Around the world, scientists are working around the clock to develop a vaccine for the new coronavirus. 

That includes Purdue University in the U.S. state of Indiana, where back in 2016 scientists made a key breakthrough in research on the Zika virus. Now they are focusing on the new coronavirus. 

CGTN's Dan Williams caught up with Dr. Andrew Mesecar, a biochemistry professor at Purdue, to talk about the work taking place.  

Mesecar says what concerns him is that healthy people are being infected — not just those with an already-compromised immune system. 

He says scientists have found the new virus closely resembles SARS, which hit 17 years ago. So Purdue researchers are looking at the drugs they began working on back then to see how they might play a role in fighting this latest virus.