Molecular Farming Means the Next Vaccine Could Be Edible and Grown in a Plant:
It’s the dog days of summer. You bite down on a plump, chilled orange. Citrus juice explodes in your mouth in a refreshing, tingling burst. Ahh.
And congratulations—you’ve just been vaccinated for the latest virus.
That’s one of the goals of molecular farming, a vision to have plants synthesize medications and vaccines. Using genetic engineering and synthetic biology, scientists can introduce brand new biochemical pathways into plant cells—or even whole plants—essentially turning them into single-use bioreactors.
The whole idea has a retro-futuristic science fiction vibe. First conceived of in 1986, molecular farming got its boost three decades later, when the FDA approved the first—and only—plant-derived therapeutic protein for humans to treat Gaucher disease, a genetic disorder that prevents people from breaking down fats.
But to Drs. Hugues Fausther-Bovendo and Gary Kobinger at Université Laval, Quebec and Galveston National Laboratory, Texas, respectively, we’re just getting started. In a new perspective article published last week in Science, the duo argues that plants have long been an overlooked resource for biomanufacturing.
[...] “Molecular farming could have a considerable impact on both human and animal health,” the authors said.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 24 2021, @08:20AM (1 child)
Nobody here, then? All got the COVID-19? Ok, then.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by edIII on Tuesday August 24 2021, @07:33PM
My first thought exactly. Create a social media post linking to this article and tell all the anti-vaxxers they're going to take the vaccine one way or the other. Unless they want to starve. 48 hours later Tucker Carlson would be whining that they're coming for our food because "we won't comply".
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by c0lo on Tuesday August 24 2021, @09:04AM (5 children)
And in 3 weeks you may be a mess of blood clots just because a bee carrying the wrong pollen landed on the flower which resulted on the fruit you just eat.
I still don't get it. If you can make a vaccine which can be administered orally, why do you need citrus trees when you can use bacteria or yeasts to produce it in a form factor much smaller than an orange? You can control the environ for bacteria a lot better than an orchard.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 4, Insightful) by FatPhil on Tuesday August 24 2021, @12:08PM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by Beryllium Sphere (r) on Tuesday August 24 2021, @05:12PM
Covered in the article. Plants have built-in defenses against unwanted material. Labs have to be hyper-vigilant.
The problem that jumps to mind is dosage control. Use the plants to make pill raw materials, fine. Bite into an orange and get vaccinated? Eat the whole thing and get an overdose? The very first thing done after animal trials in Phase I is identifying the safe dosage of something.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Tuesday August 24 2021, @08:18PM (2 children)
Because when you're tasting fresh, sweet, tangy orange juice while biting down and trying to make sure you don't get it all over your shirt, it's a lot easier for people to distract you and stick you in the arm with the vaccine.
Or was that not the idea? I kind of skimmed the summary :-)
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday August 24 2021, @10:25PM (1 child)
If you can get an oral formulation for a vaccine from whatever sources, you can dissolve it in a natural orange juice bottle. Or in an icecream.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 26 2021, @11:34AM
Or in Prune Juice.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 24 2021, @09:04AM (4 children)
Is the orange filled with vodka or gin? Asking for a friend.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 24 2021, @09:28AM (3 children)
Reminds me of tomacco.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 24 2021, @09:40AM
At least Bart is eating his vegetables, Marge.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Tuesday August 24 2021, @11:57AM (1 child)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 3, Funny) by HiThere on Tuesday August 24 2021, @01:26PM
The "Beefsteak tomato" did it before either of them.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Tuesday August 24 2021, @01:28PM (1 child)
Grown in a plant is possible. Edible is possible. Effective when eaten....that's a lot less plausible. The digestive system is a chemical processing system that likes to break large molecules up into small pieces.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Tuesday August 24 2021, @08:36PM
In that case, good news! Since we're introducing something new anyway, we can try a new delivery mechanism [youtu.be] at the same time.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 24 2021, @03:24PM (2 children)
Can someone just shoot these criminals now before they contaminate our food chain.
Just a bad idea all around.
Grey goo.
(Score: 3, Funny) by bzipitidoo on Tuesday August 24 2021, @04:13PM (1 child)
Some people. They'll drink the Kool-Aid, but they won't eat the orange.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 24 2021, @07:46PM
The Anti-Broccoli crowd will go ballistic.
(Score: 2, Troll) by NickM on Tuesday August 24 2021, @11:35PM (1 child)
My mom participated in the medicago trial. It's a really nice technology, they use tobacco plants to generate Virus like particles https://medicago.com/en/covid-19-programs/#vaccine [medicago.com] but she had to get 2 additional shot of Moderna because the Canadian preferred to invest in a vaporware vaccine in China (CanSino) instead of investing at home. Therefore the medicago vaccine is still unapproved ;(
Next election I will vote for the Bloc Québécois even if I am not a separatist... Trudeau gouvernment is both dumb and woke. If I wanted true wokenesss I would vote for Sings' NPD and if I wanted true dumbness I would Conservative !
I a master of typographic, grammatical and miscellaneous errors !
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Thursday August 26 2021, @01:24PM
You might consider the NDP if you are not a separatist. Or even the Conservatives.