Molecular farming

Molecular farming is the use of plants for the production of value-added recombinant proteins such as antibodies, subunit vaccines, and enzymes. Many different molecular farming systems have been described, but commercial platforms are consolidating in three main areas: transgenic plants, cell and tissue cultures, and transient expression systems. This article summarizes the principles of molecular farming, the major platforms and their advantages, the technical advances that have helped to optimize the yield and quality of recombinant proteins, the control of posttranslational modification, and the most important aspects of downstream processing. The article also describes strategies that have been used to simplify process optimization and accelerate the development and regulatory approval of commercial processes based on recombinant proteins produced in plants