Discovery and engineering of therapeutic proteins in plants

Research Interests:

There is a rapidly-growing interest on the part of the public as well as in the medical community in the role food plays in health, especially in the immunophysiological impact of food over and above the role of basic nutrition. As a result, there is an expanding opportunity and need for those working in plant biology to conduct research in a broader scientific and social context than in the past. Such research requires a multidisciplinary approach and, despite the potential for discovery and wider relevance of such research, there are not many examples of plant scientists straying far beyond the boundaries of their disciplines to collaborate with colleagues, for example, in the medical community. Yet, the significance of plant-based food and feed products far exceeds that of providing the biochemical building blocks for humans and their animals. Many constituents of food have both a beneficial and harmful impact on health through effects on the immune, endocrine, nervous, circulatory and digestive systems. Our long-term goal is to combine the understanding of animal physiology, protein biochemistry and plant biology to form multidisciplinary teams dedicated to the discovery and engineering of feed/food proteins of veterinary and medical significance, with particular emphasis on intestinal disease.

 

Selected Publications:

Erickson, L.R., B. McBride, C. DeLange, E. Nagy, W. Yu, T. Tuboly, S. Du, J. Zhang and A. Bailey. (2001). “Production & Delivery of Therapeutic Peptides in Plants”. In: Erickson, L. & Yu, W. (eds.) Molecular Farming of Plants and Animals for Application in Human and Veterinary Medicine. Kluwer.

Erickson, L.R., E. Nagy, W. Yu, T. Tuboly, S. Du, J. Zhang and A. Bailey. (2001). Edible Vaccines in Plants for Livestock Pathogens. In: Annual Review Series for Molecular Farming (J. Brandle J. & C. Karatzas, eds.) Kluwer.

Tuboly, T., W.J. Yu, A. Bailey, S. DeGrandis, S. Du, L.R. Erickson and E. Nagy. (2000). Immunogenicity of porcine transmissible gastroenteritis virus spike protein expressed in plants. Vaccine 18:2023-28.

Wu, Y., F. Pereira, X. Qiu and L.R. E rickson. (1998). A comparison of the promoter regions of three pollen-specific genes in alfalfa. Sex Plant Reprod. 11:181-182.

Qiu, X., Y. Wu, S. Du, L.R. E rickson. (1996). A new arabinogalactan-like gene expressed in the pollen of alfalfa. Plant Science 124: 41-47.