Novel products include those not traditionally associated with plants and are limited only by imagination and currently available techniques. These include the production of plastics, vaccines, antibodies, human blood proteins, and new pharmaceuticals. One project has involved the production of hepatitis В vaccine in transgenic tomatoes. This project, which underwent clinical trials in the late 1990's, has the potential to provide a simple and inexpensive means of vaccinating people against hepatitis B. By oral administration of tomato juice containing the vaccine protein, humans are thought to develop an immune response that may protect them from infection by the hepatitis В virus. Hepatitis В is epidemic in Asia and increasing at an alarming rate in the rest of the world. The disease ultimately causes liver disease, cancer, and death in millions of infected people.
See also: Genetic Engineering, Public Concern
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