UC Davis Work Will Improve Mass Production Of Ebola Drugs
DAVIS (CBS13) — UC Davis has unveiled a new technology to mass produce a drug that treats Ebola, potentially saving millions of lives.
Researchers at the lab develop technology that can mass produce drugs, and they're using that capability in the fight against Ebola.
It looks like a basic laboratory, equipped with test tubes and glass flasks. But it's where tools are being used to create a revolutionary technology designed to be the next weapon against Ebola.
Abhaya Dandekar is a lead researcher at the UC Davis lab, and he's part of the team just awarded $200,000 to ramp up production of the anti-Ebola drug ZMapp.
"At this point, we are using antibodies that have been shown to work well," he said.
The drug was developed by a San Diego lab, and it was used to treat West African medical workers during last year's Ebola outbreak. But the drug supply quickly ran out.
Dandekar's team expects to create a new system to make millions of doses quickly.
The new method reprograms plants to make the drug more efficiently.
"Those bacteria are used to infect the plant cell cultures. and the plant cell cultures become a factory to start producing," he said.
Students say the process makes them hopeful when it comes to battling other infectious diseases.
Once the system is fully developed, it'll move onto manufacturing, and eventually be taken to a bioreactor facility somewhere in the United States.
Researched say the technique could potentially be applied to other drugs used to treat killer diseases.