Icon Genetics announces the publication in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of USA (S. Marillonnet et al., PNAS, 101, 6852-6857, May 4, 2004 ) of a first of a series of research papers describing a new generation expression technology for plants developed by Icon Genetics researchers. The technology. The paper summarizes a novel efficient and user-friendly technology that is based on the use of proviral RNA vectors to quickly reprogram plant biosynthesis in favour of expression of the recombinant protein of interest. The vectors are delivered to leaf cells as DNA precursors by Agrobacterium-mediated transfection, and rapidly spread throughout the entire plant by cell-to-cell or systemic movement. This process is essentially the backbone of Icon’s R&D platform.
