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The use of plants as bioreactors is a relatively new bioscience and a burgeoning new industry. It can be defined as the production of novel products in plants and, in the majority of instances, these products are not of plant origin. Plants are induced to produce these products through the insertion and expression of new genes encoding the additional process(es) required by the plant to synthesize these products. Thus, ‘molecular farming’ involves the genetic modification of the "host" plant.
Products that are currently being produced, either commercially or experimentally in plants, include human and animal therapeutics (including vaccines), proteins used in medical diagnostics, industrial proteins and other industrial products (such as bioplastics). The economic drivers for developing molecular farming as an industry include the capacity of crops to produce large amounts of desired product, safety issues (particularly microbiological safety) and most importantly, the cost benefits of plant-based production.
The Tropical Crops and Biocommodities has the expertise and capacity to (i) transform plants, (ii) express diagnostic/therapeutic proteins in those plants and (iii) intellectual property access to molecular farming processes. The group have already generated an array of transgenic crops including tobacco, bananas, sugarcane and papaya. They have also developed and patented widely in the area of transgene expression in plants with particular emphasis on a platform technology known as INPACT (In Plant ACTivation), which provides exquisite control over the time, place and level of protein expression.
Farmacule Bioindustries Pty Ltd has been established to further develop and commercialise this technology and is the only biotechnology company in Australia formed specifically to launch the molecular farming industry. Furthermore, the team are also collaborating with Cooperative Research Centre for Sugar Industry Innovation through Biotechnology to develop sugarcane as a biofactory for production of high value proteins using the InPACT technology.
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