Scientists get blood protein from rice: What's it for?

(CBS) Maybe you can't get blood from a stone, but how about blood from rice? Scientists have found a way to use rice to "grow" the critical human blood protein albumin, which is used to make vaccines and to treat cirrhosis of the liver and other medical problems.

"It looks like an interesting technological step forward," Dr. Richard J. Benjamin, chief medical officer for the American National Red Cross, told Fox News. "It could potentially produce large quantities in a reasonable time."

How did scientists pull off something that sounds like make-believe? It all started in China, where the protein is in short supply and blood samples are often contaminated.

"That's what prompted me to do something like this," lead researcher Daichang Yang, a plant biotechnologist at China's Wuhan University, told Nature News.

Scientists have used plants to produce albumin for decades, but the yield is often low, Yang said. By inserting an albumin gene into the rice seed, scientists were able to cultivate the protein easily. They were able to get nearly 3 g of the protein for every kilogram of rice - more than enough to produce it in large quantities at comparatively low cost.

"I'm convinced that what they've produced is a good reproduction of the human material," blood researcher Dr. Don Brooks of University of British Columbia in Vancouver, told Nature News.

That means people suffering from medical conditions including severe burns and hemorrhagic shock might have some help coming their way - if testing progresses to the point of FDA approval.

Said Brooks, "They still have to do it in people to be sure it's as safe...but it's looking pretty good."

The pioneering work was described in the Oct. 31 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.