The Texas Plant-Expressed Vaccine Consortium is an American research partnership based in College Station, Texas. It is a joint venture between the Texas A&M University System and G-CON.[1]
History
In the summer of 2009, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) solicited proposals for vaccine options made from plants in preparation for "outbreaks of infectious disease and bioterrorist acts." The Texas Plant-Expressed Vaccine Consortium submitted a proposal.[2]
On February 24, 2010, the consortium announced Project GreenVax, "a biotherapeutic manufacturing initiative" intended to "dramatically increase the nation’s capability to produce vaccines for infectious diseases" using tobacco plants to grow vaccines against influenza and other diseases.[3] The consortium budgeted $21 million into the project, supplementing the primary $40 million in funding from DARPA.[1:1][4]
Greenemeier, L. (2010, March 1). Could Mini Labs and Plant-Based Vaccines Stop the Next Pandemic? Scientific American. https://web.archive.org/web/20230828184008/https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/h1n1-plant-vaccine/ ↩︎ ↩︎
Ackerman, T. (2010, February 24). Vaccine project someday could bring 4,000 jobs to Texas. Chron; The Houston Chronicle. http://archive.today/2023.08.28-185307/https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/vaccine-project-someday-could-bring-4-000-jobs-to-1609360.php ↩︎
Cook, J., Davis, R., & Haigwood, P. (2010, February 24). Texas-Based Consortium Announces Project GreenVax. Texas A&M University. https://web.archive.org/web/20110326143014/http://tamunews.tamu.edu:80/2010/02/24/texas-based-consortium-announces-project-greenvax/ ↩︎
White, J. A. (2010, February 24). What Tobacco Plants Have to Do With Swine-Flu Vaccine. Wall Street Journal. http://archive.today/2023.08.28-184402/https://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/BL-HEB-30365 ↩︎
