on the other hand, areincapable of replication in mammalian hosts,
present low immuno genicity and
toxicity,
are easier to manufacture and have highshelf stability (Prather et al., 2003). The usefulness of such plasmidbiopharmaceuticals in the context of gene therapy and DNA vacci-nation is being extensively evaluated in animal and human studies(Kutzler and Weiner, 2008). Plasmid-mediated transient transfec-tions are also gaining popularity when it comes to the productionof recombinant proteins due to the reduced development timelinesrequired when compared with stable transfected cell lines