the coronavirus has been preventing the disease from spreading.

Behind the scenes, scientists and doctors are working overtime to develop a vaccine and workable treatments for covid.

Live kimt news 3's nick kruszalnicki is live in mason city after talking to a technological leader in that george and katie á we've been hearing it could take up to a year or so to develop a vaccine for coronavirus.

Earlier i spoke with a clear lake resident who works for a company which makes a device that could be instrumental in finding a cure.

"our customers are in one of two categories.

Either they're completely shut down and not doing anything.

Or they're in ramp up phase because they're on the front lines of trying to find a cure or some sort of treatment."

Cory gerdts is one of the top guys at protein biosolutions.

The company, which is based near washington dá c, manufactures a device called the protein maker.

It is now becoming instrumental in researching a vaccine for covidá19.

"a number of companies, big pharmaceutica l companies, small biotech companies, new reasearch companies, labs, academic labs, use it to make lots of proteins and of course antibodies are a type of protein."

The device can filter out 24 different proteins at a time, making it easier for researchers to get their job done.

The company sold one of the protein makers to the vanderbilt vaccine center back in december and already it is being put to work on a cure.

"we just installed it in early march.

So i think they've done a quick pivot and once we got it installed they said 'hey we need to be using this toward this potential covid vaccine."

While the protein maker may be a common sight in labs across the country, gerdts tells me he's thrilled to see it aiding scientists as they work to create a vaccine.

"i was surprised that suddenly this instrument we just placed was being used this way.

So that's good.

I hope they're over at the mayo clinic, scientists are looking to use antibody rich plasma from people who have survived a coronavirus infection in order to treat those who are infected.

Live in clear lake, nick kruszalnicki, kimt news 3.

Thanks nick.

The vanderbilt vaccine center is part of vanderbilt university in nashville.

According to their twitter page, they are hard at work testing antibodies to find which ones work best against coronavirus.