It’s worth re-engineering the clamp UQ’s COVID-19 vaccine trial demonstrated the benefits of the molecular clamp technology. Credit: nadia_bormotova The Australian COVID-19 vaccine developed by the University of Queensland was abandoned last December after participants in human trials returned false-positive HIV tests. The news was as devastating for the research group as it was for the many Australians who were hoping the vaccine would help life return to some kind of normality post-COVID-19. Although the trials were halted, the UQ research group has not stopped its assiduous work. Back in the lab, the team is trying to re-engineer the clamp that holds the SARS-CoV-2 spike together to avoid the HIV-test cross-reactivity.