Researchers have found a new use for colonial America’s first cash crop.
A consortium backed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is trying to demonstrate that vaccines could more efficiently be grown inside tobacco plants, as opposed to chicken embryos. Currently, most flu vaccines are produced inside eggs.
The researchers, who are based at Texas A&M University, hope to show by early 2011 they can produce 10 million vaccine doses within a month. DARPA will determine the type of vaccine four to six weeks in advance, but it’s likely to be for the H1N1 “swine” flu, says Brett Giroir, vice chancellor for research for the Texas A&M System and a principal investigator on the project.
With tobacco plants, he says, vaccines could be produced at roughly a third of the cost of egg-based vaccines and on shorter notice.
“We plan to demonstrate for the Department of Defense a very flexible, agile vaccine program that would be very responsive,” Giroir says. “If it works, it will really change the bio-defense posture substantially for troops and civilians.”
The endeavor, dubbed Project GreenVax, will cost about $60 million — $40 million from DARPA and $20 million from the consortium — and is being carried out in a facility at the university. There, researchers are growing about two acres worth of tobacco plants.
If the program succeeds, it will still take several years to receive approval from the Food and Drug Administration, Giroir adds.