How such crops would be regulated is a matter for future debate. Edible vaccines will cut out the need for sterile equipment, trained medical personnel, refrigeration and costly distribution systems. Cornell researchers are now busy trying to identify the best plant for vaccine production and delivery. Candidates include potatoes and the seeds of cereal crops and legumes. Scientists there estimate that about 10 doses of vaccine about one-third of an ounce each would fit into a small baby food jar of mashed banana.
Genes carry the information for making proteins.
Ant if you can find out what protein provokes a protec-tive immune response, you have the genetic key to making vaccines. The target gene can be snipped out of human chromosomes and replicated by the millions in spe-cialized insect cells. In the Cornell work, the same vaccine gene is put into the genome of a plant. Once eaten, researchers hope, the plant food will provoke the same immune response that a normal vaccine would. The genes are inserted into leaf cells.