Trial approved for blood protein cultivated in rice

WUHAN - China's food and drug authority has approved a clinical trial of human blood protein cultivated in transgenic rice seeds, which could lead to large-scale production of much-needed blood plasma.

Plasma is widely used in surgeries as a temporary blood replacement. It contains human serum albumin, a protein that is naturally produced in the liver.

Now a Chinese research team, led by bioengineer Yang Daichang, has come up with a way to use rice seeds to synthesize plasma.