Doctoral candidate
University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine
Title - Debulking of SARS-CoV-2 And Influenza Virus Strains by Plant Viral Trap Proteins in Chewing Gums to Decrease Infection and Transmission
- Dr. Smruti Nair, MDS (Periodontics), MS (Biomedical Engineering)
Doctoral Student at The Unversity of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine
An affordable tool in the form of chewing gum tablets to fight the Contagion - My research primarily involves limiting transmission of oral pathogens by a revolutionary chewing gum technology platform. We use the "viral trap approach" using chewing gums infused with transgenic plant protein. The gum represents the first Investigational New Drug submission for a human therapeutic protein drug that completely abolishes the prohibitively expensive processes of fermentation, cold chain or protein purification. This major milestone in drug production and delivery was achieved because of expressing the proteins in plants which reduces the costs dramatically. The ACE2 gum which is the first protein based chewing gum has received the FDA approval which has paved the way for Phase I/II Clinical Trials. This is a novel approach to put an end to globle health inequity and provide affordable health solutions to developing areas round the globe, where accessibility to medical treatments remain a distant dream.
Links for peer reviewed publications, clinical trial and related You Tube video are provided below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9dh_6-3Gkg
https://dimensionsplus.altmetric.com/details/132860493/news
https://dimensionsplus.altmetric.com/details/116672074/news