Research. Education. Discovery.

This post was written by Marie-Soleil Smith, PhD Candidate in Dr. Hélène Côté’s Lab at the University of British Columbia, and edited by Dr. Geraldine Walsh, knowledge broker at Canadian Blood Services. It originally appeared on the Centre for Blood Research blog in March 2022.

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).

A study conducted last year by Canadian Blood Services’ social scientist, Dr. Kelly Holloway, shows challenges and opportunities for on-campus student advocates as they engage with their peers to encourage blood and plasma donation, all while navigating the COVID-19 pandemic.

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.