Altor BioScience Corporation has received a Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to support further development of its proprietary processes for making therapeutic antibodies in transgenic lettuce.
Lettuce, a self-pollinating, ecologically friendly crop, can be commercially produced in large quantities under well-defined conditions (i.e. hydroponic growth in contained greenhouse). The capital-investment costs for facilities used in producing plant-made pharmaceuticals are only a fraction of what is required for mammalian cell-based fermentation.
Hing Wong, Ph.D., Altor's President and the Principal Investigator of the project, commented, "I am thrilled with the support NCI has provided us to develop this unique platform technology.
The funding will allow us to directly compare anti-cancer antibodies generated using our economical lettuce-based system with those made by the current high-cost mammalian cell production methods.
Altor believes that transgenic lettuce technology could represent the breakthrough needed to make low-cost proprietary or biogeneric drugs for existing and emerging markets and stockpiled therapeutic proteins for biodefense purposes.
Read more at Altor Bioscience Corp.
Photo Credit: MANDOPS
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