While genetically modifying naturally occurring organisms for medicinal purposes is nothing new, some scientists started to mull over the idea of administering medications and life-saving vaccines around the globe in a different way. Biopharmaceuticals are on the rise, and their potential is incredible.

While genetically modifying naturally occurring organisms for medicinal purposes is nothing new, some scientists started to mull over the idea of administering medications and life-saving vaccines around the globe in a different way. Biopharmaceuticals are on the rise, and their potential is incredible.

PLANT-BASED MEDICATIONS OF THE FUTURE 2

Though it the early stages of testing, development and regulating, delivery of vaccines and medicines orally via plants is proving to be a field worth paying attention to. The process is relatively low cost, with decently high yield, and distribution would be simple. Perhaps a utopian world where the locals can medicate themselves with the fruits from a banana is not possible just yet (Mandy, 2005), but it cannot be ruled out just yet. Biopharmaceuticals are merely in their infant stage, and will continue to improve as our science does.

History

While this field of biopharmaceuticals seems straight out of a futuristic movie plot, it is not exactly new. Biotechnology has been in place for decades, beginning with Alexander Flemming’s discovery of “mold juice”- penicillin- in 1928 (ACS, 1999). Flemming found that something as simple as this mold growth within a petri dish secreted a substance that could kill a variety of bacteria, ranging from diphtheria to streptococcus. Though it took some time before the penicillin could be properly purified and used to fight infection, the first major fungi based pharmaceutical had been manufactured (ACS, 1999), and an industry was born.

Technology has improved drastically since 1928, and by 1970 scientists were discovering the capabilities of recombinant DNA. The process involved using pieces of DNA from two different species, and joining them together to create a new, hybrid set of DNA. This hybrid would then need to be placed back into a cell, which often was that of a bacterium (NHGRI, 2013). This process of “cut and paste” DNA would eventually lead to the development of somatostatin in 1977, which is currently used to treat individuals suffering from gigantism (Uckon, 2013). This process might not have been possible without bacterium acting as a surrogate cell for these DNA cocktails.

Biopharmaceutical technology was on the upswing by the 1980s, with mass production disease fighting biopharmaceuticals (Uckon, 2013). In 1980 Cohen and Boyer were able to produce human insulin (used to regulate blood sugar levels) from genetically modified bacteria thanks to the issuance of a patent for gene cloning (ABS Australia, 2008). Human growth hormone, used to treat Creuzfeldt Jacob Disease, was produced with help from improved technology that isolated plasmids from E. coli (Ayyar, 2011).

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