BIO411 Plant-based production platforms for high-value proteins

Plants have many important applications as food, feed, medicine etc. In addition, plants can be used as a green factory to produce high value recombinant proteins e.g. human and animal vaccines for injection and/or oral administration, therapeutics, and enzymes with various applications. This hands-on training would allow the students and researchers to understand the potential of plants and how to use the plant biotechnological tools and the green plant resources for the benefit of people, animals, and bio-based economy. You will learn the theory behind through lectures, and the key steps of the technology through hands-on training. Both Nicotiana benthamiana and lettuce plants will be used to produce:

• A salmon viral vaccine antigen
• A red fluorescent protein (RFP) reporter gene

Knowledge about plant biotechnology including CRISPR genome editing, and the advantages and limitations of using plants to produce desirable high value proteins.

Skills on hands-on training using "learning by doing" approach to provide students with the opportunity to produce a candidate salmon viral vaccine antigen and RFP reporter gene. Students will also carry out laboratory analysis of one’s own products using PCR and evaluation the PCR result.