COVID-19 Related Research

Salvage R, Hull CM, Kelly DE, Kelly SL. Use of 70% alcohol for the routine removal of microbial hard surface bioburden in life science cleanrooms. Future Microbiology. 2014, 9(10), 1123-1130.

  • Finding that less than 70% ethanol can be effective in biocides/ sanitizers.


Hull CM, Loveridge EJ, Rolley NJ, Donnison IS, Kelly SL, Kelly DE. Co-production of ethanol and squalene using a Saccharomyces cerevisiae ERG1 (squalene epoxidase) mutant and agro-industrial feedstock. Biotechnology for Biofuels. 2014, 7, Epub.

  • Showing that yeast can be manipulated to add value to bioethanol production to include squalene production. Squalene is needed as an adjuvunct in vaccines and is obtained from shark liver. Given the scale of Covid-19 vaccination the mass harvest of sharks is not sustainable or desirable.


Colley T, Alanio A, Kelly SL, Sehra G, Kizawa Y, Warrilow AGS, Parker JE, Kelly DE, Kimura G, Anderson-Dring L, Nakaoki T, Sunose M, Onions S, Crepin D, Lagasse F, Crittall M, Shannon J, Cooke M, Bretagne S, King-Underwood J, Murray J, Ito K, Strong P, Rapeport G. In vitro and in vivo antifungal profile of a novel and long acting inhaled azole, PC945, on Aspergillus fumigatus infection. Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy. 2017, doi:10.1128/AAC.02280-16.

  • PC945 is a candidate drug for delivery to the lung to treat aspergillosis. Working with Pulmocide Ltd we showed mechanism of action and efficacy of PC-945 and the drug candidate is progressing to Phase 3 trials shortly. Aspergillosis is a co-infection that has been found with Covid-19 disease. Later we published on another drug candidate for aspergillosis PC1244.


Colley T, Sehra G, Chowdhary A, Alanio A, Kelly SL, Kizawa Y, Armstrong-James D, Fisher MC, Warrilow AGS, Parker JE, Kelly DE, Kimura G, Nishimoto Y, Sunose M, Onions S, Crepin D, Lagasse F, Crittall M, Shannon J, McConville M, King-Underwood J, Naylor A, Bretagne S, Murray J, Ito K, Strong P, Rapeport G. In vitro and in vivo efficacy of a novel and long acting fungicidal azole, PC1244, on Aspergillus fumigatus infection. Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy. 2018, doi: 10.1128/AAC.01941-17.

Hull CM, Warrilow AGS, Rolley NJ, Price CL, Donnison IS, Kelly DE, Kelly SL. Co-production of 11alpha-hydroxyprogesterone and ethanol using recombinant yeast expressing fungal steroid hydroxylases. Biotechnol Biofuels. 2017, 10:226.

  • The enzyme based conversion of progesterone reported in this paper was a study to increase value of bioethanol platforms. This enzyme conversion is used to produce cortico-steroids industrially. It is needed for dexamethasone production that has reduced mortality with Covid-19 infection.