UMC Groningen is looking for volunteers to get a booster shot with a new Covid vaccine

The University Medical Center in Groningen (UMCG) is looking for 600 volunteers to test a booster shot of a new vaccine against the coronavirus. The vaccine is called AKS-452 and is produced by the U.S. company Akston Biosciences.

The UMCG has previously conducted research into the effect of the vaccine on unvaccinated volunteers. The results of this study were favorable, according to the hospital. "The vaccine turned out to be safe and can offer very good protection against the coronavirus. Laboratory research also showed that the antibodies produced by the participants after vaccination with the Akston vaccine also offer protection against the omicron variant," the UMCG shared.

The aim of the new study is to investigate the immune system's response to a booster shot in people who have already been vaccinated with Pfizer, Moderna, Janssen or AstraZeneca. "We are also investigating whether people can be effectively protected against new variants of the coronavirus for a long time, in order to prevent periodic vaccination," the hospital said.

Akston Biosciences' vaccine does not use the actual coronavirus, attenuated or alive. The vaccine is made up of part of the coronavirus, the so-called spike protein, which is combined with a protein fragment of a human antibody. Unlike Pfizer and Moderna, it is not an mRNA vaccine.