Hortense Dodo was a molecular biology professor at Alabama A&M University when she learned a friend’s daughter had a peanut allergy.
When the friend came over, Dodo could not prepare her peanut butter stew, a popular dish from her native Ivory Coast.
Men around the world who are generic viagra overnight struggling with such a troublesome condition can now be blissful as Kamagra UK uses. Men should in addition online cialis sale believe consuming the accurate vitamin medications to guarantee that the essential nutrients go through the body. Herbal sexual enhancement remedies can be taken by people with ulcers and those who are suffering from sexual or mental debilities, can’t ejaculate semen volume less than 1 ml, are suffering from one or the other kind of physical problem, then you may consider physical therapy as one of the method of the most powerful see for more cialis cipla 20mg and safest that boost penis dimensions, and increase sexual functionality. Storage symptoms include urinary frequency, urgency (compelling ordering levitra from canada need to void that cannot be deferred), urgency incontinence, and voiding at night (nocturia).
The experience prompted her to put into practice what she had long taught her students.
“As a scientist, you identify a problem and use a scientific approach to find solutions to that problem,” Dodo said from her small office and lab in Elizabeth City.
That solution may soon be here: After several years of research, Dodo has developed a patented process to nearly eliminate allergens from peanuts. She is now attempting to market her discovery after founding IngateyGen LLC. Ingatey, pronounced “in-got-a,” is a word for peanut in her West African language, she said.
Dodo just received a federal Small Business Innovation Research grant of $225,000 and a $50,000 grant from the North Carolina Department of Commerce. She works closely with experts from the National Science Foundation and has hired a business consultant.
Dodo’s research has been going on for more than 10 years and has been reviewed by peers, said John Hardin, executive director of the Office of Science, Technology and Innovation at the North Carolina Department of Commerce. To earn the grant, her work had to be examined by other scientists and experts to make sure it’s viable, he said.
“The fact that she was selected for the grant means she has passed a high bar,” Hardin said.
Dodo said she came to Elizabeth City to get in the center of a major peanut-growing region.
A poster of George Washington Carver – developer of over 100 peanut products and an inspiration for Dodo – hangs on her wall. The rest of the space is sparsely decorated. The lab is set up in the back room, where five employees and some seasonal helpers work. A small room where modified plant tissue cultures grow can be entered only while wearing a decontamination suit.
Sporting a lab coat this week, Dodo spoke softly and easily in a strong African accent about her passion, rattling off scientific terms like it was a recipe. She declined to give her age. Her resume says she earned a bachelor’s degree in 1979, then two master’s degrees. In 1992, she received a doctorate in microbiology and food biotechnology from Penn State.
Studies show about 3 million people in the U.S. report allergies to peanuts, and the allergy is spreading, according to the allergy patient advocacy group Food Allergy Research and Education. The number of children with food allergies tripled in the United States between 1997 and 2008.
There are theories about why, including one regarding parents being advised not to feed their babies peanuts. Now, some believe holding off on feeding children peanuts may have caused more allergies, said Ruth Shuman, director of the National Science Foundation program to transition research and innovation to viable businesses.
Shuman is working with a company developing a device that can identify allergens in foods. That could relieve the fears of going to a restaurant to eat, she said.
Dodo said peanuts have three proteins that cause the majority of the reactions. Her process removes nearly all traces from the seed, she said. The seed can grow into mature peanuts nearly free of allergens.
She pointed to an enlarged chart of a microscopic look at the peanut proteins. In the first column of a normal peanut, dark bars show the presence of the allergens. After the removal, the chart shows the dark bars missing where the harmful proteins once were.
Local farmers working with Dodo planted four seasons of altered peanuts. The allergen-reduced trait was passed on each year.
During controlled tests with legal clearance, people suffering from allergies ate Dodo’s modified peanuts without a reaction, said Dodo’s business consultant, Robert Norton of Norton and Associates.
While transitioning from science to market is a long and difficult process, the field of reducing allergies and increasing nutritional values in foods has great financial promise, Norton said. Farmers are more inclined to grow organic. Food companies have shown interest in products such as snacks with allergen-free peanuts.
“We have a hidden gem,” he said.
Three companies have expressed interest in her product, he added, and one company plans to launch a line of allergy-reduced candies and snacks.
Getting a product on the market could take as long as 10 years, Shuman said.
“It is a challenging project, but ultimately the benefit to society is great,” Shuman said. “Anytime you are dealing with a biological system, there are always lots of surprises.”
Time and growing experiments will show what effects removing proteins has on the plants, Shuman said. A modified plant might produce fewer peanuts, for example, she said.
For Dodo, the project is about saving lives, reducing lawsuits over allergic reactions and helping gain back lost business for peanut farmers.
She wants to expand her work to include other foods that cause allergic reactions, and plans to make private organic food labels that indicate nutritional values. Her market could spread overseas, where there is already interest from Africa and Australia.
Dodo grew up eating peanuts on her father’s farm. Peanuts are a great source of protein in Africa, she said, and she hopes they one day can be the same thing for thousands unable to eat them.
“It has basically covered my whole professional career,” she said.