What Could Artificial Blood Mean for Bleeding Community?

A recent article by Tuan Nguyen of the Washington Post discussed the history and developments of artificial human blood over the last 20 plus years. Over the last 5 years, a research team from Scotland, under the guidance of  project director Marc Turner have been developing the means to produce artificial blood and they believe they have  created a batch that could conceivably be transfused into a patient. This could revolutionize how clinics administer life-saving treatments.  For example, The American Red Cross estimates that more than 41,000 blood donations are needed each day, with a person needing a transfusion every two seconds. A breakthrough that leads to wide-scale blood factories may ultimately mean an end to the kind of procedure-related infections and blood shortages common in developing regions.

“Producing a cellular therapy which is of the scale, quality and safety required for human clinical trials is a very significant challenge,” he said. “It will be an important step forward to enable populations all over the world to benefit from blood transfusions,” Turner said.

If  this is determined successful and the human trials remain consistent, they plan to build upon the results in a follow-up study with patients suffering from blood disorders like beta thalassaemia that hampers the body’s natural production of hemoglobin.  Only time will tell how well Turner and his team’s research pans out – in any case it could be a positive step in the right direction for finding new treatments for blood disorders in the future.

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