Norwegian researchers are hoping to develop a plant-based vaccine for dengue fever, an often deadly disease on the rise in Asia.
As was the case with the ZMapp Ebola medicine, the scientists are utilizing tobacco plants to develop antibodies. Developing new vaccines often is extremely costly and time-consuming, so researchers are eager to find easier methods to produce large quantities of a vaccine.
The Norwegian Institute for Agricultural and Environmental Research assigned senior researcher Jihong Liu Clarke to begin working on producing a vaccine against dengue fever
With the proper conduction, according to the biosafety regulations of genetically modified (GM) plants at national and international levels, tobacco plants “can be grown and used for the health-benefit purpose in the future,” Clarke says.
