A gardener-scientist doctor is trying to harness the power of the tobacco plant - the main ingredient of cigarettes - to cure dreaded, deadly diseases. A molecular immunologist named Audrey Teh has a mission: she wants to use tobacco and convert it into a producer of potent medical drugs.
Skylab at a hospital
She works at St George's Hospital at the University of London. She also has a greenhouse known as Skylab on the hospital's top floor. There, she grows plants that number in the hundreds.
Sadly, about 90 percent of them were lost from March to June due to the pandemic, as the greenhouse was forced to close. However, they have regrown the plants since then, and their experiments have been resumed and are now ongoing.
Using tobacco for antibody production
Teh is using tobacco plants for the production of antibodies in the development of drugs that can combat various diseases, including COVID-19 and cancer.
This is done by introducing genes that code for the proteins of the pharmaceutical products, along with the plants that produce them.
The laboratory then develops these pharmaceuticals produced by the plants until it reaches the pre-clinical stage. Once a promising product has been demonstrated, the work is then transferred to collaborators who can conduct clinical trials in humans. Teh's lab cannot do this because they do not have the proper regulatory license.
It is an approach that is a lot cheaper than the route taken by industrial systems. The latter relies on mammalian and human cell cultures, which can be prohibitive in terms of cost. Thus, this approach is more ideal in developing countries.
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Dr. Teh and her passion
Dr. Teh says she is passionate about plants' potential to create medicines that can be produced cheaply, especially in those countries with an already established agricultural expertise. She hails from Malaysia, a nation which she says does not have a state system of health care.
She has seen families lose their savings and become bankrupt due to their medical expenses. It will make her glad when countries are capable of producing their cheap pharmaceutical products.
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The Skylab
Dr. Teh also occupies a typical laboratory on St. George Hospital's second floor, apart from Skylab. She is always excited to leave the setting of her hospital workplace every day and retire to the comfort of her vibrant and relaxing greenhouse and tend her plants.
Dr. Teh gets to have her Zen moments when she is with her plants. From the rooftop of the hospital, her view is spectacular, with central London being visible on good days despite being 11 kilometers from the hospital.
Tobacco project
Aside from the opportunity to contribute to the health of the public, Dr Teh is also excited about her latest project because tobacco has a bad legacy on human health, being implicated in dreaded human diseases caused by smoking.
If she can test and use tobacco in the production of drugs against cancer and other dreaded diseases, then tobacco will have a chance to reform its image, because after all, it is just another plant.
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