New Way for Manufacturing Red Blood Cells
Scientists at Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART) have worked on a novel method involving human red blood cells (RBCs) production which cuts the culture time by half in comparison to the existing method.
The development uses new sorting and purification technique that are efficient, faster and inexpensive. The method can save lives as over half of the world’s countries do not have enough blood supply. Manufacturing red blood cells from existing cells is the only option to replace the gap between the number of blood transfusions and the number of those in need.
"Traditional methods for producing human RBCs usually require 23 days for the cells to grow, expand exponentially and finally mature into RBCs," says Dr Kerwin Kwek, lead author of the paper and Senior Postdoctoral Associate at SMART CAMP. "Our optimised protocol stores the cultured cells in liquid nitrogen on what would normally be Day 12 in the typical process, and upon demand thaws the cells and produces the RBCs within 11 days."
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"Our novel sorting and purification methods result in significantly faster cell processing time and can be easily integrated into current cell manufacturing processes. The process also does not require a trained technician to perform sample handling procedures and is scalable for industrial production," Dr Kwek continues.
Source: Science Daily