A scientist and his team at the University of Hawaii Manoa are working with a mainland pharmaceutical company to develop a vaccine to fight the coronavirus.

Axel Lehrer, an assistant professor at the John A. Burns School of Medicine, is leading a team of researchers working in conjunction with New Jersey-based Soligenix.

Lehrer and his team in the Department of Tropical Medicine, Medical Microbiology and Pharmacology previously led efforts at UH to find a vaccine for ebola.

Testing on small animals could begin in several weeks, according to a UH press release.