Politics is my first love, but science is a close second. So it’s a good day for me when the two intersect, as they did today in Research Triangle Park. Governor Bev Perdue, Senator Richard Burr, and Congressman David Price were on hand for this morning’s ribbon-cutting at Medicago, a Quebec-based vaccine maker that’s figured out how to use tobacco plants to produce flu vaccine – bringing in 85 jobs and $11 million in investment along the way. The new facility is dominated by a 97,000 square foot greenhouse, pretty much fully automated. Huge flats of thousands of tobacco plants move slowly through the climate-controlled greenhouse, growing for a little over four weeks before they’re ready to be used to make vaccines.
