Plant Biotechnology for Health

Dr María Alejandra Alvarez completed her studies at the Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina. She graduated in Biochemistry in 1981, and Pharmacy in 1995, obtained a MS on Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology in 1986 and a PhD on Plant Biotechnology in 1994. She was lecturer in grade and post grade courses of Botany, Pharmacobotany, Biotechnology, Food Biotechnology and Galenic Pharmacy at Universidad de Buenos Aires, Universidad Nacional de La Plata and Universidad Maimónides. Dr Alvarez started working on the production of compounds of pharmaceutical interest in in vitro plant cultures in 1986, being the author of numerous scientific articles. Her research interests include chemotaxonomy, medicinal plants, production of secondary metabolites and molecular farming. Currently, she is a member of the National Council of Research and Technology (CONICET) from Argentina, Professor of Pharmacobotany and Pharmacognoscy and director of the Plant Biotechnology Group at Universidad Maimónides and Professor of Biology at Colegio Divino Corazón.

Plants for Health: from secondary metabolites to molecular farming .- Plants for Health.- Plant Secondary Metabolism.- In Vitro Plant Cultures as Biofactories.- Solasodine production in Solanum eleagnifolium in vitro cultures.- Molecular Farming in Plants.- The Antibody 14D9 as an Experimental Model for Molecular Farming.- Expression of the Potentially Immunogenic Truncated Glycoprotein E2 (from Viral Bovine Diarrhoea Virus) in Nicotiana Tabacum.- Mathematical Modelling in Recombinant Plant Systems: The Challenge to Produce Heterologous Proteins under GLP/GMP.