(J. Tregoning, The Lancet, 2020) ========================================================================== A new flu vaccine grown in plants has been put to the test in two large-scale clinical trials, a first for vaccine research. The vaccine contained virus-like particles which resembled circulating flu strains, extracted from native Australian tobacco relatives that were genetically instructed to produce the viral proteins. The two trials combined involved nearly 23,000 people and the results suggest that the plant-derived vaccine is not only safe, but comparable to current commercial flu vaccines. "To the best of our knowledge, these studies and the clinical development programme that preceded them are the largest...