As health workers in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) continue to battle an ongoing Ebola outbreak, scientists around the world are racing to develop a vaccine against the strain of the virus that’s causing it.
Two approved vaccines exist for Ebola, but they target the Zaire strain of the virus, not the Bundibugyo strain causing the 2026 outbreak, which has so far killed 61 people, with 359 confirmed cases in the DRC and neighboring Uganda.
The outbreak is centered in the Ituri province of northeastern DRC, where conflict, displaced people, a large migrant community, and poorly resourced health facilities make stopping the spread particularly challenging.
Two scientists from the Oxford Vaccine Group at the University of Oxford, Teresa Lambe and Rebecca Makinson, are developing a vaccine candidate for the Bundibugyo virus. On June 1, they were among three research groups to receive fast-track funding from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, alongside Moderna and IAVI.
The Oxford group is using ChADOx1, a viral-vector platform that formed the basis of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, and adapting it for use against the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola. This builds on previous work developing a vaccine against another strain of Ebola in 2022.
Development of a vaccine typically involves three stages: pre-clinical trials, tests in animals, and manufacture of batches of the vaccine for use in clinical trials in humans, explains Lambe. “Because we are using a platform technology where we have amassed a lot of knowledge around how to make these types of vaccines, we’re trying to run each of those different streams at the same time.”
Lambe says they have already begun testing the vaccine on small animals while manufacturing batches of it for trials, adding that they hope to do a phase one clinical trial “relatively soon, and certainly faster than you would routinely do”.
“The question isn’t really whether we can make an Ebola vaccine because it’s very clear that’s possible,” explains Makinson, a postdoctoral researcher in Lambe’s group.
“The big challenge is being able to develop these vaccines … when there’s not an outbreak happening, and then making sure that they’re available as and when and where the outbreaks occur.”
