Welcome to our new R.E.D. blog series where we focus on our Centre for Innovation development projects to give you a glimpse into the future of blood banking... our future! At Canadian Blood Services, we continuously strive to improve our products and the processes we use to manufacture them. Ensuring we provide quality products that meet the needs of Canadian patients, while being good stewards of Canadian health care dollars is core to our mission. One of the players supporting us in this mission is the Centre for Innovation’s Product and Process Development (or 2PD) group. The 2PD group

Researchers have developed a new technique to assess the quality of blood without breaching the sterility of blood bags, according to a new paper published by Dr. Martha Vardaki. The study is part of a larger ongoing effort to develop non-invasive technologies to monitor blood products during storage. “We know that some blood products deteriorate faster in storage than others, but we have no way yet to identify the ‘bad apples’ prior to transfusion,” says Dr. Dana Devine, chief scientist with Canadian Blood Services. For a few years, Dr. Devine has been collaborating on this project with Dr

This week, we highlight work from one of our partners, the Centre for Blood Research. Wayne Zhao describes a review by Dr. Ed Conway, Centre for Blood Research director and adjunct scientist at the Centre for Innovation. This review describes the many roles of thrombomodulin, a protein involved in blood coagulation. Image Wayne is a graduate student in the laboratory of Dr. Dana Devine at the Centre for Blood Research and a recipient of a Canadian Blood Services Graduate Fellowship. Thrombomodulin is a fascinating protein. It was initially recognized for its role in blood clotting (coagulation

Our latest Centre for Innovation Research Unit examines what’s in a bag of plasma. Plasma can be separated from a whole blood donation (called recovered plasma), or obtained by apheresis donation (called source plasma). Usually, recovered plasma is used for transfusion, and source plasma is sent for fractionation into plasma-derived drugs. In this study, Dr. William Sheffield and Craig Jenkins from the Centre for Innovation tested levels and activities of important plasma factors for coagulation in recovered plasma. They also measured levels of immunoglobulin, from which the plasma-derived

“The gift of transplantation has meant so much to the patients within the highly sensitized patient registry in Saskatchewan and all of Canada.” – Dr. Rahul Mainra, St. Paul’s Hospital, Saskatoon The Highly Sensitized Patient (HSP) program is a national organ sharing program operated by Canadian Blood Services in collaboration with all provincial donation and transplant programs. The HSP program gives provincial programs access to a larger national pool of kidney donors for highly sensitized patients who need a more specific donor match. Patients who are highly sensitized have very few

#WeDoResearch! Through our Centre for Innovation, our engaged network of scientists, medical experts, partners, and collaborators conduct and disseminate high quality, impactful research for the benefit of Canadian patients and the Canadian healthcare system. The Centre for Innovation’s goal is to drive innovation to improve the blood system by facilitating the creation, translation, and application of new knowledge to support a safe, effective, and responsive system of blood and related biological products for Canada. The last year was an outstanding one for the Centre for Innovation team

As the year comes to a close and 2019 is set to begin, we take a moment to reflect on the 2018 articles that were among the most popular. #5: Raising awareness for living organ donation In April each year, we honour organ donors and their families during National Organ and Tissue Donation Awareness Week and encourage Canadians to consider organ donation, register their intent to donate, and discuss their wishes with families. This article focuses on raising awareness for living organ donation and was published in November on Giving Tuesday. “Kidney transplantation is life-saving and life

This week, we chatted with Canadian Blood Services’ adjunct scientist, Dr. Mel Krajden, about his research work at the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control and his role as a Canadian Blood Services adjunct scientist. Where do you work and what is your role? I am the Medical Director of the B.C. Centre for Disease Control Public Health Laboratory (BCCDC PHL) and I have a special interest in hepatitis and viral detection methods as well as in health services policy. Tell us about your area of research. My laboratory research uses molecular techniques to: diagnose viruses; assess the

This post was contributed by Stefanie Novakowski, a PhD candidate in the Kastrup laboratory (Michael Smith Laboratories and the Centre for Blood Research, University of British Columbia). Tseday Tegegn and Bronwyn Lyons, also trainees at the Centre for Blood Research, contributed. In November, the University of British Columbia Centre for Blood Research (CBR) hosted its 12th annual Earl W. Davie Symposium in Vancouver, BC. During the event, researchers, students, clinicians and patients discussed successes and ongoing challenges in hematology, from understanding basic mechanisms of clotting to

Today, Canadian men are eligible to give blood if it has been more than one year since their last sexual contact with another man, which is known as the MSM eligibility criteria. Canadian Blood Services has recently made progress on several fronts that may further evolve the eligibility criteria for men who have sex with men. This includes supporting more research projects as part of the MSM Research Grant Program and working to reduce the waiting period from one year to three months based on the latest evidence. Supporting research In October, four additional projects were funded as part of a