NEW DELHI : Scientists in India plan to shortly begin clinical trials of a plant-based vaccine against covid-19, which could become one of the world’s first such vaccines against the deadly disease.
A senior official at India’s plant genome research body said scientists are studying the plant Nicotiana benthamiana, a relative of tobacco, to develop a platform to make covid-related antigens to trigger immune response against the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes covid-19.
Three research groups at the National Institute of Plant Genome Research (NIPGR), New Delhi, under the department of biotechnology, ministry of science and technology, in association with the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB) in New Delhi,