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https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/scientists-studying-whether-it-s-possible-to-grow-eat-mrna-vaccines-1.5591098Given the option, would you rather get vaccinated by taking a shot in the arm or eating a bowl of vegetables?
Scientists at the University of California, Riverside (UCR) are currently studying whether they can turn edible plants, such as lettuce and spinach, into mRNA vaccines people can grow themselves.
The research project has three goals: to show that DNA containing mRNA vaccines can be successfully integrated into plant cells; to demonstrate that plants can replicate enough mRNA to rival current injection methods; and to determine the correct dosage.
“Ideally, a single plant would produce enough mRNA to vaccinate a single person,” Juan Pablo Giraldo, lead researcher and associate professor in UCR’s Department of Botany and Plant Sciences, said in a news release.
“We are testing this approach with spinach and lettuce and have long-term goals of people growing it in their own gardens,” he added. “Farmers could also eventually grow entire fields of it.”
Similar research into an edible COVID-19 vaccine is also being conducted close to home.
A team of scientists led by Allyson MacLean, an assistant professor in the University of Ottawa’s Department of Biology, have been working on an alternative means of immunization against the virus for more than a year now.
Their method involves the expression of viral antigens in edible plants, including lettuce and spinach, which people would then eat. Testing of the vaccine has already begun as part of a partnership with The Ottawa Hospital.
If the UCR research project is successful, not only could it make edible mRNA vaccines possible, but also create an mRNA vaccine able to be stored at room temperature.
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The research project is being backed by a US$500,000 grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation.
Eating food bought in the city may soon mean getting vaxed.
Breathing air may soon mean getting vaxed, too.
Related: Inhalable Coronavirus Vaccine by MIT Experts Coming Soon
When the world’s biggest facility for sucking carbon dioxide out of the air and burying it underground opened in rural Iceland last week, it may have sounded like a miracle cure for climate change had finally arrived.
But while the first commercial carbon removal and sequestration factory represents a breakthrough in the goal of achieving net-zero global emissions by midcentury — as well as a beacon for eventually removing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere — the technology won’t be economically viable on a wide scale for some time. Crucially, scientists say, it will prevent catastrophic climate change only if it is used in addition to, rather than instead of, massive reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and other technologies that are cheaper.
“It’s a baby step, but it’s a baby step that will be remembered if the industry ever develops into a mature industry,” David Morrow, the director of research for the Institute for Carbon Removal Law and Policy at American University, told Yahoo News.
https://news.yahoo.com/what-icelands-landmark-carbon-removal-project-means-for-the-fight-against-climate-change-201900746.html