Bethesda-Based NHSi Wins $2M Grant for Blood ...(increasing pre-operative autologous (sel...),Health

"This research represents a paradigm shift in the approach to storage of red cells, the most significant change since the introduction of additive solutions 25 years ago," Professor James AuBuchon of the University of Washington and President & CEO of Puget Sound Blood Center, said.

"As concern mounts about the clinical impact of storage time of red cell units, reduction in the storage lesion that accumulates has taken on increased importance. Anaerobic storage is a new tool that may not only lengthen but improve the storage of these life-saving cells," AuBuchon said.

NHSi's Director of Research and Development Dr. Tatsuro Yoshida said the new NIH grant "will enable us to move this laboratory technology to everyday use at blood banks by developing an inexpensive, self-contained storage system easily accommodated under current blood-bank operations."

The Medical Device Laboratory, McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine at University of Pittsburgh (Professor William Federspiel), Filtertek Inc. of Hebron, Illinois, and Multisorb Technologies of Buffalo, New York, will help develop this new technology.

The clinical trial will be conducted in the laboratory of Dr. Larry J. Dumont at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Hanover, New Hampshire.

In conjunction with this advanced blood storage technology, NHSi is also developing a microchip-based diagnostic device to evaluate the quality of red blood cells stored for transfusion.

Red blood cells' diminished capacity to deform and perfuse narrow capillary networks in tissues is believed to be a major cause of transfusion side effects. Before dispensing a unit of blood to the patient, the NHSi device evaluates the "fitness" of stored red blood cells by passing it through an artificial capillary network produced
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