Source: Cullen Browder, WRAL, 6/25/20

 A weed could become a life-saver against the coronavirus. Canadian biopharmaceutical company Medicago, which has developed vaccines for the swine flu and the seasonal flu, was recruited to the U.S. by the Department of Defense to create a vaccine for a pandemic influenza. The company, which has a manufacturing plant in Research Triangle Park, has now shifted its focus to coronavirus. Unlike traditional vaccines, which use dead viruses, Medicago essentially makes clones of the coronavirus by injecting the genetic sequence of the coronavirus into Nicotiana benthamiana, a relative of the tobacco plant.

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