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• Processing familiarity – Milling, drying, and
packaging are standardized, affordable, and widely
accessible.
• Regulatory familiarity – Many national biosafety
agencies already have frameworks for evaluating
genetically modified rice for food or feed use,
providing a head start for therapeutic applications.

In essence, rice allows biologics to piggyback on existing
infrastructure—a shortcut through the logistical and
regulatory hurdles that typically slow biologic deployment
in lower-income countries.

This is not just about expression systems. It’s about
biologic diplomacy through food systems.

A Legacy of Oral Tolerance

Rice has also played a quiet but important role in the
development of tolerizing therapies, especially in allergy
and autoimmunity models.

Because rice is:

• Low in endogenous allergens
• Easily digestible
• And naturally viewed by the immune system as
benign

…it creates an ideal substrate for delivering autoantigens or
allergens in a form that induces immune tolerance rather
than activation.

Studies have shown that rice-based expression of:

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