Darpa is looking for a device to produce a steady supply of universal donor red blood cells. They want to be able to produce ready-to-be-infused Red Blood Cell packets for use near the battlefield.
DARPA has awarded a $1.95 million contract to Arteriocyte, a Cleveland company that’s experimenting with a technology developed at Johns Hopkins that enables the rapid expansion of umbilical cord blood. The company wants to adapt it to a manufacturing technology that will feed the military’s thirst for universal donor red blood units. The technology, called Nanex, uses a nanofiber-based structure that mimics bone marrow in which blood cells multiply, according to the company.
Filed under: Medical Tech, Miltech | Tagged: blood, Darpa, military tech, Miltech |
Urbin Technology 
This is going to far reaching effects. When it reaches the point that it’s past “bleeding edge”, I expect every damn hospital to invest in one.
Oh ya. This is big. I’ve been donating blood since I was 17. I have a very popular blood type, so I also donate platelets and make “double red cell” donations.
A steady, safe and reliable blood supply would not only be a boon to emergency and surgical medicine, I think it would expand the role of whole blood in preventive medicine as well.