Grant: Collaborative Research and Development Grants

This project will study and optimize the physiological determinants of vaccine antigen production in the Nicotiana benthamiana (Nb) plant protein expression platform, in relation with a number of cultural and growth parameters including light regime, atmospheric CO2, nitrogen fertilization and transgene expression as a function of development. Medicago inc. (www.medicago.com) improved the Nb platform for the transient expression of recombinant vaccine antigens and other biopharmaceuticals. The plants are agroinfiltrated to express a viral vaccine antigen, the so-called influenza virus hemagglutinin H1, which will be used here as a case study in our experiments. This protein accumulates in membrane-enveloped virus-like particles (VLP's) in Nb leaves. Our goal will be to increase H1 expression, reduce variability and predict protein yield in both the development and incubation phases of Nb grown in controlled environments. The project will contribute to basic knowledge on this model plant and provide Medicago and other organizations with data and tools to further improve the efficiency of Nb as a commercial platform. It will also contribute to the training of highly qualified graduate students and personnel.