Judging Category
Basic or Experimental Research
Student Rank
Graduate
College
Sciences and Mathematics
Faculty Sponsor
Jianfeng Xu jxu.astate.edu
Description
Chronic diseases, such as inflammatory bowel diseases, require patients’ commitment to their treatment, which can be challenging over time. Edible plants could help address this challenge by acting as living factories that produce a range of drugs, including medicinal proteins. Patients could eat the plants because their cells have a sturdy outer layer that protects and helps deliver the medicine. Lettuce is an example of a common vegetable that can serve this purpose. The main goal of this project is to develop a medicinal protein production and oral delivery system using lettuce plants. We will build a small version of an antibody, called a single-chain variable fragment (scFv), capable of reducing inflammation by targeting tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFα), a key inflammatory mediator. To begin, we will use a laboratory bacterium called E. coli to produce different versions of the scFv in large quantities and evaluate their ability to bind TNFα. After identifying the most effective version, we will introduce its gene into lettuce plants to enable stable protein production. This project will establish an efficient protein production and delivery system using lettuce plants, adaptable for other medicinal proteins in the future. Ultimately, this system will benefit patients by providing an affordable, safe, and practical oral medicine, improving treatment consistency and quality of life.
Disciplines
Biotechnology | Plant Biology
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Balmaceda, Carlos E.; Goyal, Megha; and Pal, Anubhav, "Producing Oral Medicines in Lettuce to Fight Chronic Diseases" (2026). Create@State. 49.
https://arch.astate.edu/evn-createstate/2026/posters/49
Included in
Producing Oral Medicines in Lettuce to Fight Chronic Diseases
Chronic diseases, such as inflammatory bowel diseases, require patients’ commitment to their treatment, which can be challenging over time. Edible plants could help address this challenge by acting as living factories that produce a range of drugs, including medicinal proteins. Patients could eat the plants because their cells have a sturdy outer layer that protects and helps deliver the medicine. Lettuce is an example of a common vegetable that can serve this purpose. The main goal of this project is to develop a medicinal protein production and oral delivery system using lettuce plants. We will build a small version of an antibody, called a single-chain variable fragment (scFv), capable of reducing inflammation by targeting tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFα), a key inflammatory mediator. To begin, we will use a laboratory bacterium called E. coli to produce different versions of the scFv in large quantities and evaluate their ability to bind TNFα. After identifying the most effective version, we will introduce its gene into lettuce plants to enable stable protein production. This project will establish an efficient protein production and delivery system using lettuce plants, adaptable for other medicinal proteins in the future. Ultimately, this system will benefit patients by providing an affordable, safe, and practical oral medicine, improving treatment consistency and quality of life.
