SCOTLAND has long been at the cutting edge of vaccine research which has ultimately saved millions of lives around the world. Since the morning of September 28, 1928 when Alexander Fleming, the son of an Ayrshire farmer, discovered penicillin from the mould on a culture plate, Scots have been punching above their weight in medical advances.

Now with the challenge of the worst pandemic to face us for 100 years we are again leading the way in trying to combat the march of this new coronavirus.

We’ve all had to become a little knowledgeable about coronaviruses since Covid-19 first presented itself in Wuhan in China at the start of the year. But it was in fact a Scot with no formal education, a bus driver’s daughter from a Glasgow tenement, who first identified it in the 1960s.

June Almeida’s (nee Hart) journey started when she dropped out of school and began working as a lab technician at Glasgow Royal Infirmary where she used microscopes to analyse tissue samples.

June took her work to St Bartholemew’s Hospital in London where she would also meet her future husband, Venezuelan artist Enriques Almeida.

They emigrated to Canada where she took on a position working with electron microscopes at the Ontario Cancer Institute in Toronto.

The Scots scientist showed her worth on the team when she developed new techniques on the structures of viruses and identified a host of viruses, including rubella, which can cause complications during pregnancy.

READ MORE: This is the curious truth about Bastille Day

June’s reputation was building and she was brought back to the UK to work at St Thomas’s Hospital, where Dr David Tyrrell enlisted her help at the Common Cold Unit in Salisbury, Wiltshire, to identify a flu-like virus from a schoolboy.

It was then that June not only found and created clear images of the virus, but was also able to bring in earlier research which made it clear that she had discovered a new group of viruses.

June and Dr Tyrrell subsequently called it coronavirus, taking the halo-like structure as a crown and giving it a Latin name.

June, who died in 2007 aged 77, has inspired a host of scientists since – including Scotland’s current leader in the field, Professor Hugh Pennington, emeritus professor of bacteriology at Aberdeen University. She was his mentor at St Thomas’s.

“She was unconventional but brilliant,” he said. “Without doubt she is one of the outstanding Scottish scientists of her generation, but sadly largely forgotten. Though ironically this Covid-19 outbreak has shone a light again on her work.

“The Chinese used her technology to identify it. They repeated what she had done in looking at the culture. It is helping in the current outbreak.”

Where June has led other Scots have followed, and she would have been delighted with the work of Dr Kate Broderick in San Diego, Southern California.

From Dunfermline and a graduate of Glasgow University, she has been part of the Inovio team working since the start of the year to come up with an inoculation.

And often working away from husband Steve who is “immuno-compromised” and her two young children who “know why mummy’s not around as much as I’d want to right now”.

Inovio has been working towards starting human clinical trials and they have a proud record in this field after discovering a vaccine in response to the Zika virus in just seven months.

As vital as the work of our world beating scientists is, we all have a part to play. That includes the volunteers who are putting themselves forward for an Oxford University trial to test a Covid-19 vaccine.

Kate Pirie, a 28-year-old Glaswegian occupational therapist who has tended to Covid-19 patients first-hand at Liberton Hospital in Edinburgh, signed up for a year’s trial which will involve her taking monthly blood tests. “Some of my colleagues thought I was mad,” she told The Daily Record, “but it didn’t cross my mind not to. I want to help.”

Kate will be tested for a year and will not know if she got the Covid-19 vaccine or a meningitis vaccine as scientists compare her results with around 10,000 others.

READ MORE: The story of one of strangest characters in Scottish history

The Scottish Government has put its money where its mouth is by pumping in £5 million worth of funds to support 55 rapid research projects in 15 Scottish universities and research institutions.

Health Secretary Jeane Freeman believes it will make a big difference. “Scotland is home to some of the most respected researchers and scientists in the world. Covid-19 is the biggest challenge we have faced in our lifetimes and it is vital that we capture the potential of the extraordinary strong research base here to contribute to the global efforts to tackle and mitigate the impact of it.”

While prevention remains the best cure, our scientists are also working on repurposing medicines for other conditions.

THE StopCovid project being advanced by the Centre for Inflammation Research in Edinburgh is focusing on the inflammatory pathways that lead directly to lung injury in the early stages in the hope that this will prevent the need for a ventilator in later stages.

Professor Kev Dhaliwal, StopCovid lead and consultant in respiratory medicine at the University of Edinburgh, made a rallying call when he said: “We must unite together, across continents, to tackle the devastating effects of this virus as fast as possible.”

Science and technology firm Merck is leading the way in new testing methods at its sites in Irvine, Glasgow and Stirling, cutting the testing times down from 56 days to 14 days with their emphasis on molecular biology.

Progress continues to be made and shared, with Pneumagen, a University of St Andrews spin out company, a leading example after they hailed positive results in tests in late April. The company signalled its intention to begin clinical testing for the prevention and treatment of Covid-19.

Who would bet then against a Scot following in the footsteps of Alexander Fleming and coming up with a groundbreaking vaccine?