Molecular Farming Of Plants And Animals For Human And Veterinary Medicine

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.

A recently established technique termed pharming uses genetically modified plants and animals for the production of biopharmaceuticals. The present interdisciplinary study comprises an extended overview of the state of the art of pharming, as well as in depth analyses of the environmental risks and other ethical and legal issues of pharming. Public attitudes to pharming are investigated on the basis of an original survey in 15 countries worldwide. The study concludes with specific recommendations addressed towards science, industry and politics.

Molecular farming in plants is a relatively young subject of sciences. As plants can offer an inexpensive and convenient platform for the large-scale production of recombinant proteins with various functions, the driven force from the giant market for recombinant protein pharmaceuticals and industrial enzymes makes this subject grow and advance very quickly. To summarize recent advances, current challenges and future directions in molecular farming, international authorities were invited to write this book for researchers, teachers and students who are interested in this subject. This book, with the focus on the most advanced cutting-edge breakthroughs, covers all the essential aspects of the field of molecular farming in plants: from expression technologies to downstream processing, from products to safety issues, and from current advances and holdups to future developments.

Here, authors from academia and industry provide an exciting overview of current production technologies and the fascinating possibilities for future applications. Topics include chloroplast-derived antibodies, biopharmaceuticals and edible vaccines, production of antibodies in plants and plant cell suspension cultures, production of spider silk proteins in plants, and glycosylation of plant produced proteins. The whole is rounded off by chapters on the demands and expectations made on molecular farming by pharmaceutical corporations and the choice of crop species in improving recombinant protein levels. Of interest to biotechnologists, gene technologists, molecular biologists and protein biochemists in university as well as the biotechnological and pharmaceutical industries.

Written by leading international experts in the field of plant metabolic engineering, this book discusses how the technology can be applied. Applications resulting from metabolic engineering are expected to play a very important role in the future of plant breeding: for example, in the fields of improved resistance or improved traits concerning health promoting constituents, as well as in the production of fine chemicals such as medicines, flavors and fragrances.

The biopharmaceutical market has come along way since 1982 when the first biopharmaceutical product, recombinant human insulin, was launched. Over 120 such products are currently being marketed around the world including nine blockbuster drugs. The global market for biopharmaceuticals, which is currently valued at US$41 billion, has been growing at an impressive compound annual growth rate of 21% over the previous five years. With over one third of all pipe-line products in active development are biopharmaceuticals, this segment is set to continue outperforming the total pharmaceutical market and could easily reach US$100 billion by the end of this decade.

Gathering some 90 entries from the Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology, this book covers animal breeding and genetics for food, crop science and technology, ocean farming and sustainable aquaculture, transgenic livestock for food and more.