When Ebola’s fever begins to rage, The prognosis isn’t nice, Monoclonal antibodies are needed from three mice. The mice must first become exposed to a weakened viral strain. Their antibodies harvested and combined with those of man. Strangely the proteins that we need are grown best in a ****. A modified tobacco plant will do the job indeed. The serum, that derives from plants, had not had human trials. (but eight of ten young chimpanzees endorse what’s in that vial.) Our missionaries, sick unto death were clearly in no position to refuse to try the medicine that might provide remission. Their rebound was miraculous. To Atlanta now they fly. Man finds himself in debt to a mouse. “Good job, little guy!”
Mapp is a biotech company that produces the serum that has apparently saved two American missionaries from the Ebola virus. Their approach involves recombinant DNA to harvest antibodies from mice exposed to fragments of a dead ebola virus. Tobacco plants are used as a host to grow the monoclonal antibodies in volume to produce the serum