Artificial Blood

United Kingdom’s National Health Service (NHS) Blood and Transplant has announced that artificial blood will be used in clinical trials on human volunteers by 2017. The blood that will be used in the trial will be lab grown.

Scientists from the University of Bristol and NHS Blood and Transplant used stem cells from adult and umbilical cord to create small volume of red blood cells. The trial when successful will offer a ray of hope to people suffering from blood disorders such as sickle cell Anaemia and Thalassemia who require regular blood transfusions.

The trial will test the lifecycle of manufactured blood with that of standard blood and a group of 20 volunteers will receive a small volume of transfusion between five and ten millimetres of the artificial blood.