In Sweden, scientists are looking to a farm animal to help them find a treatment or vaccine against the new coronavirus. Researchers from the Karolinska Institute, a medical university near Stockholm, are putting their hope in a 12-year-old alpaca from Germany. Alpacas belong to the camel family. The scientists started by recreating the so-called “spike” protein that permits the coronavirus to infect human cells. They then injected the spike protein into the alpaca, whose name is Tyson. The team is collecting blood samples to see whether the alpaca can develop antibodies against the spike protein. Extremely small antibodies, known as nanobodies, stick to the same part of the virus as human antibodies. In a statement to the press, the researchers called them neutralizing antibodies. If you neutralize something harmful, you take away its ability to cause harm. The head of the research team in Sweden is Gerald McInerney. He said the hope is that the neutralizing antibodies will be able to effectively block the virus protein, and thereby the coronavirus, from entering cells and spreading. The results could be used to develop drug treatments or possibly a vaccine for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. While the scientific work is still at an early stage, McInerney said his team has seen evidence it could work in people.