Read the entry that was awarded first place in this year’s “Science behind the scenes” Lay Science Writing Competition! Congratulations to the winner, graduate student Alexandra Witt. She identified high school students as her target audience and wrote an engaging piece that sheds light on the questions scientists ask when developing a new drug.

Could clues to the successful treatment of some of the world’s most challenging viral infections come from understanding how viruses interact with our body’s clot-creating proteins? Dr. Ed Pryzdial and his laboratory team at the Centre for Blood Research (CBR) have dedicated research efforts to answering questions like this; efforts that have recently earned funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).

Dr. Cyrus Eduljee, associate director of portfolio management at Canadian Blood Services, explains how his group’s work supports the organization in bringing new products to the shelves and the importance of ensuring the organization is well prepared to withstand future shocks.

In January 2022, Canadian Blood Services introduced pathogen-reduced platelets, a product that is manufactured using pathogen-inactivation technology, at its Ottawa production site. By effectively damaging the nucleic acids of a number of pathogens, pathogen inactivation further reduces the risk of transfusion-transmitted infections—an especially important safeguard against new or emerging pathogens, or pathogens for which tests are not available.

The Canadian Blood Services Lay Science Writing Competition supports our trainee network to develop communication skills by challenging them to showcase their research using plain language.

Red cell antigen genotyping is an important tool for healthcare providers in the development of transfusion strategies for patients, though the reports can be complex to interpret. New resources on Canadian Blood Services’ Professional Education website will assist healthcare providers in interpreting these reports, in addition to the support available from the National Immunohematology Reference Laboratory (NIRL).

Innovative research undertaken by Dr. Na Li and the team at the McMaster Centre for Transfusion Research is harnessing electronic health data to improve demand forecasting and inventory management of red blood cells.

New findings from University of Toronto’s QUEST research program analyze the impact of albumin on patient outcomes after cardiac surgery, suggesting routine albumin use in this patient group may need to be re-examined.

Canadian Blood Services recently made a submission to Health Canada to focus donor screening criteria on higher-risk sexual behaviour, regardless of gender or sexuality, for all donors and all phlebotomy collection types.

As we begin a new year, look back with us at the top five blogs of 2021. Unsurprisingly, pandemic-related information gained the most attention.