Plant-Derived Collagen: Growing Human Protein in a Greenhouse
Product: Human Collagen from Tobacco Plants Developers: Prof. Oded Shoseyov, Dr. Hanan Stein Company: CollPlant Start of Development: 2004
Advanced technology occasionally provides a rare glimpse into the future world of medicine - CollPlant is a wonderful example. In 2005, the company became the first in the world to successfully manufacture Type-1 collagen from genetically engineered tobacco plants.
Since its foundation in 2004, CollPlant has sought to realize a vision of using plants to produce safe and efficient materials for human medical use. The people behind this pioneering development are the company’s founder Prof. Oded Shoseyov, Dr. Hanan Stein, and entrepreneurs Yehuda Zafrir and the late Zvika Rubenstein.
Type-1 collagen was chosen because of its medical importance and due to the need for a safer and more efficient product than the existing alternative that is customarily produced from animal and human corpses. Collagen is the main structural protein within the connective tissues (i.e. bones, cartilage, skin, tendons etc.).
It is the most common protein in mammals and makes up 30 percent of the protein mass in the human body. The manufacture of human Type-1 collagen from tobacco plants necessitates the parallel expression of five human genes. The processes of growing the engineered tobacco plants, isolating the procollagen molecule from the plants and its transformation into collagen, are a world first and protected by patents. The quality of the collagen produced from the tobacco plants and its advantages over collagen produced from corpses has been proven in both laboratory and clinical trials.
In 2017, CollPlant began marketing two medical devices based on its specially developed collagen: VergenixFG and VergenixSTR. The first product is intended for healing chronic and surgical wounds, and the second is intended for treating tendinopathy (tendon inflammation). These products are used by many hospitals and leading clinics in Europe and Israel and provide welcome relief for many patients.
While still engaged in the development of additional collagenbased products for the world of medicine, CollPlant is at the same time involved in an intriguing and potentially lucrative application. The company has developed a new version of collagen that is used in 3D printing – a kind of “biological ink” – and is currently collaborating with several international corporations in the development of life-saving organs such as a liver, kidney, pancreas and lungs, and tissues such as corneas, skin, cartilage, blood vessels and others.
