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Norwich-based researchers are developing new approaches to healthcare using…viruses?! See how understanding the structure of viruses is helping scientists build nanomachines to fight disease, and learn how engineering plants to produce virus lookalikes could be the future of fighting viral threats such as Zika and Ebola.
Just Eat Your Greens - A New Way of Vaccinating?
Professor George Lomonossoff
(Project Leader of Biological Chemistry at the John Innes Centre)
Vaccination continues to be a highly effective way of preventing disease. It relies on administering a non-infectious mimic of the disease-causing organism. This stimulates the production of antibodies in the recipient that can protect against the actual disease. The problem is how to produce the mimics? At JIC, we have been using plants to produce lookalikes of a variety of different viruses and have shown that these can act as effective experimental vaccines. So, maybe instead of a jab you will just have to eat your greens to be vaccinated.
20,000 Leagues Under the Microscope: Viruses & Nanomachines
Roger Castells-Graells
(PhD Student at the John Innes Centre )
Why is it important to understand the structure of viruses? How can viruses help us to build nanomachines? Can research and viruses fight diseases? Travel with us to the amazing nanoworld of viruses and discover how scientists are using them to build knowledge and new tools.
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