Canadian Blood Services' Centre for Innovation currently has four competitive funding competitions open for applications. All close on November 30, 2018. Read on to see if you or any of your colleagues or students are eligible for these exciting opportunities! Canadian Blood Services' Graduate Fellowship Program The Graduate Fellowship Program provides stipend support for young investigators who want to initiate or continue training in the field of blood transfusion and transplantation science. The maximum value of each fellowship is $25,000 per annum, with an additional travel allowance of $1

Get to know Dr. Chantale Pambrun, Director, Canadian Blood Services’ Centre for Innovation Previously led by Judie Leach Bennett, who joined the executive management team as Vice-President, General Counsel and Chief Risk Officer, Dr. Chantale Pambrun took over as Director of the Centre for Innovation in December 2017. She was formerly associate director, donor and clinical services and, prior to joining us at Canadian Blood Services, she was the Medical Director of Hematopathology at a tertiary health care centre for women and children in Halifax, NS. To get to know Dr. Pambrun better, we

Our latest Centre for Innovation ResearchUnit is a collaborative effort between Centre for Innovation adjunct scientist, Dr. Jelena Holovati , and Canadian Blood Services scientists, Dr. Donald Branch and Dr. Jason Acker. For patients with rare blood types, we perform cross-matching tests to match patients with donors and avoid potentially serious transfusion reactions. One such test – the monocyte monolayer assay – has been limited in its usefulness by practical restrictions, for example, the need to obtain a fresh blood sample. Exploring alternatives to fresh blood, the researchers developed

Do you suffer from FOMO? Fear of missing out! Fear no more, the event page on Canadian Blood Services' professional education website has you covered! This is your one-stop shop to learn more about local, national and international education events covering blood, plasma and transfusion, organ and tissue donation and transplantation, as well as hematopoietic stem cells. Here you’ll find a searchable and easy-to-view calendar of conferences, lectures, courses and more. Check it out! Be THAT person – the one who never misses an abstract deadline or early bird registration rate! And - to event

Research day celebrates the end of summer and close of the Centre for Blood Research Summer Studentship Program. This year's keynote speaker, Dr. Farah Alibay, an aerospace engineer with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Los Angeles spoke of her work on the Mars InSight mission.

This week, we connected with Dr. Jelena Holovati about her work as a Canadian Blood Services adjunct scientist and her role as laboratory director of the Edmonton Stem Cell Manufacturing Program. Where do you work and what is your role? I’m an associate professor in the department of laboratory medicine and pathology at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. I also hold Canadian Blood Services positions as a laboratory director for the Edmonton Stem Cell Manufacturing Program and as an adjunct scientist. By training, I'm a lab technologist – this background has served me really well in my

Exciting research from the University of British Columbia could make it easier to match blood to patients, by turning all blood into type O, the universal donor. This work was just presented at the American Chemical Society National Meeting in Boston, and has created quite a buzz. I chatted to our Chief Scientist, Dr. Dana Devine, and Dr. Jayachandran Kizhakkedathu to learn more. Led by Dr. Stephen Withers, a professor in the departments of chemistry and biochemistry at UBC, researchers have discovered an enzyme that can turn type A, B or AB blood into type O. So, what is this approach about

On August 16, 2018, we lost much valued colleague, mentor and friend who had great influence on transfusion medicine around the world. Dr. Celso Bianco served as the Chairman of Canadian Blood Services’ Scientific Research Advisory Council from 2002–2012 and was the recipient of a Canadian Blood Services’ Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012. Dr. Bianco has spent more than 40 years researching, teaching and managing issues related to transfusion medicine, transfusion-transmitted diseases and blood safety. He authored or co-authored more than 200 scientific publications on a wide range of topics

Platelets contribute to the steady-state production of thrombopoietin by the liver. This has important implications in bleeding diseases and immune-mediated thrombocytopenias.

BloodTechNet is a competitive funding program that supports projects aimed at delivering innovative educational resources for healthcare professionals in the transfusion, cellular therapy, and transplantation communities. Again this year, we were impressed by the quality of the applications received for the BloodTechNet competition and we look forward to seeing the educational resources that the four new projects will produce in about a year. To share our excitement, here’s a taste of what’s to come! Enhancing knowledge about blood groups and antibodies to prevent transfusion reactions The