Os perigos dos transgénicos

Edible vaccine for HIV AIDS

Dr. Shchelkunov's laboratory teamed up with other Russian scientists from both the Novosibirsk Institute of Biological Chemistry and Basic Medicine, and the Siberian Institute of Plant Physiology and Biochemistry in Irkutsk, Russia. A functional vaccine from their work is still to be tested, but as a result of project 2176 the researchers were able to insert into the chromosome of tomato plants a gene from HIV. Furthermore, they were able to show that the corresponding protein product from the HIV gene was expressed in different parts of the transgenic tomato plant including ripe fruit. And, because this is a vaccine based on a single protein from HIV, there is no risk of acquiring an HIV infection from eating the tomato fruit.