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Researchers at the University of Cape Town’s Biopharming Research Institute (BRU) have
created a promising new vaccine candidate to help prevent the devastating effects of African
Horse Sickness (AHS). And they’re producing it in tobacco plants.
The ability to grow vaccines in plants has been developed at the University of Cape Town’s (UCT) Biopharming Research Unit (BRU) in the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, A hydroponic farm in Cape Town where plants are being grown to produce vaccines, along with the story behind BRU's research and development, sparked the interest of MNet's Carte Blanche television programme, which featured the progress on Sunday, 18 November 2018.
CRISPR technology has been a revolutionary breakthrough for scientist's and promises to facilitate massive advances in combating disease and genetic disorders as well as being a valuable tool for research. However, there may be a dark side to this technology which is something scientists are hotly debating. Fiona McDonald of Marie Claire investigated the subject in their article "Should Scientists Be Playing God" (Marie Claire, September 2016) and interviewed MCB's Prof. Nicci Illing regarding the South African perspective.