Improving blood product quality

It is important for patients to receive blood products that are of highest quality. Recently, transfusion researchers have begun to understand that the characteristics of an individual donor have significant influence on the quality of the blood products made from their donation. This project is focused on increasing our understanding of the donor factors that affect product quality of red blood cell and platelet transfusions, so that we can continue to improve blood product quality. Using the quality control database at Canadian Blood Services, we have identified donors whose blood products do not store as well as other donors. We will now investigate those differences at the molecular level so that we can identify markers that will allow us to predict how well the cells prepared from the donation will store. This project is aligned with the research priority of optimizing blood product quality.

DEVINE, Dana

Canadian Blood Services

Intramural Research Grant Program

British Columbia

$304,462