Health
Spanish researchers are working on an innovative technology that seeks to create artificial human blood. This advance could have a significant impact on medicine, especially in the realm of blood transfusion.
The so-called Project ‘SynEry’an acronym used to baptize the European project in which the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC)aims to solve the problem of blood supply and avoid the risk of infections transmitted by transfusions.
“The technology developed in the project could lead the way for build other artificial therapeutic cellslike T cells, a type of white blood cell formed with stem cells in the bone marrow”, explains Arántzazu González-Campo, principal investigator of the CSIC at the Institute of Materials Science of Barcelona (ICMAB).
The main objective of this project is to develop a source of artificial blood cells for therapeutic use. The creation of artificial human blood could have a major impact on medicine, as it could provide a source of blood cells for safe and effective blood transfusions. This could help solve the blood shortage problem in some countries and could also be used to treat patients with rare blood diseases or patients who are allergic to blood transfusions.
Health Could lead the way in creating artificial therapeutic cells
Although still in the research phase, this technology has great potential to improve the transfusion medicine in the future. “Likewise, the fact of developing systems with excellent biocompatibility and with the ease of transporting different biomolecules and drugs allows the creation of a multifunctional and advance in fields such as drug delivery or cell therapy”, says González-Campo.
Creating a constant and safe supply of blood could help improve the transplant safety and reduce the shortage of donated blood. The project is led by the UK Leuven University and is funded by the Innovation Council, within the framework of the European Union’s research and innovation programme, Horizon Europe-EIC Pathfinder. It has a total budget of 3.2 million euros for four years, and will end in March 2026.
