A REVOLUTIONARY Polio vaccine which can be produced inside living plants has been developed in Oxfordshire with funding from Microsoft founder Bill Gates.

A team of scientists have found a way of getting tobacco plants to produce 'fake virus' particles, almost identical to the real thing but completely harmless, which can be injected into humans to trick the immune system into a protective reaction against the real Polio virus.

It is hoped this new defence could be a major step towards global eradication of the disease.

The research group, who were partly funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, were led by Professor Dave Rowlands from the University of Leeds and included Dave Stuart of Oxfordshire University.

They were able to develop their technique by using the super-powerful microscope at Harwell's Diamond Light Source laboratory to get a clear look at the structure of their plant-produced 'empty virus shells'.

Using the high-power microscopy they were able to confirm the structure of the tiny particles and show the external features of the 'fake virus' particles were identical to those of the Polio virus.

This means that they stimulate the immune system reaction without actually causing an infection.

The breakthrough was made by employing technology that helped in the design of a new synthetic vaccine to combat the foot and mouth disease virus (FMDV) to target the virus that causes polio.

Professor Stuart, who is director of life sciences at Diamond and Professor of Structural Biology at University of Oxford, explained: "We were inspired by the successful synthetic vaccine for foot-and-mouth disease, also investigated at Diamond as part of UK research collaboration.

"By using Diamond’s visualisation capabilities and the expertise of Oxford University in structural analysis and computer simulation, we were able to visualise something a billion times smaller than a pinhead and further enhance the design atom by atom of the empty shells.

"Through information gained at Diamond, we also verified that these have essentially the same structure as the native virus to ensure an appropriate immune response."