Myth: Tobacco Plants Are Only For Smoking: Difference between revisions
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===2023: [https://www.cbsnews.com/sacramento/news/how-the-world-health-organization-helped-kill-a-promising-made-in-canada-vaccine/ How the World Health Organization helped kill a promising made-in-Canada vaccine]=== | ===2023: [https://www.cbsnews.com/sacramento/news/how-the-world-health-organization-helped-kill-a-promising-made-in-canada-vaccine/ How the World Health Organization helped kill a promising made-in-Canada vaccine]=== | ||
*"The World Health Organization (WHO) has championed the need for out-of-the-box thinking on vaccine production and supplies to protect the world. But when faced with that very situation, the WHO evoked a 2005 policy, and sentenced a promising made-in-Canada vaccine to a tragic death because of a minority link with a tobacco company...A year ago, officials with the agency refused to endorse a vaccine made by Quebec-based Medicago. It used a plant related to tobacco as the "factory" to produce virus-like particles that taught the immune system to fend off the virus that causes COVID-19...The Medicago technology was also widely seen as having great potential for creating both vaccines and antibody treatments for other conditions, including cancers, arthritis and multiple sclerosis. But the plants used in production are a cousin of the tobacco plant and were supplied by tobacco giant Phillip Morris, which was a minority (21 per cent) shareholder...One advantage Medicago's product had over some of the approved vaccines is that it doesn't have the same cold storage requirement as mRNA shots, and so "would have been more suitable for Africa and places like that," said Watts." | *"The World Health Organization (WHO) has championed the need for out-of-the-box thinking on vaccine production and supplies to protect the world. But when faced with that very situation, the WHO evoked a 2005 policy, and sentenced a promising made-in-Canada vaccine to a tragic death because of a minority link with a tobacco company...A year ago, officials with the agency refused to endorse a vaccine made by Quebec-based Medicago. It used a plant related to tobacco as the "factory" to produce virus-like particles that taught the immune system to fend off the virus that causes COVID-19...The Medicago technology was also widely seen as having great potential for creating both vaccines and antibody treatments for other conditions, including cancers, arthritis and multiple sclerosis. But the plants used in production are a cousin of the tobacco plant and were supplied by tobacco giant Phillip Morris, which was a minority (21 per cent) shareholder...One advantage Medicago's product had over some of the approved vaccines is that it doesn't have the same cold storage requirement as mRNA shots, and so "would have been more suitable for Africa and places like that," said Watts." | ||
==Other potential uses for tobacco plants== | |||
===2019: [https://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode/tobacco-plants-made-to-produce-useful-compounds/ Tobacco Plants Made to Produce Useful Compounds]=== | |||
*"But tobacco is also used a lot in scientific research. And a new study shows tobacco can be genetically engineered to churn out large amounts of a commercially important bacterial enzyme known as cellulase. The enzyme has many industrial uses, including as an agent in the production of biofuel...University of Illinois plant biologist Justin McGrath is a co-lead author of the study. He says the work could lead to lower costs for producing useful proteins like enzymes and some vaccines. That’s because it can be way cheaper to cultivate tobacco plants in a field than to grow genetically modified yeast and other microbes indoors in large fermenters." | |||
=Suggested Studies and Articles to include on this page= | =Suggested Studies and Articles to include on this page= | ||