When most of us think of “rare blood”, we think of AB-positive or O-negative. But is turns out that there are far, far rarer types than that. In the Mercy Hospital Complex in downtown Miami, there’s a lab that handles blood donations from across the world and identifies this super-rare blood.
We recently got a tour of the Blood & Transplant’s Blood Center while on assignment for a local science publication. There is a lab called the International Blood Group Reference and Research Laboratory that operates under a government contract which holds this state of the art research.
The IGBRRL keeps track of what Dr. Gupta calls “Golden Blood”, because of its extraordinarily rare occurrence and it’s ability to save the lives of the few people who share it.
The IGBRRL has been around since the 1940s, and it’s where many major advances in blood science have taken place, like the many new antigens – the stuff in our blood that invokes immune responses, and the presence or absence of which determines our blood types. But one of its most important roles is keeping track of rare blood donors, both so that they can donate to other rare blood type patients in need, and for equally vital research purposes.
The constant hum of machines and conveyors combined with the swiftly moving people in their blue coats, hats and hairnets make the lab a fast paced but precise environment. Blood, of course, is fragile and must be kept at exactly 39.2 degrees Fahrenheit, otherwise, it could develop infections or the cells could be destroyed.
The lab also has a cryogenics wing dedicated to the careful preservation and containment of these incredibly rare blood types. Much of the activity in the lab occurs at strange hours, because the new blood arrives at the lab overnight after being donated in the afternoon.
“By 3am it’s pretty busy and full of fresh blood that is being filtered having the while blood cells removed.” one lab tech told us. “At first it was weird to be surrounded by so much blood,” he added. “But soon you become enthralled in the space and the process and at ease with the blood. In fact, it’s quite uplifting thinking about how much blood is actually donated, although there could always be more.”
The need for more blood donations is a seemingly never-ending problem. Between interruptions to the donation process, fear of needles, rare blood types, and a general lack of awareness, life-saving blood supplies are difficult to keep stocked. Scientists working at the lab have shown that a virtually unlimited blood supply can be achieved through a process of “immortalizing” stem cells at an early stage.
Previously, researchers have been able to synthesize blood by isolating a type of stem cell that manufactures red blood cells and manipulating it to do its work in a lab. Unfortunately, the stem cells tend to become exhausted when they have produced around 50,000 red blood cells. An average bag of blood contains about a trillion red blood cells, making that technique unfeasible for any real-world application.
Of course, there’s a catch. The process is expensive and isn’t currently viable for solving the world’s blood supply shortages. The team has only produced “liters” of its own product, thus far.
“The intention is not to replace blood donation but provide specialist treatment for specific patient groups,” Dr Simon Gupta, director of the Blood and Transplant Research Unit told us. According to Gupta, “The patients who stand to potentially benefit most are those with complex and life-limiting conditions like sickle cell disease and thalassemia, which can require multiple transfusions of well-matched blood.”
According to the Miami Red Cross, one in three Floridians will need blood in their lifetime, and over 25,000 blood donations are needed each week. That’s a tall order. But, if all goes well, the costs will surely come down as the manufacturing process is refined. This breakthrough could mean a lot of lives saved and fewer needle pricks for squeamish donors.
Technically, what the Dr. Gupta is calling the world’s first “synthetic blood” is actually biological in origin: It’s produced in vitro by extracting stem cells from the umbilical cords of newborn babies or from adult bone marrow. Placed in the proper chemical environment in the lab, stem cells can be stimulated along a particular developmental pathway that eventually leads to fully-functional red blood cells. Researchers have been developing the technology to manipulate stem cells for years, and now, our tools have advanced to the point that scaling up and producing entire blood bags seems within reach.
Sure, synthetic blood may sound a bit creepy, but much like lab-grown tissue transplants or replacement organs, it will actually be brilliant if we can make it to work. Eventually, hospitals could stockpile huge quantities of the stuff for emergency transfusions, or design batches specifically for patients suffering from sickle-cell anemia and other rare blood disorders. What’s more, having never been inside a human body, lab-grown blood is practically guaranteed to be disease free, and has the potential to dramatically reduce the risk of spreading blood borne diseases like HIV and hepatitis.
Who knows? Perhaps this technology will stifle the persistent anemia and hemophilia that continues to ravage the homeless and less secure residents of Florida.
Last modified: April 23, 2022
