Plant-Powered Vaccines

G16 Lecture Theatre
Sir Alexander Fleming Building, Imperial College London
 
What if tomorrow’s vaccines could be grown in greenhouses, as well as manufactured in vast factories?
 
Plant-based vaccine production transforms living plants into miniature bioreactors, allowing scientists to extract vital ingredients by harvesting leaves nurtured within a controlled environment and pressing them.
Once scaled up using large bioreactors, this emerging approach could form part of a green medical revolution that could save lives across Africa, offering a faster, more flexible and more affordable route to producing vaccines close to where they’re needed most.
 
In this discussion, Imperial College London’s Professor Faith Osier is joined online by University of Cape Town’s Sandwisa James to explore how plant-powered vaccine manufacturing sits alongside other adaptable technologies, which use cells to express vaccine antigens. These include mRNA and egg-based systems , that together could help fuel a more resilient, equitable and self-sufficient future for African and global health.