NSF Award
9561380
9561380 Turpen The cost and availability of health care products based on peptides currently limit access to treatments. New methods are needed to produce pharmaceutical quality proteins such as subunit vaccines and antimicrobial peptides for human use on a large scale. This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project will determine the feasibility of producing peptides in plants fused to the surface of viral particles. The approach of the small business Biosource Technologies, Inc. integrates the inexpensive synthesis of protein in plant biomass under non-sterile conditions with the design of an abundant, stable, and unique molecular structure that may easily be processed from plant extracts. This project offers important social and commercial benefits: By dramatically reducing production costs, this technology will enable vaccines and antibiotic peptides to be more accessible to a larger fraction of the world population who suffer from numerous infectious diseases. By making vaccines and antibiotic treatments more affordable, substantial new markets will be created world-wide for these low-cost, high-volume health care products.
