Makhzoum Abdullah, Venkataraman Srividhya, Tremouillaux-Guiller Jocelyne, Hefferon Kathleen
Cell and Systems Biology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada..
Recent Pat Food Nutr Agric. 2016;8(2):82-90. doi: 10.2174/2212798408666161101102236.
Agricultural biotechnology, including the generation of genetically modified food crops, has been the subject of much controversy over the last few years. Initially serving the basic needs of farmers, Ag Biotech has more recently gained much appeal for its opportunities with respect to both the nutritional and pharmaceutical sciences.
The following review describes a number of recently approved patents that could have direct implications for the field of medicine. Topics range from the development of pharmaceuticals in plants using hairy roots or virus expression vectors, to the role of epigenetics for improving the nutritional value of food crops.
Many of these patents were developed by smaller companies or publically funded research institutes, disproving the perception that intellectual property in Ag Biotech is restricted to only large multinational corporations.
The review concludes with a discussion of the future of these technologies in the face of the current negative political climate.
包括转基因粮食作物培育在内的农业生物技术在过去几年一直备受争议。农业生物技术最初是为满足农民的基本需求而发展起来的，最近在营养科学和制药科学领域的应用机会使其更具吸引力。
以下综述介绍了一些最近获批的专利，这些专利可能对医学领域产生直接影响。主题涵盖利用毛状根或病毒表达载体在植物中开发药物，以及表观遗传学在提高粮食作物营养价值方面的作用。
这些专利中有许多是由较小的公司或公共资助的研究机构开发的，这反驳了农业生物技术领域的知识产权仅为大型跨国公司所垄断的观点。
综述最后讨论了在当前负面政治氛围下这些技术的未来发展。
