Blogs / 80beats

A high-powered consortium in the United Kingdom has declared a push to create synthetic blood from embryonic stem cells over the next decade. “In principle, we could provide an unlimited supply of blood in this way” [BBC News], says researcher Marc Turner. Synthetic blood would be guaranteed to be free of viruses like HIV, and could also prevent shortages at blood banks, emergency rooms, and battlefield operations.

While the American biotech company Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) announced last August that they had developed a technique of creating blood from embryonic stem cells, the new UK effort has more significant institutional backing. The multimillion-pound deal involving NHS [National Health Service] Blood and Transplant, the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service and the Wellcome Trust, the world’s biggest medical research charity, means Britain will take centre stage in the global race to develop blood made from embryonic stem cells [The Independent].

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Using embryonic stem cells, researchers have created enough red blood cells to fill several test tubes, in a development that could eventually allow for the mass-production of blood and the end of blood donation drives. “We literally generated whole tubes in the lab, from scratch,” said Robert Lanza, chief science officer at Advanced Cell Technologies [Wired News].

The breakthrough raises the prospect of mass-producing supplies of the “universal donor” blood type O-negative, which is prized because it can be safely transfused into any patient, whatever their blood group. This type of blood is in short supply – around 8% of Caucasians have it, and just 0.3% of Asians [New Scientist]. Experts say the method would also help keep pathogens like HIV out of the blood supply, as blood banks would no longer have to screen the blood from thousands of donors.

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