While the debate over biopharming — the growth of pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines in crops — continues, Iowa State is helping advance research in the area.

Kan Wang, associate professor of agronomy and director of the plant transformation facility, is developing a corn plant along with other ISU researchers that carries a vaccine for E. coli bacteria, which could be used for animals or humans.

For seven years, Wang has been developing genetically altered corn that holds a gene that carries a vaccine for E. coli bacteria. She has grown it in Iowa for three years and has begun growing it in Colorado.

Wang develops the E. coli vaccine in corn similarly to how normal vaccines are developed.

In corn plants, Wang takes the critical component of the E. coli bacteria that gives immunity and inserts it into the corn plant’s genes.

Ethical concerns come with the territory in biopharming. Kristin Hessler, bioethics outreach coordinator in biotechnology, said that there are several ethical objections to biopharming.

Some argue biopharming — or any work that pertains to altering genes — is wrong.

Another common objection is that there is not enough long-term research yet to prove that biopharming is safe.

Yet another concern is the containment and separation of genetically altered crops from other crops in fields.

In November 2002, the biotechnology company ProdiGene may have allowed the experimental genetically altered corn to mix with non-altered crops in Nebraska and Iowa, according to a June 2 Washington Post article. The company was fined and destroyed nearly 500,000 bushels of soybeans that may have been infected by the genetically altered corn.

Wang said she knows that her product is safe because of all the research she and others have done on it.

“Fruit crops are a very safe system compared to bacteria, where vaccines are usually produced, that can become infected,” Wang said.

No human has contracted a disease from fruit crops, Wang said, which is why she contends the corn she is producing is safe.

Wang said she would not be researching the altered corn if it were not safe.

The advantages, Wang said, definitely outweigh the concerns. She said corn can be grown in large quantities and fairly fast, producing large number of plants that hold the vaccine for the E. coli bacteria protecting many animals and humans from the disease.

Paul Scott, assistant professor of agronomy, has helped Wang on some of her research.

He has worked in biopharming for about six years.

Scott has his own project that includes improving the nutritional quality of corn fed to swine.

As part of his own project, Scott has made a synthetic gene that produces sow’s milk, which is known for having a high protein level.

He then sends this gene to the ISU plant transformation facility, where researchers insert the gene into the corn’s genetic makeup.

However, Scott said he believes some people are overestimating the gains of biopharming.

“A lot of people overstate the benefits of it. It is not applicable for every drug on the market,” Scott said.

Right now, Wang said the drug has to be a protein because genes are proteins, and proteins must be replaced with protein.

Wang has faced some opposition to her new genetically altered corn plant in Colorado.

Some national and local environmental organizations, such as Greenpeace, are opposed to the brand of research and development it represents.

It is hard to predict what will happen with biopharming because of both scientific and political opposition, Scott said. But some agricultural companies, such as Monsanto, are buying into it.

Hessler said it is hard convincing the general public genetically engineered food crops are safe because there is not any convincing evidence it is safe.

“If you can convince people that biopharming is safe, you might see it take off,” Hessler said.