Plants as Bioreactors for Molecular Farming
Dr. Christopher Hall & Dr. Anthony Jevnikar
The Biotron's state-of-the-art transgenic facilities will be critical for providing the necessary controlled growth capacity to develop and exploit transgenic plant species for a number of important human and ecological health purposes. Molecular farming includes the production of foreign proteins in plants. This includes human proteins for use as edible delivery systems for oral immune modulation and the testing of these novel plants in the prevention and treatment of human diseases.
The Biotron will also enable scientific and industrial researchers to develop applicable technologies to respond to public demands for high quality chemical and pathogen-free food, a clean environment, healthy alternatives to conventional medicine and cheaper and effective diagnostic and therapeutic products.
Pioneering research in molecular farming for medical and diagnostic applications has been conducted by Dr. Jevnikar and collaborators (Lawson Health Research Institute (LHRI), London Health Sciences Center (LHSC), the Southern Crop Research and Food Protection Institute, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, London (SCRFPI - AAFC), and Dr. Hall, a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in molecular farming at the University of Guelph. The Biotron facility will accelerate research in plant molecular farming for efficient expression of human genes in plants by providing extraordinary scale-up capacity and access to world-class controlled transgenic facilities, contiguous laboratory facilities and contained and controlled mini-ecosystems.
The primary foci of this group are in the areas of:
- production of autoantigens that can be delivered orally for the prevention of autoimmunity, and in particular Type I diabetes;
- production of human cytokines (substances secreted by cells of the immune system) for oral and topical delivery, to be used in the prevention and treatment of inflammatory bowel disease, and;
- the production of high quality antibodies (Abs) for applications in environmental detection and monitoring, food safety, discovery of new lead chemistries, purification of nutraceuticals/pharmaceuticals, and animal and human immunotherapy.
The Jevnikar/Hall group stands at the forefront of plant molecular farming. This research group has targeted tobacco as their platform technology as it is one of the best current platforms to address both the technical and regulatory considerations of the biopharmaceutical industry. Tobacco is easily transformed, and for some time has been the model system for plant transformation. Because it is a non-food crop, tobacco provides inherent containment which is further enhanced by the development of tobacco that does not require flowering or pollination. Mature tobacco plants are relatively large and thus controlled growth space is a major limitation in its scale-up for molecular farming.
Effective translation of autoantigens, cytokines and Abs for widespread medical application in healthcare will not only depend upon functionality but also on developing a viable plant bioreactor model. Therefore, the application of transgenic tobacco as production vehicles requires both sufficient controlled growth space as well as the creation of plants that produce higher concentrations of proteins. The Transgenic Facility in the Biotron together with the controlled environment growth systems situated at the University of Guelph and SCRFPI-AAFC, London will enable this research by providing the necessary scale and environmental controls.
The ultimate goal of molecular farming is to grow transgenic plants containing such foreign proteins in the field for large scale production. However, the unknown potential effects of transgenic plants on native plants and crops through genetic exchange preclude the growth of transgenic plants under natural field conditions. The growth of such transgenic plants under Biotron�s sealed, controlled mini-ecosystems will allow these researchers to monitor and assess the long-term, environmental risk of transgenes entering the natural or crop population. Thus, the Biotron represents a unique facility in Canada which will provide the opportunity to study potential environmental impact of transgenic plants expressing novel human biotherapeutics in a contained and precisely controlled facility.
As Jevnikar and Hall are the primary researchers in Canada studying human autoantigens and cytokines expression in plant based systems, this represents a tremendous synergistic opportunity for accelerating their efforts in Canada. The Biotron�s world class transgenic plant facility will accelerate collaborative research in molecular farming at UWO, LHRI, University of Guelph and Agriculture Canada and will enhance their capacity to attract and train scientists needed for this emerging area.
