By Crayon Zhang

The production of pharmaceutical products in plant cells has been given a
boost after the European Union ploughed $ 8.8 million into a research
programme.
The funding was awarded to the SmartCell project, which aims to manipulate
plant cells to produce commercially viable yields of pharmacologically
active secondary metabolites. VTT Technical Research Centre - the
collaboration between 14 leading European research institutes and five
enterprises of varying sizes - will be coordinating the project.

Kirsi-Marja Oksman-Caldentey, project coordinator and chief research
scientist, VTT, said, ''The opportunities offered by plant biotechnology
could be much more extensively exploited in the pharmaceuticals industry.
The latest research methods can be used to intensify production of valuable
agents in plant cells. In a way, plant cells could become real green
factories.''

The research aims to manipulate the plant cell's secondary metabolite
synthesis pathway to produce sufficient yield of a pharmacologically active
compound.
www.checkbiotech.org