Molecular Farming

Plants as producers of high-value proteins in the form of raw material for the pharmaceutical industry is a novel field of development that is anticipated to increase substantially in size within a few years time. Evidence of this is EU´s 7th framework that listed this technique as one of the most promising during the coming decade. In addition, a Canadian company (Sembiosys) has been granted permission to use human insulin produced in the agricultural plant safflower in human clinical trials in both the US and in the EU. This is the first permission for the pharmacological use of genetically engineered plant-produced proteins in humans.

However, a number of issues remain before such production becomes commercially viable. Among these issues are the low biomass production in the transformed plants, the optimal choice of plant species to be used, what proteins that are suitable for this type of production, and what the pharmaceutical formulations of the plant-produced proteins should be for optimal efficacy. Our purpose is to initiate research co-produced between academia and industry with the aim of addressing these issues.

In parallel, we also conduct research to develop edible vaccines in general, and a nasal vaccine against Chlamydia specifically within the research project "Development of mucosally administered vaccines."

Read about the project Development of mucosally administered vaccines.