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| Photo: Ben Dugdale |
The tobacco plant is being offered the chance to redeem itself, thanks to ground-breaking research by Queensland scientist and Smart State Fellow, Dr Benjamin Dugdale.
Queensland stopped having a good relationship with the tobacco plant a long time ago. Worldwide awareness of the health risks of smoking decreased demand and devastated the North Queensland tobacco industry. But that may all be about to change.
Dr Dugdale and his team have modified the tobacco plant to produce large quantities of human vitronectin – a protein used in pharmaceuticals for wound and tissue repair.
"We can take vitronectin from tobacco plants instead of human blood plasma at a fraction of the cost and without the risk of blood-borne pathogens like viruses," Dr Dugdale said.
"Tobacco-related diseases are a major cause of death worldwide so to use the crop to better human health will be a major innovation."
Dr Dugdale is just one recipient of the Smart State Premier’s Fellowships scheme which provides funding of up to $150,000 over three years for our best and brightest innovators to broaden the Queensland economy with scientific initiatives.
The Queensland University of Technology (QUT) PhD graduate researched disease resistance in bananas as well as banana-based edible vaccines before developing ‘In Plant Activation’ – the technology used to modify the genes of the tobacco plant.
Dr Dugdale said the tobacco plant is well suited to producing vitronectin on a large scale because it is easily modified genetically, fast growing and produces a large amount of plant material.
He said this research could create a whole new frontier in applications, with biofarming having unlimited potential as a method of producing a vast range of therapeutics, pharmaceuticals (eg antibodies, growth hormones, and auto-antigens), industrial enzymes and even vaccines.
Biofarming tobacco plants is a potential boon for the North Queensland tobacco industry which was one of two major Australian suppliers of tobacco before ceasing production in 2003.
Queensland has a rich cultural heritage of tobacco farming with the local tobacco industry, at its peak, pumping up to $50 million a year into the Queensland economy.
"Tobacco-based biofarming may revive a rich culture of tobacco farming in northern Queensland, this time for the benefits of human health," he said.
Contact: b.dugdale@qut.edu.au
Last reviewed 3 April 2007