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Deep inside a layer of concrete and a few centimetres of steel sits a lab it is hoped will be key to keeping Australia safe from vaccine-busting coronavirus variants.
Under these ultra-secure conditions at the University of NSWâs Kirby Institute, just south of Sydneyâs CBD, a team of scientists is quickly screening the growing tide of mutant viruses that reach Australiaâs borders.
The variant lab â seen here through thick protective glass.
Credit:James Brickwood
Are they more infectious? Worse, do they evade our vaccine defences?
The labâs head, Associate Professor Stuart Turville, just finished work on B.1.617.1, the first Indian variant to raise concern.
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