Within a decade, patients worldwide might be able to eat genetically modified bananas to get their vaccinations, the medications that prompt the immune system to fend off serious disease. The University of Rochester has a part in the basic research into edible vaccines, an investigation led for nearly a decade by Cornell University plant scientists. Other UR vaccine work includes look.
Oral vaccines are already common.
But edible vaccines would actually be grown within genetically en-gineered fruits or vegetables. In remote, poor countries, he said, such medicines would be produced locally -in bananas, potatoes or the leaves of tomatoes or tobacco. 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.