Plant Designer: A Biodesign Here Now exhibition at the London Design Festival 2018<br/> What if your local farmer could grow the medicine you need? What if plants could become biological factories that produce substances and molecules needed in everyday life? And if you could do it, what kind of plant would you design?Designing plants is no longer a utopian fantasy, and the technology required to make it happen is actually already being used. One of the first examples is the redesign of tobacco to become a plant that is actually healthy! 18 September 2018 - 23 September 2018 United Kingdom © University of the Arts London The exhibition "Plant Designer" introduces the aims, goals and cutting-edge technologies used by two large European research projects (Newcotiana and Pharma-Factory) to allow tobacco plants to produce substances that are, in fact, healthy for you.Plant molecular farming is a young branch of biotechnology working with engineered or specifically bred plants, to produce large quantities of industrial, cosmetic or pharmaceutical substances – including skin moisturizer, antibodies and vaccines. In comparison with the chemical industry, they promise to be much more cost effective, sustainable and accessible.The technologies used in Newcotiana and Pharma-Factory include New Plant Breeding Technologies or NPBTs (Newcotiana) or classic engineering techniques (Pharma-Factory). Recently, some NPBTs have been discussed in the media, and "Plant Designer" will serve as a place to find out more about them. They include the so-called CRISPR technique, also known as genome editing, which offers unprecedented opportunities for crop breeding. Other NPBTs that researchers will apply are modern forms of grafting, or infiltration for temporary gene expression.Join us at the London Design Festival "Biodesign Here Now" show at the Open Cell, Old Laundry Yard, Shepherds Bush Market from 18th to 23rd of September 2018. Talk to our scientists, share your plant design ideas, and learn how plants can be designed to become biological factories.Newcotiana and Pharma-Factory have received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation programme under Grant Agreement No 760331 and 774078, respectively.Details about the exhibition: https://www.londondesignfestival.com/event/biodesign-here-now Keywords Molecular Farming, Plants, Algae, Pharmaceuticals, Enzymes, Diagnostics, Recombinant Proteins, Regulation, HIV, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Vaccines, Design, Designing Plants, Redesign
