Research Notes

Researchers look to potatoes for hepatitis vaccine

Researchers have completed preliminary research on the development of a potato that would serve as a vaccine for Hepatitis B.

The team, led by Hugh Mason at Cornell University's Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research, developed a genetically modified potato with specific proteins that stimulates the production of antibodies in the blood.

The initial tests performed on mice helped show the feasibility of producing a potent hepatitis B vaccine in food, but the scientists are now focusing on strengthening the immune response triggered by the potato vaccine.

Hepatitis B affects more than 2 billion people worldwide and is transferred sexually. The disease can cause complications of the liver that may lead to liver failure and death.

A vaccine for the disease is currently available in an injection, but the cost is too expensive for developing countries. The cost of the potatoes are expected to be significantly cheaper.

The study was published in the November issue of the journal Nature Biotechnology.

Older surgeons have higher patient mortality rate

A new study published in the journal Neurology found that older surgeons, who have been performing a common operation to prevent strokes for more than 20 years, had a higher patient mortality than younger, less-experienced surgeons.

About one out of 100 patients died who received the operation, known as a carotid endarterectomy, by an older physician.

But, the research team, led by Liam O'Neill of Cornell University, found that experience should not be discounted. Surgeons who did the operation once a year or less were three times more likely to have their patients die.

Once the surgeon had done the operation at least three times in two years, they did not have a larger-than-average risk of the patient dying.

The researchers studied information on nearly 13,000 operations performed by 532 surgeons during a two-year period in Pennsylvania.

The team speculates that the reason the older doctors carry a higher mortality rate is due to not keeping up with the latest techniques and improvements.

Researchers at Oregon State University have found that male snakes use the right-side of their body more often than the left-side and have concluded that the snakes are right-handed.

Study asserts snakes have body side preferences

Robert Mason and Mike LeMaster of OSU studied more than 400 garter snakes that they found dead from suffocation in Manitoba, Canada.

The scientists weighed the snakes and measured their internal and external organs. They found that garter snakes tended to have larger hemipenes, kidneys and testes on the right side.

OSU researchers used the unexpected size differences in the data they found to form the hypothesis that garter snakes use the right hemipenes more than the left, and that the male is more likely to use his right-side than his left in certain circumstances.

The scientists are yet to find any practical applications for their research but think that it might help in future research of human hand-preferences.

- Compiled by Daily Staff Reporter Lindsey Alpert from wire reports.