Curious Cat Science and Engineering Blog

April 12, 2007

Universal Blood

Red blood cells have complex sugars on their surfaces; it is these sugars that determine whether the blood is type A, B, O, or both A and B. People with type A red blood cells carry antibodies against type B blood cells. If they are given a transfusion of type B red blood cells, their body will attack and kill the cells. Similarly, people with type B blood will mount an immune attack against a transfusion of type A blood.

Researchers led by Henrik Clausen of the University of Copenhagen have discovered two enzymes that efficiently chop the A and B sugars off of red blood cells, making them universal. The company ZymeQuest, based in Beverly, MA, has licensed the enzymes and developed a machine that can simultaneously treat eight units of blood with the enzymes in 90 minutes.

by curiouscat Tags: Health Care, Life Science, Research, Students
Permalink to: Universal Blood Trackback: http://engineering.curiouscatblog.net/2007/04/12/universal-blood/trackback/

M	T	W	T	F	S	S
« Mar				May »
						1
2	3	4	5	6	7	8
9	10	11	12	13	14	15
16	17	18	19	20	21	22
23	24	25	26	27	28	29
30

Leave a Reply

Internal Links

Author

Categories

Other

Search Blog

Web Search

Archives

Translate to