How to Apply
Interested in participating in this research project? Contact the professor or graduate student listed below.
Professor
Dr. Ajay Mahajan (Mechanical/Biomedical Engineering) | majay@uakron.edu
Graduate Student
Padmini Selvaganesan | ps120@zips.uakron.edu
Project Description
This project entails developing plant based vaccines using smart genomics. Vaccines are essential for protecting all segments of the civilian population from pandemic influenza to other emerging infectious diseases. This work, in particular, supports advanced development activities of medical countermeasures for influenza and other respiratory viruses, with cost effective approaches that improve pandemic influenza preparedness and rapid response capabilities. The use of genomic technologies to create the vaccines in lettuce a) improves vaccine effectiveness, b) modernizes production processes to decrease response time, c) increases and diversifies sustainable domestic vaccine manufacturing infrastructure, and d) creates simpler delivery approaches that are more amenable to mass vaccinations in a response event, especially delivery to at-risk populations such as children, pregnant women, the elderly, and persons with compromised immune systems. The project includes developing genomic constructs, printing them, then growing the plants, extracting the vaccines and conducting animal trials.
Project Date
Spring 2020
Search Terms
Biomedical, Smart Genomics, Vaccines, Non-Credit, Funded, Non-Funded, STEM