Engineering The Plant Biofactory For The Production Of Biologics And Small Molecule Medicines Volume 2

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Insecticidal Proteins and RNAi in the Control of Insects, Volume 65 in the Advances in Insect Physiology series, highlights new advances in the field, with this new volume presenting interesting chapters on topics including Insecticidal RNAi delivered as biopesticide, Cry toxins, Vip3 insecticidal proteins: Structure and Mode of Action, New plant/other bacteria toxins, Engineered insecticidal proteins, Resistance to insecticidal proteins, and Photorhabdus toxins across Gram-negative bacteria. Each chapter is written by an international board of authors. Provides the authority and expertise of leading contributors from an international board of authors Presents the latest release in the Advances in Insect Physiology series Updated release includes the latest information on the Insecticidal proteins and RNAi in the control of Insects

Plant gene transfer achieved in the early ‘80s paved the way for the exploitation of the potential of gene engineering to add novel agronomic traits and/or to design plants as factories for high added value molecules. For this latter area of research, the term "Molecular Farming" was coined in reference to agricultural applications in that major crops like maize and tobacco were originally used basically for pharma applications. The concept of the “green biofactory” implies different advantages over the typical cell factories based on animal cell or microbial cultures already when considering the investment and managing costs of fermenters. Although yield, stability, and quality of the molecules may vary among different heterologous systems and plants are competitive on a case-to-case basis, still the “plant factory” attracts scientists and technologists for the challenging features of low production cost, product safety and easy scale up. Once engineered, a plant is among the cheapest and easiest eukaryotic system to be bred with simple know-how, using nutrients, water and light. Molecules that are currently being produced in plants vary from industrial and pharmaceutical proteins, including medical diagnostics proteins and vaccine antigens, to nutritional supplements such as vitamins, carbohydrates and biopolymers. Convergence among disciplines as distant as plant physiology and pharmacology and, more recently, as omic sciences, bioinformatics and nanotechnology, increases the options of research on the plant cell factory. “Farming for Pharming” biologics and small-molecule medicines is a challenging area of plant biotechnology that may break the limits of current standard production technologies. The recent success on Ebola fighting with plant-made antibodies put a spotlight on the enormous potential of next generation herbal medicines made especially in the name of the guiding principle of reduction of costs, hence reduction of disparities of health rights and as a tool to guarantee adequate health protection in developing countries.

Molecular farming has been hailed as the "third wave" of genetically-modified organisms produced through biotechnology for the bio-based economy of the future. Unlike products of the first wave, such as herbicide resistant crop plants, which were perceived to benefit only the farmers who used them and the agrochemical companies who developed them, products of molecular farming are designed specifically for the benefit of the consumer. Such products could be purified from food or non-food organisms for a range of applications in industry, as well as animal and human health. Alternatively, the products of this technology could be consumed more directly in some edible format, such as milk, eggs, fruits or vegetables. There is a rapidly-growing interest Qn the part of the public as well as in the medical community in the role food plays in health, especially in the immunophysiological impact of food over and above the role of basic nutrition.

Conceived with the intention of providing an array of strategies and technologies currently in use for glyco-engineering distinct living organisms, this book contains a wide range of methods being developed to control the composition of carbohydrates and the properties of proteins through manipulations on the production host rather than in the protein itself. The first five sections deal with host-specific glyco-engineering and contain chapters that provide protocols for modifications of the glycosylation pathway in bacteria, yeast, insect, plants and mammalian cells, while the last two sections explore alternative approaches to host glyco-engineering and selected protocols for the analysis of the N-glycans and glyco-profiling by mass spectrometry. Written for the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biology series, chapters include introductions to their respective topics, lists of the necessary materials and reagents, step-by-step, readily reproducible laboratory protocols and tips on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls. Authoritative and extensive, Glyco-Engineering: Methods and Protocols offers vast options to help researchers to choose the expression system and approach that best suits their intended protein research or applications.

Advanced 3D-Printed Systems and Nanosystems for Drug Delivery and Tissue Engineering explores the intricacies of nanostructures and 3D printed systems in terms of their design as drug delivery or tissue engineering devices, their further evaluations and diverse applications. The book highlights the most recent advances in both nanosystems and 3D-printed systems for both drug delivery and tissue engineering applications. It discusses the convergence of biofabrication with nanotechnology, constructing a directional customizable biomaterial arrangement for promoting tissue regeneration, combined with the potential for controlled bioactive delivery. These discussions provide a new viewpoint for both biomaterials scientists and pharmaceutical scientists. Shows how nanotechnology and 3D printing are being used to create systems which are intelligent, biomimetic and customizable to the patient Explores the current generation of nanostructured 3D printed medical devices Assesses the major challenges of using 3D printed nanosystems for the manufacture of new pharmaceuticals